1935 to todayPlant 42
The factory America won't let you photograph
- The SR-71 Blackbird fact sheet
- Six Space Shuttle orbiters, one desert
- The B-2 fleet: 132 planned, 21 built
The Unseen Arsenal Files, Volume One
Four true stories of American military power.
Pearl Harbor 1941Camp Century 1959Persian Gulf 1987Plant 42 today
A film has forty minutes. A book can take its time. Each story is told in full, with the names, ranks and hometowns of the people in it, a map of where it happened, and the sources behind every fact.
Instant PDF download230 illustrated pagesComputer, tablet or phone
Background: the USS Maryland beside the capsized USS Oklahoma, Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. U.S. Navy photograph, National Archives.
Inside Volume One
Four case files. Each one a story told from start to finish.
Every file opens with a case summary and a map, and ends with a timeline, what is left today, and the sources behind it.
1935 to today
1987 to 1988Prime Chance
How Iran's secret minelayer was caught
- How the M-08 mine works
- The mobile sea base on two oil barges
- One day in April: the battle map
1941 to todayGreenland
America's 85-year secret at the top of the world
- Camp Century, the city under the ice
- Project Iceworm and its 600 missiles
- The Four Chaplains of the Dorchester
1941 to 2026The Missing
The hunt for America's 80,000 missing men
- The USS Oklahoma fact sheet
- Heaven Can Wait and her eleven men
- How you can help bring a man home
Look inside
See the pages before you buy.
The things a film has to hurry past get a full page of their own: the maps, the machines, the numbers and the people. Click a page to see it larger.
Who this book is for
This book is for the men and women who served, and for the families who waited for them.
Every fact has a source
Each file ends with the list of sources behind it, so you can check our work.
Real photographs
Every picture comes from the archives, with its credit printed beside it.
The names, not just the numbers
The ranks, ages and hometowns of the people in each story, set out so you can find them again.
Free sample
Read a free sample first.
Read the opening of File 04, The Missing, exactly as it appears in the book. If you like the way we tell a story, the whole volume is waiting.
Download the free sample
16 pages, PDF, 3 MB. No email address needed.
On YouTube
Every file began as a documentary.
Watch the film, then read the whole story. The book goes further than any film can: the full names, the dates, the maps and the sources.
Questions readers ask
All questionsHow do I get the book?
As soon as your payment goes through you get a download button, and the same link by email.
What can I read it on?
Any computer, tablet or phone that opens a PDF. On a tablet or a computer screen the pages look exactly as designed.
Can I print it?
Yes, for your own use. The pages are 7 by 10 inches and print well on ordinary letter paper.
Volume One
Their stories, told in full.
Four true stories. 230 illustrated pages. Yours to keep.