Customer Reviews

Midway Campaign (Great Campaigns): December 7, 1941-June 6, 1942

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The title implies a book about the details of the Battle of Midway in June 1942; however, virtually 2/3 of the book covers the naval campaigns prior to Midway, e.g. Pearl Harbor, Coral Sea, British Navy in Indian Ocean. A disappointing amount of space is devoted to interesting details about the battle. One photo shows the Japanese carrier Soryu being bombed by B-17's from Midway yet the caption states the carrier is the Zuikaku at Coral Sea! Lt. Clarence Dickinson is repeatedly referred to as "Clarence Dickerson"; The Orders of Battle are comprehensive and useful. Overall, this "Campaign" series of books about battles usually provide previously unknown details about the subject battle, and clarifying diagrams about what happened; but this particular book has no such content or format. It was listed as available through the U. S. Naval Institute from an independent supplier; but someone needed to review this book before recommending it. To most naval historians, this book will probably appear to be inaccurate and superficial--which is not what a good history book effort should be!

While it is true that only the last 30 pages of this 226 page book is about the Battle of Midway, the most this book should be criticized for is being poorly named. All of the battles from Pearl Harbor to Midway are described along with a recap of the naval situations of Japan, The United States and Great Britain leading up to the War.

There are plenty of photographs, diagrams and maps to clarify the narrative which may contain a few errors but on balance provides a credible rendition of these battles.

The book is fully indexed with an annotated bibliography and a very comprehensive section with Orders of Battle for many of the Pacific actions up to and including Midway. These details are not found in many other books about the early Pacific fleet actions.

There are better books about Battle of Midway but this book is interesting for the events that led up to Midway.

John E. Nevola
Author of The Last Jump - A Novel of World War II
Some proceeds donated to assist families of fallen soldiers