BOOKS,
MOVIES, AND VIDEOS ON THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY
AND
RELATED TOPICS
Listed here are most of the
important references on the Battle of Midway, plus a number of secondary works
that anyone with a desire to learn about the battle may find interesting or
useful.
Books are listed in numerical order by their
approximate value as a Battle of Midway reference, as determined by feedback
from Roundtable members.
Note: The mention
or linking of various resources for purchasing books or other media is intended
only as a convenience to our members and not as an endorsement of any such
resource.
Please report any errors,
browser problems, or bad links on this page to the BOMRT moderator, or just click here.
(ranked
in approximate order of value as a Battle of Midway reference)
1: A Glorious
Page in Our History
by Robert Cressman and others (1990)
A
Glorious Page is considered by most members of the BOMRT to be the
essential reference on the Battle of Midway.
It was produced by a group of military historians who felt that nothing
then available provided full and accurate coverage of all of the important
elements of the battle. If you can only
afford one book on the Battle of Midway, Roundtable members will tell you to
get this one.
2:
Shattered Sword: the Untold Story of the Battle of Midway
by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully
(2005)
The title of this book is a little misleading, for
it’s not another overall history of the battle. Instead, it is a definitive new work on the Imperial Japanese Navy
(IJN) at Midway, compiled with a thoroughness of research, documentation, and
perceptive analysis not previously seen.
The graphics are outstanding, with computer-generated charts and
diagrams that ably support and augment the text. Shattered Sword can justifiably be labeled as the new
essential resource on the Japanese side of the Battle of Midway, supplanting
Fuchida & Okumiya’s Midway, the Battle That Doomed Japan for that
honor. Indeed, Parshall and Tully
demonstrate that many of the points made by Fuchida were less than truthful,
tainted for the Japanese audience for whom the book was originally
written. For more on Shattered Sword,
please see the book’s web site.
3:
Incredible Victory
by Walter Lord
(1967)
Walter
Lord’s book is considered by most to be the classic reference on the Battle of
Midway. Virtually every known resource
available to the public in both the U.S. and Japan was meticulously researched
by the author, resulting in a superb and highly accurate accounting of the
battle. Its faults are few and minor,
and can generally be attributed to the limits of known and unclassified
information in 1967.
4:
And I Was There
by Rear Admiral
Edwin T. Layton (1985)
Layton was the
Pacific Fleet Intelligence Officer throughout the war. And I Was There is the whole story of
the U.S. communications intelligence effort prior to Pearl Harbor and
thereafter. The successes (and some failures)
of our ComInt forces prior to Pearl Harbor, Coral Sea, Midway, and the
interception of Admiral Yamamoto’s flight are detailed in depth. ComInt was the essential key to victory at
Midway, and this book tells the whole story completely and accurately. A few very minor points have proven subject
to correction or debate, but they do not detract from the book’s essential
value.
5:
The First Team
by John
Lundstrom (1984; revised 2nd edition 1990)
The
First Team is 560 pages of amazingly detailed fine print, covering everything one
might want to know about "Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to
Midway" (the subtitle). John
Lundstrom knows this topic (U.S. naval aviation history) extremely well and his
writing shows it—the book is essentially devoid of the common errors found in
other works. The only reason it is not
higher on the list is because the Battle of Midway only comprises the last
chapter of the book, about 140 pages.
Nevertheless, its Midway chapter is widely regarded as one of the most
accurate accounts of the battle.
This review is based on the original 1984
edition. The author advises that the
second edition has some updates on the Battle of the Coral Sea, but the Midway
section is basically unchanged.
6:
Miracle at Midway
by Gordon W.
Prange (1982)
This
book has been the number one best seller among those that are exclusively
focused on the Battle of Midway, although it is not technically nor
historically the best of them. That
explains its ranking behind several other works. It does provide a good narrative description of the battle,
reading more like an interesting novel than a history reference. Knowledgeable readers will find a number of
minor errors in the text (and perhaps a couple of major ones), but most will
still find it highly interesting and an essential component of any Midway
library. The “Chronology” (timeline) at
the end of the book is a particularly useful resource.
7:
The Japanese Story of the Battle of Midway
U.S. Navy
publication OPNAV P32-1002 (1947)
This
is the official Japanese after-action report on the Battle of Midway. It includes a detailed chronology of each
event during the battle, and there is an abundance of supporting graphics,
charts, and tables. This work has
served as a fundamental resource for most of the books written about the
battle. It's readily available on the
Internet—to access it directly, click here.
8:
The Last Flight of Ensign C. Markland Kelly, Junior, USNR
by Bowen P.
Weisheit (1996)
Why
did all but one squadron (VT-8) from the USS Hornet fail to find the
Japanese carriers on the morning of 4 June 1942, while planes from Enterprise,
Yorktown, and Midway Atoll had no such problem? Bowen Weisheit, an experienced aerial navigator, presents
important new evidence in this fascinating study, culminating in a detailed
chart showing what he believes to be the true track of each of the ship’s squadrons
on that flight. If your only understanding
of where the Hornet air group flew during the battle comes from the
official record as related by Samuel Elliott Morison and repeated in
best-selling histories of the battle, this book may be an important
revelation. For a look at Weisheit's
constructed chart plus a discussion of photos appearing in the book, click here.
As of July 2009, the
book is available directly from the author’s estate for $25.00 plus
shipping. To request a copy, contact:
Edith B. Weisheit
2636 Calvary Rd
Bel Air MD 21015-6616 USA
Phone 410-836-2593
9:
Black Shoe Carrier Admiral: Frank Jack Fletcher at Coral
Sea, Midway, and Guadalcanal
by John
Lundstrom (2006)
Lundstrom’s
latest book nicely complements The First Team (above). Its focus is the leadership of Admiral
Fletcher in the crucial carrier battles during the war’s first year, including
Midway. The author’s exhaustive
research into primary sources reveals a view of Fletcher that effectively
counters the highly critical opinions expressed by other writers and some of
Fletcher’s peers in the Navy.
The
book includes a significant bonus of importance to students of the BOM. Lundstrom offers a highly reasonable theory
as to why the Hornet’s squadrons flew their curious and futile course on
the first day of the battle, as described in Bowen Weisheit’s book
(above). Neither Weisheit nor other
historians to this point had offered a supportable rationale for the Hornet air
group commander’s failure to follow Enterprise and Yorktown planes
to the enemy fleet, but Lundstrom may have hit the mark in this book. (Readers will find it discussed on p. 248.)
10:
No Right to Win: a Continuing Dialogue with Veterans of the
Battle of Midway
by Ronald W.
Russell (2006)
FULL DISCLOSURE: No Right to Win and this brief review
were both written by this site’s webmaster.
That said, I have objectively attempted to rank it at a level that is
warranted by reader feedback plus the nature of its content. The book has been unanimously endorsed by
the Roundtable’s Midway veterans, which merits a preferred placement on this
list. But it is highly dependent upon
several of the works appearing above it, so it cannot be ranked ahead of them.
No Right to Win is a
compilation of eight years of veteran anecdotes and reminisces on the
Roundtable and the understandings (some of them quite new) that can be derived
from them. All of the principal
subjects explored and often vigorously debated on the Roundtable over the years
are covered in depth. Anyone having an
interest in both the BOM and the Roundtable itself will find the book to be an
essential primer on each. For more
information, click here.
11:
Marines at Midway
by R. D. Heinl
(1948)
The
whole story of the Corps at Midway. You
can view or download it on the Internet, although the book version has more
coverage, including Wake Island.
For the web version, click here.
12:
A Dawn Like Thunder: the True Story of Torpedo Squadron
Eight
by Robert
Mrazek (2008)
Robert
Mrazek’s new book is an in-depth study of the renowned VT-8 aviators who made
history at Midway and Guadalcanal. It
tells the whole story of John Waldron and men who fought and sacrificed at
Midway, but a little over half of the book is the rest of the squadron’s story:
their long and often desperate struggle during the Solomons campaign. This book is very highly recommended by
Roundtable readers.
13:
The Barrier and the Javelin: Japanese and Allied Strategy,
February-June 1942
by H. P.
Willmott (1983)
This book was
enthusiastically endorsed by Jon Parshall as the source for much of his own
understanding of Imperial Japanese Naval strategy and planning. He rates it among his top three references
on the Battle of Midway exclusive of his own book, Shattered Sword (which
Roundtable members in general rate as number 2; see above). Other reviewers, i.e. on Amazon.com, echo
Jon’s praise of The Barrier and the Javelin, although some take issue
with a few of Willmott’s opinions on what the Japanese could have done in the
way of better strategies.
14:
Midway: Dauntless Victory
by Peter C.
Smith (2007)
This
is British author Smith’s second attempt at a Midway history (see below), and
the only resemblance between it and his earlier work is his name on the
cover. The new book is a thorough
accounting of all aspects of the battle plus its impact on nearly every nation
engaged in World War II. It was
exhaustively researched through veteran interviews and archive examination in
both the U.S. and Japan. It excels in
the depth of its analysis of virtually every facet of the battle and of
virtually any circumstance in history for which the battle has some degree of
relevance.
Since the book is largely Smith’s personal
perspectives, it unavoidably contains a number of opinions that some historians
will find arguable, if not downright wrong.
There are also an unusually large number of typographical and structural
errors. But such issues are minor in
the broad scope of an enormous body of work.
The book ranks favorably among the most useful histories of the Battle
of Midway.
15:
Midway Inquest: Why the Japanese Lost the Battle of Midway
by Dallas W.
Isom (2007)
The author
presents important new insight to a couple of the BOM’s key details, (1) the
problems faced by the hangar deck crews of the Japanese carriers because of Admiral
Nagumo’s conflicting ordnance change orders, and (2) a new analysis of the
critical role played by the number 4 scout plane from the Japanese cruiser Tone. The painfully laborious procedure for
changing the Japanese Kates from torpedoes to bombs and back to torpedoes was
not adequately understood by Nagumo, which was a key factor in his failure to
launch a counterstrike before the U.S. dive bombers struck. And it turns out that Tone 4’s impact
on the battle was exactly the opposite of what has usually been portrayed in
other works.
These revelations add
significantly to the BOM’s historiography, and are alone reason enough to get
the book. But its supplementary
chapters are also excellent, providing concise overviews of the post-Midway
carrier battles in 1942 as well as a good explanation of America and Japan’s
march to war in the 1930s.
The book does have a number of
flaws regarding technical details and some of the author’s inadequately
supported conclusions, but these are minor complaints that don’t significantly
detract from its core value. Anyone
deeply interested in the BOM will definitely want to read it.
16:
Double-Edged Secrets
by Captain C.
Jasper Holmes (1979)
This book
nicely complements that of Edwin Layton (#4 above), since Jasper Holmes was an
insider in the unit at Pearl Harbor that actually decrypted and analyzed
Japanese radio traffic.
17:
That Gallant Ship
by Robert
Cressman (1985/2000)
That
Gallant Ship is the complete story of USS Yorktown (CV-5), from
its launch in 1936 to its loss at the Battle of Midway in 1942. All of Yorktown's operations in the
Atlantic, in the island raids of early '42, at Coral Sea, and at Midway are
thoroughly covered. The book is
extensively illustrated with photographs.
It's now in its 4th printing (Feb 2000), and the 4th edition includes
photos and text not included in the earlier ones. The format is 8.5 x 11 inches, soft cover.
18:
The Big E
by Edward P.
Stafford (1960)
The
USS Enterprise in WWII. The
whole history of CV-6, including complete coverage its role in the Battle of
Midway. Very highly recommended by
readers.
19:
Combined Fleet Decoded
by John Prados
(1995)
A
very highly regarded, detailed treatise on both U.S. and Japanese communications
intelligence during WWII.
20:
A Priceless Advantage
by Frederick
D. Parker (1993)
The
subtitle of this work is "U.S. Navy Communications Intelligence and the
Battles of Coral Sea, Midway, and the Aleutians." It's freely available in full on the
Internet: click here.
21:
SBD-3 Dauntless; the Battle of Midway
by Daniel
Hernandez (2002)
This is a very unique and interesting
book, published in Spain. The author,
Daniel Hernandez, is a Spanish airline captain who happens to have an intense
interest in the Battle of Midway and its principal weapon, the SBD. The book’s primary focus, of course, is the
SBD itself, but it also provides an in-depth history of the plane’s finest
hour, the Battle of Midway.
First about the SBD: the
diagrams and photographs are simply outstanding, and there seems to be no
end to them. The see-through color line drawings are especially good.
And as for the aforementioned every conceivable detail: would you like to
know the difference between the crankshaft bearings used in the SBD-3 vs. the
SBD-2? Or the number of degrees that the trim tabs will move up and
down? How about the amount of fluid required to charge the hydraulic
system? Or the engine's compression ratio? The point is, the level
of technical detail about the plane and its various component parts far exceeds
anything we’ve seen elsewhere. You're
almost led to believe that, using only this book as a guide, you could assemble
an entire Dauntless yourself if you had all the parts and the necessary
tools. In summary, if you want to dig very deeply into the nuts and bolts
of the SBD (all of them!), this is a book you're going to want to have.
As for the Battle of Midway, this
book isn't the best overall reference you can find but it does quite a
good job of covering the essential details, and without falling prey
to some of the myths and errors found in other references. For example,
the "Midway is short of water" ruse, commonly mistaken as an attempt
to learn the meaning of "AF" in Japanese ciphers, is correctly
explained here. And when a book, movie, or video gets that part right,
it's an indicator that the authors have done their homework and know what
they're talking about. You get that feeling throughout this volume.
If the book has one noticeable
flaw, it's the fact that the author, a Spanish airline captain, wrote it in
Spanish, then directly translated it into English rather than paraphrasing
it into idiomatic English. The result is Spanish grammar and
syntax using English words, and that can be a bit odd at times. But it's
a relatively minor flaw that you can live with, particularly in view of the
book's quality in every other regard.
In summary, Daniel Hernandez has
done a very creditable job of relating the Battle of Midway, and his
exhaustive coverage of the SBD Dauntless is simply something that you're going
to have to see yourself to fully appreciate.
The book is sold on-line via
the publisher's web
site. Purchasers have reported no problem ordering with a
credit card, and you can also order by PayPal. The web site gives full
details, including a lot of interesting graphics.
22:
The Unknown Battle of Midway: the Death of the Torpedo
Squadrons
by Alvin
Kernan (2005)
Roundtable member Kernan’s main
focus in this book is the three torpedo squadrons at Midway, VT-8 from the Hornet,
VT-6 from the Enterprise, and VT-3 from the Yorktown. Kernan, who was an enlisted hangar-deck
crewman with VT-6 during the battle, tells a gripping story from the
perspective of one who was there at the time.
Knowledgeable readers will note several minor errors in the text that should
have been caught in the editing process.
Nevertheless, the book is very popular among Roundtable members.
23:
Midway: the Battle That Doomed Japan
by Mitsuo
Fuchida and Masatake Okumiya (1955)
Until
the appearance of Shattered Sword (above), this work was long accepted
as the fundamental resource on the Japanese side of the battle, since
one of its authors (Fuchida) personally led the attack on Pearl Harbor and was
present on the Akagi at Midway.
However, new revelations show that Fuchida embellished his tale
significantly for the sake of his primary audience in Japan. But despite the book’s several faults (as
outlined in Shattered Sword), readers may still find it important for
its first-person Japanese view of the battle, however inaccurate it may be in
some of the details.
24:
Sole Survivor
by George Gay
(1979)
George
Gay was a TBD pilot in Torpedo Squadron 8 aboard the USS Hornet and the
only one of 30 pilots and radioman-gunners who survived the squadron's attack
upon the Japanese carriers. As such, he
was both a participant in and an eyewitness to one of the most daring,
aggressive, and sadly futile combat actions in American military history.
It should be noted that Gay's perspective on the
overall battle was rather limited, and he waited 37 years to write his book,
long after his recollection of the details could be considered as fresh. As a result, his text contains a number of
factual errors and a few claims or conclusions that have been contested by
respected historians. However, Gay’s
perspective on his squadron's action was that of one who was there, and therein
lies the value of this book. The last
chapter, focusing entirely on his commanding officer, VT-8 skipper John
Waldron, is especially good.
25:
Midway--Battle for the Pacific
by Edmund L.
Castillo (1968)
Although
this book contains a few of the historical inaccuracies that are typical of
those written in that early era, it actually excels when evaluated
within its own peer group--short treatises on the BOM intended as an overview
rather than a scholarly study.
Indeed, this may be the standard bearer for that group, as Castillo
covers the Midway story concisely but thoroughly, from the establishment of the
atoll as a U.S. possession to the aftermath of the historic battle. As an important bonus, the book has a very
good photo set, including a number of interesting images not generally found in
other works.
26:
Return to Midway
by Robert
Ballard (1999)
Undersea
explorer Ballard's search for the wrecks of Yorktown and Kaga. Published by National Geographic. See also the video version, below.
27:
Midway
by Hugh
Bicheno (2002)
Generally
well written. Includes a listing of all
ships engaged and their disposition after the battle. Compares the differences between Japanese and American cultures,
their intelligence resources, and their ships, planes and other military
hardware. Includes colorful map
graphics, although there are several errors in the placement of certain
defenses on Midway atoll.
28:
A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy
by Paul Dull
Dull
served in the Office of War Information during the war, and thereafter spent a
number of years researching Japanese archives in order to get a view of the war
as seen from the other side. The book
covers the entire war through 1945, but the 1942-43 segments are particularly
good. Approximately 10% of the book (56
pages) is on the Battle of Midway.
29:
Sunburst
by Mark
Peattie (2002)
Subtitle:
"The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power, 1909-1941." This book is highly recommended for its
coverage of Japanese training and doctrine, and especially for its very
comprehensive appendices, which are packed with extensive information on key
IJN personnel, organizations, ships and planes, and much more.
30: Midway: Turning Point of the Pacific
by VADM
William Ward Smith (1966)
This narrative is told from an up
close and personal perspective by the commander of the TF-17 screening force
aboard USS Astoria (CA-34). Included is an overview of the period
from December 7, 1941 to the Battle of the Coral Sea, and a summation and
reflection of the post Midway years.
The primary focus is on Coral Sea and Midway.
John Lundstrom, in Black Shoe
Carrier Admiral, p. 512, says Smith picked up his pen about 1965 in
reaction to Samuel Eliot Morison's negativity and lack of knowledge of RADM
Fletcher, and in reaction to Samuel Griffith's total vilification of Fletcher [The
Battle for Guadalcanal, 1965]. In this work Smith is supportive of
Fletcher's approach, tactics, and command decisions at Coral Sea and
Midway. It was Smith's distinct recollection that Nimitz'
"calculated risk" principle existed and was followed.
31:
God Was at Midway
by Stanford E.
Linzey (1999, re-released in 2005 as The USS Yorktown at Midway)
Many adhere to the belief that the "incredible
victory" at Midway could only have happened as it did through some sort of
supernatural or divine intervention.
That theme is eloquently expressed by Navy chaplain Linzey, a survivor
of the USS Yorktown. His
harrowing tale of escape from the stricken vessel is typical of what a couple
thousand of the ship’s crew and air group experienced on the afternoon of 4
June 1942.
by Ira Peck
(1976)
This is an excellent choice for
young readers. It tells the story of
the Pacific War from Pearl Harbor to Midway with rare accuracy for a book of
this early vintage. It includes a good
photo set.
33: Rendezvous at Midway: USS Yorktown and
the Japanese Carrier Fleet
by Pat Frank
and Joseph D. Harrington (1967)
Rendezvous
at Midway is a small, easily readable book, but it covers the
essentials in a colorful style. There
is a vivid character to accounts of shipboard and aerial combat that is lacking
in the more lengthy and scholarly works.
Although this book is quite dated, the authors make several editorial
observations that are remarkably consistent with current thinking. For instance, they credit VF-3’s dogfight
with the Japanese CAP as the decisive factor in leaving the SBD formations free
to attack, in contrast to the general view that the torpedo squadrons solely
deserve that credit.
by Peter C.
Smith (1976, 2nd edition 1996)
British author
Smith has produced a concise telling of the Battle of Midway story that in many
regards is among the best of its class (those written in earlier years without
the benefit of recent revelations). It
is told in a casual, informal manner that makes for very easy reading. The book is aided in large measure by some
excellent map graphics and a good photo set.
Unfortunately, it suffers from several errors of detail that will stand
out for any reader who is well informed about the Battle of Midway. But for those seeking only a good overview
of the battle, Smith’s tight little book is a worthy contender.
35:
They Turned the War Around at Coral Sea and Midway
by Stuart
Ludlum (2000)
This
book is the story of Yorktown's air group, from Pearl Harbor to
Midway. There are a number of factual
errors, but readers say the book still gets high marks for its first-person
accounts from Yorktown aviators, particularly at Coral Sea.
36:
Midway 1942: Turning Point in the Pacific
by Mark Healy
(1993)
The main value of this book is its excellent
illustrations of ships and aircraft—modelers will find it particularly
useful. Readers say that it is
relatively poor in other regards.
37: Climax at Midway
by Thaddus
Tuleja (1960)
One reviewer
reports that this book is an “easy read” and covers the story fairly well, but
a lot of the detail that readers are accustomed to seeing in other books is
absent—there is scant mention of the battle on the atoll itself, and almost
nothing concerning the vital role of communications intelligence. It also suffers from the usual inaccuracies
associated with reliance on Midway: the Battle That Doomed Japan (see
above).
38:
The Ship That Held the Line
by Lisle A.
Rose (1995)
Subtitle: "The USS Hornet and the First
Year of the Pacific War." Numerous
readers report that this book has an unusually large number of factual and
technical errors, i.e. incorrect details about the ship and its planes, and wrong
data concerning personnel. But most
give it credit for focusing entirely on the Hornet (CV-8), the only
full-scale book to do so. It tells the Hornet’s
story well enough in general terms, and excels in some regards. Knowledgeable readers will be taken aback by
some of the errors, though.
39:
The USS Enterprise
by Steve Ewing
(1982)
Subtitle: "The Most Decorated Ship of World War
II, A Pictorial History." Another
tribute to the Big E. Extensive photos. Reviewers rate Stafford’s The Big E as
a preferred choice, followed by this book for its photographs.
40: Miracle at Midway (Revised 17 Nov
2009)
by Charles
Mercer (1977)
Don't confuse this one with the Gordon Prange book by
the same title (see above). Mercer’s
version of the Miracle is a 160-page synopsis of the runup to the
Pacific war, the Pearl Harbor attack, the Battle of the Coral Sea, and in the
final 60 pages, the Battle of Midway.
It includes a collection of familiar photographs from all three battles,
and its brief Midway narrative is about as good as anyone from that era has put
together. The book contains interesting
anecdotes and insight not found in other works. On the down side, it has an assortment of historical errors that
knowledgeable readers will quickly spot.
41: The Battle of Midway
by Tom McGowan
(Scholastic Children's Series, 2002)
For ages 9-12.
Has very good reviews on Amazon.com.
42: The Battle of Midway Island
by Theodore
Taylor (1981)
An exceptionally poor work
in several important regards. The
historical accuracy is worse than its competition and the images are simply
abominable. Among its peer group—brief
treatises on the battle intended for youngsters or as a general overview—this
is a clear last choice.
***
The following are works of fiction about the Battle of Midway—not
ranked. List ed in chronological order.
***
Midway
by Donald
Sanford (1976)
This is the
novel version of the 1976 movie of the same name. It tracks the screenplay exactly, so the review of the movie
(below) applies equally to this book.
It does have one salient factor in its favor—it’s a novel, not a history
book, and as such the reader is propelled into the battle in the present
tense. That’s a “novel” experience,
making the book worth reading despite its factual flaws.
Dauntless
by Barrett
Tillman (1992)
Dauntless, by Roundtable member
Barrett Tillman, traces the fortunes of LT(jg) Philip "Buck" Rogers,
a VB-3 SBD pilot, through Midway in CV-5 and Eastern Solomons in CV-3. Other characters include Marine fighter
pilot Captain Jim Carpenter and Flight Petty Officer Hiroyoshi Sakaida. Those familiar with the facts of the battle
will find this book highly interesting and entertaining.
Love and Glory
by Alvin
Kernan (2004)
Roundtable
member Alvin Kernan was an aviation ordnanceman (AOM3/c) aboard the Enterprise
during the BOM. After the war he commenced a long career as a
college professor at both Yale and Princeton, and thus is uniquely qualified to
write about the battle. Love and Glory is his latest work.
It tells the whole story of the first day of the battle, 4 June 1942, focusing
mainly on the Hornet air group and the saga of Torpedo Squadron 8.
Love and
Glory, as you might deduce from the title, is not another
history book about the BOM. Instead it's a novel with the Battle of
Midway as its setting. It's a work of fiction, but it's authentic
historical fiction. The protagonist is one Ensign Clay Hunt,
a brand new naval aviator assigned to VT-8 aboard the Hornet.
We follow the experiences of ENS Hunt as he qualifies in the TBD and
assimilates into the squadron, under the leadership of its colorful
commander. We then ride with him as the air group launches on its
errant course on the morning of 4 June. We hear the argument over the
radio between VT-8's skipper and the CHAG, then follow as the squadron veers
away on its own course toward a bitter destiny.
Kernan
pulls no punches in his dialogue--he is unmerciful toward the Hornet's air
group commander before, during, and especially after the battle. He also
gives no slack to the ship's captain, having him deliberately conspire to
falsify Hornet's after-action report in order to save his own hide as
well as that of his buddy, the CHAG. This is the sort of thing we've all
been talking about for years, and it's highly interesting to see it played out
rather accurately in a novel.
The book is
not without flaws, but they're not too significant. Professor Kernan
didn't use an independent editor in preparing his manuscript, so you'll find a
few glitches that should have been fixed before publication. There's a
couple instances where proper naval terminology is not used, although it won't
stand out if you've never been summoned to chow by a bosn's whistle.
And I think many readers will be taken aback by Kernan's choices for the
names of some of his characters. "Lancing Colt" for the TF-16
chief of staff (Miles Browning) is a little clever, but some of the other
fictitious names are rather odd. Kernan
would have done better to use the actual historical names, as was done in the
1976 Midway movie (which had a lot more fiction in it than this book).
But don't
get lost in such minor quibbles—the value of this book is its realistic dialogue,
written by one who was there at the time and is thus intimately familiar with
such dialogue. It's a very entertaining read despite the flaws. (Note:
Kernan published a sequel to this book in 2006, Attack-Repeat-Attack,
which tells Clay Hunt’s continuing story in the battle for Guadalcanal.)
Halsey’s Bluff
by Larry
Schweikart (2009)
This novel
is an alternative history version of the Battle of Midway, with Admiral Halsey
in charge of the U.S. carriers, a vicious air-sea battle fought basically to a
draw, Midway overrun by the Japanese after a desperate assault that barely
succeeds, thunderous sea battles in the eastern Pacific, the U.S. west coast at
risk, and Army squadrons slated for Europe diverted to California to repel
raids by the enemy fleet. It’s nearly
non-stop action, giving readers an exciting view of the Battle of Midway and
subsequent events that never happened but very well could have.
Movie
and television productions presented as historical dramas
(listed
in chronological order)
A Wing and a Prayer
starring Don Ameche and Dana Andrews (1944)
A
Wing and a Prayer is a
wartime-produced version of the Battle of Midway. It is a very interesting film, although not for the reasons you
might expect. If you're looking for accuracy in detail, it's actually
worse than the 1976 Midway movie
(see below), with wrong planes, wrong attack scenes, and
wrong, unidentified, or curiously missing ships (both U.S. and
Japanese). Worse, there are more fictional characters than in Midway.
But what you have to remember is that in 1944 the specifics of the BOM were
still largely unknown to the general public (including movie producers), plus
wartime security restrictions prevented revealing much of the detail we now
take for granted, especially the names of the personalities.
Consequently, when we see Hellcats, Avengers, and Helldivers from an Essex-class
CV destroying only three Japanese carriers (Akagi is a no-show in the
movie), and absolutely no mention of reading the Japanese naval
code, perhaps we can understand.
But its production during the war itself is actually what makes this
a great BOM film. You get the authentic feel of the times by watching
rather good actors portray characters and events that, to them,
are contemporary. There is no misrepresentation of
wartime social or moral values that inevitably creeps in to movies
produced in other eras, like Midway and Pearl Harbor. You
are watching scenes and hearing dialog that is as close to the real thing as
you're likely to ever experience. This is a movie about the Battle of
Midway that has most of the historic details quite wrong, yet you definitely
don't feel disappointed when it ends.
Task Force
starring Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan (1949)
The
BOM is a 30-minute segment in this nearly two-hour movie. The story centers on the fictional Jonathan
Scott (Cooper), the quintessential naval aviator who rises from a 1920s biplane
pilot to the commander of a carrier task group just prior to retiring from the
Navy. The BOM sequence is fairly well
done, with mostly accurate scenes of ships and aircraft. Unlike the both the previous and following
entry in this list, the producers were as meticulous as the state of the art
would allow in showing scenes of real SBDs, F4Fs, and even TBDs. The facts of the battle were mostly
portrayed accurately, if a little too briefly.
Midway
starring Charlton Heston, Robert Mitchum, and many others (1976)
Midway
is the only other full-length, major Hollywood feature film (in addition to A
Wing and a Prayer) that focuses solely on the Battle of Midway. It is a lavish production, resenting about
the best that Hollywood could do given the resources and techniques available
in 1976. Unfortunately, that did not
include the realistic computer graphics appearing in later productions, which
meant that Midway's producers had to resort to the familiar tactic of incorporating
old combat footage, carefully spliced, edited, and colorized as best they could
in order to convey a more or less authentic look. To the uninitiated moviegoer, the effect was very good: the
scenes were dramatic and the audio (in theaters during the initial 1976
release) was positively awesome.
But to anyone with a modest amount of familiarity with
U.S. aircraft in WW2, particularly naval aircraft in the Pacific theater, there
is much that disappoints. The producers
used what was probably the best combat footage available in crafting their story line, but unlike the makers of Task
Force (above) they did it without regard to whether the aircraft shown
existed in June of 1942. Knowledgeable
viewers will quickly notice the many clips of Hellcats, Avengers, and an
occasional Helldiver launching from and landing aboard the Midway carriers,
which of course never happened. One
scene, supposedly showing George Gay escaping from his ditched TBD, is
obviously a wartime clip of a fighter pilot emerging from a ditched
Hellcat. Passing off a Hellcat for a
TBD was probably the most flagrant example of this movie's technical
inaccuracies, followed closely behind by scenes of a C-130 masquerading as a
Japanese Kawanishi flying boat. And
since this film does not have any of the authentic feel of A Wing and a
Prayer, the technical inaccuracies seem more flagrant than in the earlier
production.
However,
the mismatched aircraft issue is insignificant compared to the plot, which
suffers from excessive soap opera dramatics revolving around Charlton Heston's
fictional character, a CINCPAC staff captain.
It is understood that such scenes were inserted into the film in order
to broaden its appeal (presumably, women would have no interest in a movie
giving an accurate portrayal of an air-sea battle and nothing more). If you're a fan of wartime history, you
simply have to let this sort of thing pass and focus on the majority of the
film, which more or less adequately deals with things that really happened.
Roundtable members have generally echoed the above
criticism, but many still give Midway high marks for at least bringing
an awareness of the battle to the general public. And on balance, even with the wrong planes and the sappy soap
opera fiction, it's still a good movie that should be seen at least once by
everyone.
Footnote: later releases of the film, principally
shown on cable TV channels in recent years, include a lengthy segment on the
Battle of the Coral Sea that was not included in the theatrical release.
War and Remembrance (Volume 1, Part 3)
(single episode within a television miniseries, 1988)
War
and Remembrance is the sequel to The Winds of War, an expansive TV
miniseries about a family caught up in the worldwide trauma of World War II. Both series are now available on DVD, and
the third disk in Volume 1 of War and Remembrance is an excellent
stand-alone depiction of the BOM.
Indeed, compared to other dramatic re-enactments of the battle, as in
the above movies, this production excels in historical accuracy, authentic
dialogue, and in the director’s choices for scenes of the battle to include in
a limited scope of time.
Since it was produced before the advent of
computer-generated imagery (CGI) such as you see in the likes of Jurassic
Park and the 2001 Pearl Harbor movie, this film contains some of the
usual mismatches for aircraft and ships of the BOM era, but the producers did
rather well with what the state of the art allowed in the 1980s. There are numerous scenes with real SBDs,
and other flying sequences are passably well done using scale models. The ships are less convincing, but again,
there were no Yorktown or Akagi-class carriers to film in
1980. Besides, the superb quality of
the production in other respects easily overshadows any issues concerning
non-authentic hardware.
This video is highly recommended to anyone who wants
to view a good re-enactment of the BOM, as opposed to a documentary. The War and Remembrance series is
available in two volumes from Internet vendors, but you can get the one disk
with the BOM segment if you subscribe to an on-line rental service like Netflix
or Blockbuster.
III.
Movie and Video Documentaries
(listed
in chronological order)
The Battle of Midway
documentary by John Ford (1942)
Famous
Hollywood producer John Ford, equipped with a 16 mm. camera and color film, was
dispatched by Admiral Nimitz to Midway just prior to the battle. He obtained remarkable footage of the
Marines' preparations for the battle plus amazing scenes of the Japanese air
attack. Ford accomplished this at
considerable danger to himself, but the results obtained are
excellent--graphic, real, and professional.
This brief documentary is currently available as an added feature on
various commercial DVDs, and segments from the film have been included in a
great many war movies. This is the only
film footage available showing a significant portion of the Battle of Midway
from the actual scene. (Note: Ford's camera on Midway had no sound
capability, so any audio that accompanies your copy of the film has been
inserted by its producers.)
You can view the film on-line at the Navy’s The Course to Midway web site. Allow time for the web page to open (watch
the aircraft carrier silhouette turn from black to blue, indicating loading
progress), after which the movie should start automatically. If it doesn’t, click “The Battle of Midway”
at the bottom of the screen.
Torpedo Squadron 8
U.S. Navy short film (1942)
This
official U.S. Navy short subject was made as a tribute to VT-8 shortly after
the battle. The loss of all 15 of the
squadron’s TBDs aboard USS Hornet and all but one of the 30 men who flew
them was an exceptionally emotional event for the Navy as well as the public in
1942, and you sense that emotion in watching this production. It was filmed aboard the Hornet
shortly after the Coral Sea battle. It
opens with the 15 pilots assembled for their group photo; the famous VT-8
portrait seen as a still photo in many sources, i.e. p. 91 of A Glorious
Page In Our History. We then see
closeups of the TBDs and clips of the aircraft taking off on a mission. The heart of the film is the man-by-man tribute
to the aircrews: each pilot is seen
with his R/G, preceded by the view of a memorial plaque bearing their two
names.
For
fans of wartime history and students of the Battle of Midway, watching this
film is something of a monumental experience.
You get to see the pilots and gunners of VT-8 up close and personal, and in real life. It makes them much more than a grim
statistic in a history book, and gives one pause to reflect upon who they
really were and what they really did.
The film is in color and runs for only a few
minutes. It currently can be found as
an added feature on certain DVDs or other video productions, and as of December
2008 you can view it on-line at the Navy’s The Course to Midway web
site. Allow time for the web page to
open (watch the aircraft carrier silhouette turn from black to blue, indicating
loading progress), then click the “Torpedo Squadron 8” button at the bottom of
the screen.
Battlefield: the Battle of Midway
PBS telecast,
1994
Unlike most of the listings that follow, this video does
not appear to be readily available for purchase. That’s unfortunate, because it is a rather good production, among
the best of the lot. For example, there
are plenty of scenes with F4Fs, SBDs, TBDs, and nary a single Hellcat, Corsair,
or Essex-class CV. Another plus: the
program starts with a very good segment on the Coral Sea, including helpful map
graphics. On the down side, it
perpetuates some of the familiar myths about the battle; not too surprising for
a 1994 production. On balance, though,
it’s a worthy addition to anyone’s BOM video library if a copy can be found.
The Battle of Midway
Discovery
Channel documentary (Thomas H. Horton production, 1999)
As Battle of Midway documentaries intended for the
general public go, this may be the best of them all. Some of our members
are quick to point out a few errors in archival film footage showing the
wrong aircraft or ships, but you always get that in such productions. The
Horton program stands out for its extensive use of the correct ships
and planes, including many scenes of SBDs in action, and a few decent clips of
TBDs. One movie clip even appeared to
show the listing Yorktown with the Hammann alongside.
From the standpoint of the
Roundtable, the program is especially interesting for its extensive
participation by three of our membes: F4F pilot Tom Cheek, Midway Marine
Bill Lucius, and VT-8 TBF radioman Harry Ferrier. Other BOM vets
contributing to the program include VB-6 skipper Dick Best, VB-6 pilot Wilbur
Roberts, John Snowden (VS-6 gunner with LTjg Kleiss), Donald Hoff (VS-6
gunner with ENS Dexter), and Stuart Mason (VB-6 gunner with LTjg
Anderson). Several Japanese vets were also interviewed, including Bill
Surgi's friend and Kate crewman Taisuke Maruyama.
The program
includes some simple computerized images showing the four Japanese
carriers, and a very good map graphic that displayed the enemy's complex
three-prong strategy for Midway and the Aleutians. The carrier images are
a bit crude, but the map graphic is excellent for its clear explanation of
Yamamoto's convoluted plan.
A couple of errors in the
narration were noteworthy: the program perpetuated the myth that the
Midway "water plant failure" ruse was an attempt to learn the meaning
of the Japanese code symbol "AF." Of course, Roundtable members
are aware that our signal intelligence experts in Hawaii knew full well before
the battle that AF was Midway, but it was necessary to prove it to
Washington. And, there was a statement that Admiral Nimitz had made
an on-the-spot decision to go after the Hiryu on the afternoon of June
4th. Not hardly—Nimitz was pretty much in the dark about the battle at
that point. The decision was obviously made by the on-scene commander
(Spruance).
But in summary, this is an
excellent portrayal of the BOM, as good as you're going to get until someone
decides to make a better one using modern computer imagery in order to
show the correct ships and planes, and knowledgeable technical consultants
in order to get every last factual detail right.
Commercial copies of
the program, new and used, can be found on Amazon.com and Ebay.
The Battle for Midway—Discovery of the
USS Yorktown
National Geographic
documentary (1999)
The
Battle for Midway is a special National Geographic production covering
undersea explorer Robert Ballard's expedition to find and photograph the wrecks
of the Yorktown and Kaga.
The video includes a lot of wartime footage, some from the John Ford
film. (A few of the clips were
non-authentic, but like the 1976 Midway movie, they had to use what was
available.) But the main thrust of the
production is the modern-day search for the two carriers, and it's a highly
interesting quest.
Ballard
took four Midway veterans with him on the expedition, including Roundtable
members Harry Ferrier and Bill Surgi, plus two Japanese vets from the Kaga. The video also includes interviews of Roundtable
members Lloyd Childers and Bert Earnest, plus VB-6 skipper Dick Best. The participation of these seven veterans is
a key part of the production and adds greatly to its interest. The surround-sound audio is also excellent.
This video is available from National Geographic, and can
be obtained by calling 800-427-5521.
Ask for stock number M1750002.
This review is of the DVD version.
A VHS tape version is also available.
[ Update 5/29/2009:
at this time the entire video can be viewed on-line: click here. ]
The Search for the Japanese Fleet
Discovery Channel documentary (2000)
Like
the Ballard expedition above, this is another search for the sunken ships of
the Battle of Midway; the Japanese carrier Kaga in this case. The search team uses the recorded track of
the submarine USS Nautilus, which had attacked the Kaga at a
known position, to successfully plot the location of the sunken carrier. The sophisticated equipment aboard the
research vessel first produces sonar images of the wreck, and eventually video
of pieces of the carrier strewn about the sea floor.
The program gives a good overview of the battle
itself, including good coverage on the signal intelligence aspect. However, it's somewhat disappointing in
that, unlike Ballard's search for the Yorktown above, the Kaga
itself is not found and photographed, due to limitations in the research
vessel's availability. Aside from that,
this is a very well done production that anyone having a high interest in the
Battle of Midway will want to see.
Roundtable
member Jon Parshall appears at the end of the production, aiding the team in
determining exactly what pieces of the ship had been photographed.
The video can be ordered directly from the Discovery
Channel web site, www.discoverychannel.com. The cost for the VHS tape (as of mid-2003) is $19.95 plus
shipping and state tax, if applicable.
War Stories with Oliver North: the Battle of Midway
Fox News Channel documentary (2002)
This is one of the weekly documentaries presented on
the Fox News Channel and hosted by Oliver North. It's a good overall presentation of the Battle of Midway, ranking
a very close second to the Thomas Horton Battle of Midway documentary
(above). But it particularly excels in
its coverage of the signal intelligence aspect of the American victory.
Roundtable members and Midway veterans Mac Showers,
Lew Hopkins, and Bill Surgi are extensively interviewed in the program, as are
Roundtable members Mark Horan and Robert Cressman, two of the co-authors of A
Glorious Page In Our History. This
is a video that most roundtable members will want to possess, for its
commendable all-around treatment of the battle plus the valuable participation
in the production by our members.
The
video can be ordered directly from the Fox News Channel by calling
800-933-0760. The cost for the VHS tape
(as of mid-2003) is $19.95 plus shipping and state tax, if applicable.
F4F Wildcat
Aircraft Films DVD set (2003)
This
2-disk set includes film and still photos of just about every F4F you'll ever
want to see, including a lengthy segment on the magnificently restored Wildcat
at the Naval Aviation Museum at Pensacola.
But most of the photography is vintage, showing early development of the
Wildcat (including its biplane predecessors) during the 1930s, a huge
assortment of WWII combat film and stills, and interesting close-ups with Jimmy
Thach and Butch O'Hare. There is also a
lot of actual combat footage of the Yorktown at Midway, the Enterprise
at Eastern Solomons, and the Hornet at Santa Cruz. And this isn't just a few grainy glimpses of
carriers under attack as viewed from a distant destroyer--we're looking at film
from the carriers themselves; some from a photographer's camera and some from
fixed cameras. The fixed cameras, in
particular, show gripping footage of the attacks on Enterprise and Hornet. Another plus: this set includes the John Ford Battle of Midway movie.
Roundtable
member and BOM veteran Tom Cheek is featured as the narrator on a couple of the
segments, one of which shows his crash landing on the Yorktown during
the battle.
Bottom line:
this set will tell you about all there is to know about the history and
employment of the F4F, and it includes extras that are worth the purchase price
by themselves.
(Update June 2009:
the set is no longer available from Aircraft Films, but it can be
ordered on line here.)
Command Decision: the Battle of Midway
History Channel production (2004)
After
this program’s debut in 2004, Roundtable members
unanimously lambasted it as the most dismally inept film or video production on
the Battle of Midway ever foisted upon the public. In their opinion, its errors are so egregious as to make the
other works in this section, however flawed, seem brilliant by comparison.
Ironically,
one of the interviewed experts on the show was Robert Cressman, lead author on
one of the most thorough and accurate BOM references available (A
Glorious Day In Our History; see the top of this web page). But he
obviously didn’t have much control over the script itself.
Producing a
good, reasonably accurate video account of the BOM is not that hard (see “Final
Note” below). The History Channel,
though, can’t legitimately claim this one to be in that category, and in fact,
they’ve apparently pulled it from their rerun schedule. That alone speaks volumes, as they seem to
routinely rebroadcast most of their documentaries, often multiple times.
Days That Shook the World: the Battle of Midway
Lion Television Productions (2005)
This
British production stands out from all of the rest in that it is not just a
straight documentary—numerous key scenes are dramatized by actors playing the
roles of some of the BOM’s principal figures, such as Simard, Spruance,
Waldron, Gay, Best, Nagumo, Tomonaga, and Yamaguchi. Such dramatizations add a great deal of interest to the
production, which otherwise would be simply another BOM documentary, and not a
very accurate one at that.
As for getting the details right, the program suffers
from far too many technical and historic faults to list here, but in fairness,
most of them are the kind that would never be noticed by the casual television
viewer. Unless you are well grounded in
the BOM like members of the Roundtable, it comes across as a very well done and
interesting production that does a decent job of telling why the BOM was an
event that “shook the world.”
The program was initially shown in the U.S. on 6 Sept.
2006 on the History Channel. As of this
update, there does not appear to be a resource for purchasing DVD or VHS
recordings.
Warships: Pearl Harbor to Midway
PeriscopeFilm.com DVD (2006)
This DVD
set is a compilation of mostly WWII-era motion picture film clips from official
USN sources as well as studio archives and newsreel footage. Some of it
is familiar, but there is quite a lot that is seldom seen.
The program is arranged into 8 discreet segments: (1) the Pearl Harbor attack, (2) the Marshall Islands raids, (3) the Doolittle raid, (4) "Carrier X" (Yorktown and Coral Sea), (5) Coral Sea and Midway, (6) the John Ford Battle of Midway film, (7) "Hook Down, Wheels Down" Part 1, and (8) "Hook Down Wheels Down" Part 2.
The principal value of this program is its original film footage from the era. You’re watching scenes as they actually occurred, not Hollywood’s attempt to recreate them in later years, thereby losing authenticity. That said, viewers will need to remember that the film segments and their accompanying dialogue were created in the early 1940s, when the true facts of the battles were often unknown or classified. Thus when the announcer on original footage makes a statement that we now know to be historically wrong, remember the vintage of what you are watching and appreciate it for its classic quality.
Speaking of quality, the video imagery is as good as modern digital remastering can make it, and the surround-sound background music that the producer has inserted here and there sounds great.
The disk is sold on the PeriscopeFilm
web site. Click the "Warship DVD Series" button on the left
side of the page. You can also find it on Amazon.
Destination Point Luck: Voices From Midway
U.S. Naval Media Center documentary (2007)
This DVD program was produced by the Navy for internal
distribution in connection with the 65th anniversary of the battle in June
2007. Its focus is entirely on veteran
interviews, and 14 of the 15 Midway vets appearing in the program are members
of the Roundtable. In that sense, this
video is virtually “the Battle of Midway Roundtable on DVD,” for the vets’
stories are the tales we’ve seen from them down through the years in their
circulated e-mails and contributions to our Roundtable Forum newsletter. The program puts a face and a voice to the
likes of HYPO vet Mac Showers, SBD pilots Dusty Kleiss and Roy Gee, and Enterprise
vet and popular author Alvin Kernan, plus several others.
The production has the usual problem of mismatched
archive clips of ships and planes, scenes that don’t belong in 1942. But that’s understandable since the resources
of the Naval Media Center don’t compare with those of a major Hollywood
studio. Viewers of this program need to
ignore that minor issue and focus on the veteran testimony, which is invaluable
history.
As of December 2008, the program can be viewed
on-line: click here.
At the Interface: the WWII Recollections of Donald M. Showers
Shoestring Educational Productions (2007)
Rear Admiral “Mac” Showers was an intel analyst
at the Combat Intelligence Center at
Pearl Harbor during most of the war.
His first-hand recollections of the communications intelligence (ComInt)
side of the war’s most notable naval battles in the Pacific comprise the heart
of this production. It is ably aided by
an excellent assortment of archive film clips and graphics. You can read about ComInt from one “who was
there” (See I Was There in the book listings above), but here you can
see and listen to another veteran who also was there and directly involved in
the intel aspect of some of the war’s most crucial battles and operations.
A brief excerpt from the DVD can be viewed on the Navy TV web site. The
full program on DVD can be ordered directly from the producer. For full information, click here.
Battle 360 (episode #2): Vengeance at Midway
History Channel production (2008)
This 10-part miniseries covers the entire history of
USS Enterprise (CV-6) during World War II. The second episode, “Vengeance at Midway,” is a rather good
documentary on the BOM. While its main
focus is the Enterprise, the rest of the battle is covered in sufficient
detail to make this one of the better video productions in this listing, even
superior to the rest of them in a few regards.
The program features extensive narration by Roundtable
veteran members Dusty Kleiss, Ed Anderson, Lew Hopkins, and Lloyd Childers,
plus insight on the Japanese side of the battle by Jon Parshall (see Shattered
Sword at the top of this page).
Anderson had been Hopkins’ radioman-gunner in VB-6 at Midway, and
production of this documentary resulted in the two men coming together for the
first time in over 60 years. Their
on-screen reunion is a delight to watch.
Vengeance at Midway is for sale in DVD on the History Channel web site.
FINAL NOTE REGARDING VIDEO
PRODUCTIONS:
In ranking all of the videos in this section of the
Library, three of them stand out for their general accuracy and thoroughness
with regard to the Battle of Midway.
They are the PBS Battlefield episode, Horton’s Discovery Channel
program, and Oliver North’s War Stories episode. If you could only acquire a single Battle of
Midway video, any one of those three would be very good choices. The Naval Media Center DVD is special for
its focus on Roundtable members, and anyone familiar with those particular
veterans will definitely want to see it.
The same can be said for the “Battle 360” episode. For a total focus on communications
intelligence at Midway, the “At the Interface” DVD is excellent.
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