12 Seconds of Silence: How a Team of Inventors, Tinkerers, and Spies Took Down a Nazi Superweapon

by Jamie Holmes, Chris Mayers (Read by)

Overview

The riveting story of the American scientists, tinkerers, and nerds who solved one of the biggest puzzles of World War II—and developed one of the most powerful weapons of the war
 
12 Seconds of Silence is the remarkable, lost story of how a ragtag group of American scientists overcame one of the toughest problems of World War II: shooting things out of the sky.
 
Working in a secretive organization known as Section T, a team of physicists, engineers, and everyday Joes and Janes took on a devilish challenge. To help the Allies knock airplanes out of the air, they created one of the world’s first “smart weapons.” Against overwhelming odds and in a race against time, mustering every scrap of resource, ingenuity, and insight, the scientists of Section T would eventually save countless lives, rescue the city of London from the onslaught of a Nazi superweapon, and help bring about the Axis defeat. A holy grail sought after by Allied and Axis powers alike, their unlikely innovation ranks with the atomic bomb as one of the most revolutionary technologies of the Second World War. Until now, their tale was largely untold.
 
For fans of Erik Larson and Ben Macintyre, set amid the fog of espionage and dueling spies at the dawn of an age when science would determine the fate of the world, 12 Seconds of Silence is a tribute to the extraordinary wartime mobilization of American science and the ultimate can-do story. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781094145945
Publisher:	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date:	08/04/2020
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

JAMIE HOLMES is a writer living in Washington, DC. His first book was Nonsense: The Power of Not Knowing. 

Table of Contents

Prologue ix

Part I Peace

1 Zing-a-Zing! 3

2 Emergency Mode 10

3 Scientific Spies 18

4 The Wizard 27

5 Section Tuve 36

6 Choice Overload 45

7 Uncanny Days 55

8 Peenemünde 65

9 Don't Slow Down 71

10 Prying Eyes 82

11 Escalation 90

Part II War

12 Ready or Not 105

13 No Alibis 114

14 Dr. Jones's Raid 122

15 The Garage 131

16 Three Runs, Three Hits 140

17 Into the Fleet 147

18 New Tricks 156

19 Cherry Stone 164

20 A London Fuse 172

21 AMNIARIX 180

Part III Victory

22 Ski Shapes 191

23 Ranch Country 200

24 Chemical Boys 209

25 Things Carried 217

26 Wachtel Is Hiding 223

27 A Comer Gone Wrong 229

28 "Turkey Shoot" 240

29 Ack-Ack Girls 247

30 A Cold Winter 261

31 Tug of War 270

32 Downtime 276

Epilogue 282

Acknowledgments 286

Notes 288

Selected Sources 371

Index 383

Editorial Reviews

04/13/2020

Journalist Holmes debuts with a rousing and carefully researched history of American-led efforts to develop technology capable of defeating German air superiority during WWII. Noting that British antiaircraft guns needed more than 20,000 shots to bring down a single plane during the Blitz, Holmes documents the origins of Section T, a “ragtag” team of engineers and scientists led by Johns Hopkins University physicist Merle Tuve, and their efforts to develop the proximity fuse, a device that alerted an artillery shell when to explode. Holmes focuses on the summer of 1944, when Germany launched scores of V-1 drone missiles at London from the coast of occupied France, killing thousands, and Section T raced to get the proximity fuse to frontline antiaircraft guns. By the middle of August, Holmes writes, Allied forces were shooting nearly half of the V-1 rockets out of the sky, and by the end of summer, the rate neared 100%. Holmes maintains a brisk pace, highlighting the human drama behind the story and only occasionally getting mired in complex technical details. This entertaining chronicle rescues a tale of American wartime ingenuity from obscurity. (July)

Publishers Weekly

“The story of the first ‘smart’ weapon . . . Holmes is a meticulous historian . . . Fascinating . . . with an exciting finale.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Rousing and carefully researched . . . Holmes maintains a brisk pace, highlighting the human drama . . . This entertaining chronicle rescues a tale of American wartime ingenuity from obscurity.”—Publishers Weekly

“A fascinating account of the evolving specter of war, replete with biographies of important figures who may not have been world leaders, but whose work altered it forever.”—Booklist

“Perhaps the greatest praise I can offer as an author is to admit to wishing that I had written this book myself. Jamie Holmes takes an arcane chapter of World War II science and reveals it to be a story full of drama and intrigue, an engrossing narrative that keeps you turning pages . . . Holmes’s storytelling is exquisite. Absolutely superb.”—Gregory A. Freeman, best-selling author of The Forgotten 500 and Sailors to the End

“A tale of science, spycraft, and ingenuity—a ripping yarn from start to finish.”—Larrie D. Ferreiro, author of Pulitzer Prize finalist Brothers at Arms

“Holmes writes like a dream . . . it all unfolds with the pace of a thriller.”—Peter Bergen, New York Times best-selling author of Manhunt and Trump and His Generals

“In his eye-opening marvel of a book, Jamie Holmes reveals the fascinating story of the humble proximity fuse. It turns out to be not so humble, but rather a mighty war-winner and soldier-saver—and all thanks to an eccentric and eclectic band of tinkerers, hobbyists, and geeks who overcame enormous obstacles to turn what was once science fiction into a reality.”—Alexander Rose, New York Times best-selling author of Washington’s Spies and Empires of the Sky

“Holmes vividly demonstrates what American military leaders knew well by the close of World War II: the atomic bomb ended the war, but the proximity fuse won it.”—G. Pascal Zachary, author of Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century
 

From the Publisher

06/01/2020

Journalist Holmes regales readers intrigued by espionage in this story of how scientists and mechanics developed the proximity fuse to destroy Axis-launched attacks. Although British scientists initiated the research, Holmes maintains that American scientists, ensconced in a secret unit based in Maryland, were the primary heroes. Extant timed or contact fuses required a direct hit to be effective. Instead, a perfected fuse for weapons counteracted the V-1 (vengeance weapon) rockets, or "buzz bombs" (recognized by their wailing sound, followed by several eerie seconds before detonating) when the antiballistics approached their vicinity. The author contends that the use of the proximity fuse at the Battle of the Bulge, among other battles, together with decoding the Enigma cypher machine and the atomic bomb were the West's technological contributions that helped to win World War II. Holmes honors the contributions of scientists such as Vannevar Bush and the efforts of double agent Jeannie Rousseau as well as Stateside project assembly workers. VERDICT Holmes synthesizes technical reports and archival materials to produce this first book-length, accessible narrative on an essential factor of Allied victory in World War II. Readers of similar works on Navajo Code Talkers will also enjoy this story of wartime espionage.—Frederick J. Augustyn Jr., Lib. of Congress, Washington, DC

Library Journal

2020-03-19
The story of the first “smart” weapon.

On the first page of his debut book, Washington, D.C.–based journalist Holmes introduces his protagonist, Merle Tuve, who would become the leader of “Section T,” a scientific research-and-development group tasked with designing a new type of fuse for anti-aircraft shells. In the early days of World War II, naval gunners were practically defenseless against fighter planes and bombers. The author describes the antiquated, inefficient process of loading and aiming shells meant to bring down enemy planes before they could sink battleships and destroyers. “No wonder it took thousands of rounds to knock one ‘bird’ out of the sky,” he writes. “No wonder every ack-ack gunner dreamed of a shell that could automatically explore near a target.” Officials realized that the war would be won by air power and, thus, also by air defense. Tuve was responsible for developing a new kind of fuse for these shells, one that did not require nearly impossible feats of technical calculations performed in seconds against planes moving hundreds of miles per hour. The proximity fuse he created was a work of true genius, but like any great invention, it required immense amounts of perseverance and human ingenuity. Using radio waves to detect proximity, the fuse was able to make shells that were far more accurate than anything before. Holmes also focuses on the creation of the V-1 flying bomb, the Nazi “superweapon.” His harrowing description of London under incessant bombardment in the months after D-Day makes the success of the fuse all the more amazing. The author’s chronicle of the Battle of the Bulge and the decisive role of proximity fuses in that final confrontation is equally fascinating. Holmes is a meticulous historian, and while his story begins a bit sluggishly with the painstaking scientific and political efforts necessary to deploy the proximity fuse, he ends up showing how this technological marvel played an invaluable role in winning the war.

A slow burn with an exciting finale. (16-page photo insert)

Kirkus Reviews