Sunday in Hell: Pearl Harbor Minute by Minute - Paperback

by Bill McWilliams (Author)

The author of A Return to Glory constructs a compellingly detailed and panoramic history of the fateful day that ushered the United States into WWII.

Using long-established historical records and contemporary journals, as well as recently released wartime documents, Bill McWilliams has created a brand-new minute-by-minute narrative of the Day That Will Live in Infamy. Told from the points of view of dozens of characters, from generals and admirals and politicians and diplomats down to deckhands and private soldiers and innocent civilians at all levels, this panoramic overview of one of the most traumatizing and shocking events in American history puts the reader in a position to understand the big picture of strategy and tactics, as well as the intimate details of what the chaos, violence, and presence of death felt like to people immersed in the surprise of an armed attack on American soil.

December 7, 1941, was a turning point in the history of the United States, which had been teetering on a decision between isolationism and intervention. One might argue that every US military engagement since then has been affected by what happened when America learned that it could not stand by and watch war among strangers without potentially becoming involved--whether we wished to or not.

Author Biography

Bill McWilliams was born in Brownsville, Texas, was raised in small towns in Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado, and received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, from the third congressional district of Colorado. He graduated with a bachelor of science degree and earned a master of science in business administration from the George Washington University while attending the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. He later attended the US Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, where he completed ten months of senior management training.

His air force service included work as a flight and classroom instructor in undergraduate pilot and fighter training; a seven-month combat tour in the Republic of Vietnam, where he flew one hundred twenty-eight fighter-bomber close-support and interdiction missions; and posts at the United States Air Force Academy as commanding and flight instructor for cadets receiving familiarization training in light aircraft. Later he served in the Republic of Korea for two years, and at the Air Force Tactical Fighter Weapons Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. After leaving the Air Force he served more than eight years in systems engineering and management positions in the aerospace industry.

McWilliams's writing includes two Korean War histories--A Return to Glory: The Untold Story of Honor, Dishonor, and Triumph at the United States Military Academy, 1950-53 and On Hallowed Ground: The Last Battle for Pork Chop Hill--plus numerous articles, including series in newspapers and magazines. The ESPN made-for-television movie Code Breakers, which premiered in December 2005, was based on McWilliams's first book.