As a young Royal Air Force technician stationed in Malaya in 1941, the author was ordered on a clandestine mission to Japanese-occupied Indo-China where he heard of the existence of a Japanese naval task force secretly on its way to Hawaii, intent on annihilating the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. He also learned of Japan's intentions to simultaneously decimate Royal Air Force installations throughout Malaya and Singapore Island. After making his way back to the airbase in northern Malaya, he immediately alerted British intelligence officials of the pending catastrophe. Three days later Japan carried out its infamous attack on Pearl Harbor, an hour or so after Japanese troops began invading Malaya. During an air raid on his airfield, the author was seriously wounded. Plainly his urgent warnings had fallen on deaf ears, and Shepherd spent the next two years in a hospital.


This compelling story is told in the style of a novel, yet it is true, related exactly as the author experienced it, and authenticated, where possible, by official records. Vividly descriptive, the book faithfully records Shepherd's chance encounter with a Japanese aero-engineer who, just days earlier, had worked aboard one of Japan's Pearl Harbor-bound carriers. Had British authorities acted on Shepherd's warning, Japan's plans might have been irrevocably dashed. Everyone with an interest in the attack on Pearl Harbor and the war in the Pacific will find Shepherd's story fascinating.