A Night to Remember is justly hailed for its attention to personal detail, captured in numerous first-person survivor accounts that Lord gathered himself. Lord is most famous as the chronicler of the RMS Titanic, the doomed luxury liner that Lord memorialized in A Night to Remember. Despite being first published in 1957, it remains the best narrative of the battle ever written.

In honor of that milestone, and with the expectation of the release of fresh volumes, I reread Walter Lord’s classic Day of Infamy. We are fast approaching the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the (in)famous Japanese air raid that caught the American fleet at anchor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. At the big new consolidated barracks, Staff Sergeant Charles Judd lay in bed, reading an article debunking Japanese air power in the September issue of Aviation magazine.' Private Mark Layton squeezed under the 7:45 breakfast deadline, but most of the men didn't even try. Nurse Monica Conter - in between dates with Lieutenant Benning - took pules and temperatures at the new base hospital.

Captain Levi Erdmann mulled over the base tennis tournament. Sergeant Robert Hey began dressing for a rifle match with Captain J. At the big new consolidated barracks, Staff Sergeant Charles Judd lay in bed, reading an article debun 'ardly anything was going on.

From the musicians of the USS Nevada who insisted on finishing “The Star Spangled Banner” before taking cover, to the men trapped in the capsized USS Oklahoma who methodically voted on the best means of escape, each story conveys the terror and confusion of the raid, as well as the fortitude of those who survived.more Drawn from hundreds of interviews, letters, and diaries, Walter Lord recounts the many tales of heroism and tragedy by those who experienced the attack firsthand. From the chaos, a thousand personal stories of courage emerged. But as Japan’s deadly torpedoes suddenly rained down on the Pacific fleet, soldiers, generals, and civilians alike felt shock, then fear, then rage. Drawn from hundreds of interviews, letters, and diaries, Walter Lord recoun The Day of Infamy began as a quiet morning on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. The Day of Infamy began as a quiet morning on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor.

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