Customer Reviews

A Glorious Page in Our History: The Battle of Midway, 4-6 June 1942

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

. This is THE definitive work on the Battle of Midway. It accurately provides the detail that most of the others omit or get wrong, and it corrects all of the popular myths about the battle that some of the others perpetuate, i.e. the controversial flight of the USS Hornet's air group on the morning of 4 June 1942, and the "Midway is short of water" ruse pulled off by the signal intelligence wizards at Pearl Harbor.
. You have to be very familiar with the events and personnel involved in the battle to find even a minor flaw in this book. This reviewer knows of only two (in the 4th printing, March '98); one photo caption cites the wrong PBY squadron and another has the wrong names for an SBD aircrew. Beyond that sort of miniscule nitpicking that very few would notice, "A Glorious Page" can be relied upon as meticulously thorough and accurate to a level that no other volume on the Battle of Midway approaches.
. If you are researching the battle, start here. And if you can only afford one book on the Battle of Midway, this is the one you want. (Reviewed by R. W. Russell, Battle of Midway Roundtable, www.midway42.org)

There's not much doubt about the exhaustive detail of this book. It's about as close as you are going to get to a blow by blow account of the most important battle in US Navy history. The authors recount virtually every movement that any ship, squadron, or commander made in those 3 crucial days. Although the detail is minute, I couldn't put it down. The battle was apparently, a continuous stream of action.

This book is really for the dedicated historian and hardcore history buff. It isn't really intended to be a good read, but it sure was for me. The writing style is easy and flowing, not as dry and dusty as you would expect from a history book.

The story really focuses on the men. It is full of pictures of the flyers, commanders and squadrons. There are only a couple small weak points. One is the poor quality of the printed pictures. This is not an expensive book, so it is printed on medium quality paper. Photos don't turn out very clear on this kind of paper. Several captions describe details in the photo that I can't for the life of me see. Still the picture collection here is huge. It was especially touchng to look at the faces of these great heroes. They look like ordinary guys. I guess they were. It impresses me that ordinary guys are capable of rising to such high levels of dedication and valor.

The other problem is the lack of good maps. There are only 6, and they aren't very high quality. The 3 battle maps are given on only 2 pages, and contain too much information to make much sense. I would have prefered more larger maps showing more specific phases of the battle. I tracked down some better maps on the internet, but the data in this text could be used to produce many more detailed maps.

The book starts witb an interesting brief history of Midway atol, itself. Such an important place, and yet it is just a couple of tiny piles of sand literally in the middle of nowhere.


Altogether, I can highly recommend this book if you want a lot of detail in an easy-reading style.

There have been numerous accounts of Midway, to mention just two, Walter Lord's wonderful _Incredible Victory_ and Fuchida et al's _Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan. Each of these is superb in its own right, but what the collaborative effort of these writers had turned out is certain to rank not much from the top of the list. There are probably more illustrations in this one book than in the others combined, and the fine text clears up many points in which earlier accounts were mistaken. By tracing the history of Midway from its first U.S. occupation until much after the battle itself, a nice framework is given into which the battle is set; and in its own right, what the writers termed their book's appendix, is a superb collection of Midway-related essays that alone would have made me spend my money.

This is another book about the critical Battle of Midway in WWII- but not just any book. I first read about this story in grade school. The fate of our country came down to a small outnumbered fleet and a few obsolete airplanes. The aircrew in particular faced almost certain death in many cases but the battle was so critical they took off anyhow... Needless to say I was hooked from then on. That has always inspired me- the unbelievable courage displayed here. I have tried to find out more ever since. This book is promoted as a pictorial history and the pictures are excellent and cover almost all of the amazing aircrew. But the narrative could also easily stand by itself. It is as detailed as any I have ever read about this. A must-have for Midway buffs. How did they get so much in this small space? The best account I have ever read about a truly inspiring story.

This book is the result of a cooperative effort by a number of noted experts in the field of naval history. It provides the latest known facts regarding tactical details, numerous pertinent photos and previously unpublished (to my knowledge) biographical info about many heros of the battle. Every student of the war in the Pacific needs this book.

I believe this book to be unique in the fact that it puts faces to the heros in a story that when told in other books seems to gloss over who these guys really were. The photos of these young heros is simply haunting. Many of them seem to have that look that says, "I know I'm going to die, but I must do my duty." And they did. And I think this book is also unique in the fact that it covers in depth the contribution of the pilots who flew and suffered and died from the actual atoll of Midway itself, not just the pilots from our carriers. Many of these pilots who flew off of Midway were flying antiquated death traps that had no chance in hell against the Japanese Zero and their veteran, battle tested pilots. My God 13 of the 16 pilots in VMSB-241 flying SBD-2/3 Dauntless divebombers off Midway had never even flown a Dauntless until a few days before they flew off of Eastern Island. Many of them were right out of flight school and many of the rear seat gunners had minimal and in some cases NO training at all. And the pilots and crews of the hapless and totally antiquated and obsolete TBD-1 Devastators were doomed as well before they ever took off from Midway. The Devasator had to slow to 100 mph in order to drop a torpedo. They Zeros ate them alive. This book has given me an even greater respect and awe for these gallant heros who knew they were going to die, yet got into those cockpits and did their duty for their country. We owe them a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid but this book is a giant step in the direction of making sure their sacrifices are never forgotten. Highly recommended even if you have to pay the big bucks to get it off the used book market. Don't miss this one if you are a WWII Pacific Theatre buff.

This will make an excellent addition to your Midway collection. Although the authors state that the book is primarily a photographic history, the text is also excellent and very detailed. It really brings the Battle of Midway to life. There is also a good deal on the history and development of the island and the historical context of the battle itself. As the others reviewers have ably described, this is an excellent book so I won't get too detailed on that part. But what I really wanted to point out is that the 2008 edition is out! No need to pay $50 or $100 or more (just a few months ago). I bought my brand new copy for list price (I think it was about $17) from Historic Aviation (I swear, i don't work for them). There are probably other stores where it is available as well. Now there is no excuse not to have this on your bookshelf. Go get it!

Simply fantastic. I've read many books about this topic but this is the best. No theatrics, just the facts presented in a very readable format. Great work.

A Glorious Page in Our History is an account of American combat operations during the Battle of Midway, first published in 1990, and is the work of a group of WW2 historians, led by Robert Cressman. This book is primarily a pictorial history, but also contains detailed text descriptions of all actions associated with the battle. I found Glorious Page to have two features not found in other Midway books.

The first thing that sets Glorious Page apart from other accounts of Midway is the historical background given of the island itself and how it became a U.S. naval outpost. It is ironic that during this early period, Japanese bird hunters had to be expelled from Midway around 1900. The second thing that sets this book apart is the rich collection of photos. Unlike accounts that dwell on the "big picture," and show photos of mostly high-level commanders, here we see primarily images of the men who did the fighting. I found particularly interesting the photos taken on the deck of Yorktown, after she had been hit on June 4, including one picture of the men working to repair the hole in the flight deck after the attack of the Val dive bombers.

Glorious Page is foremost a tribute to the Americans who personally grappled with the IJN off Midway on June 4-6, 1942. You will not find deep discussion and analysis of strategy and command, like you will in H. P. Willmott's The Barrier and the Javelin. Nor will you find lengthy descriptions from the Japanese perspective such as those in Fuchida's Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan, or Parshall and Tully's Shattered Sword. These things are mentioned in Glorious Page, but only to clarify the operational situation of the combatants. What you will find instead is a blow-by-blow account of the ordeal of the men who did the fighting and dying, and ultimately prevailed against the Japanese carrier force which had enjoyed an uninterrupted string of successes from Pearl Harbor onward.

Elcellent book on the battle of Midway June 1942 Brave men fighting for freedom