Read a book: The Glorious Fourth of June

The decisive events of the Battle of Midway took place just over 64 years ago today, on June 4, 1942. Regarded by many historians as the turning point of WWII in the Pacific and one of the most decisive naval battles of the war, Midway has an irresistably-dramatic narrative:

1. On one side: the mighty Japanese armada, fresh from crushing the best the Western navies had to offer over six months of uninterrupted victory
2. On the other: a scratch force of plucky Americans, vastly outnumbered by the battle-hardened Japanese, with one of the three US aircraft carriers limping into battle with jury-rigged repairs after heavy damage in a previous battle
3. The Japanese commander: Yamamoto, architect of the Pearl Harbor attack and a military genius
4. The US commander: untried Ray Spruance, who lacked carrier experience and had to fill the aggressive, experienced shoes of "Bull" Halsey (memorably played by Bob Mitchum in the terrible movie Midway)
5. The twist: US codebreakers get wind of the Japanese plan, allowing a desparate gamble to defend the critical base at Midway Island
6. The battle: full of twists and turns, a late launch of a Japanese search plane prevents the Japanese from finding and attacking the American carriers. The local Japanese CO, Nagumo, dithers about whether to arm his planes for a second attack on the base at Midway or hold them for a strike on the US carriers. By the time he gets reports of enemy carriers and orders the planes rearmed, US dive bombers are overhead and deal the Japanese force a mortal blow even as the Japanese counterattack is warming up on deck!

Of course, much of this popular narrative is either wrong or misleading. A recent book about the battle, Shattered Sword, by Jon Parshall and Tony Tully, sweeps aside many of these myths to clarify a historical narrative that is just as compelling:

1. On one side: an overconfident Japanese armada (weakened by attrition, hobbled by inflexible doctrine and limited technology) lashes out with an overly-complex attack that disperses their power against targets of limited importance
2. On the other: an adaptive US force which had learned from the mistakes of earlier battles, had better technology, more-flexible battle doctrine, and near-parity in the only measure of naval power that would count--airplanes
3. The Japanese commander: Yamamoto, whose petulant manipulation of the Naval General Staff helped result in the unfocussed Midway plan, and who blundered forward in spite of a glaring lack of information on US forces
4. The US commander: Ray Spruance, exactly the steady, calculating leader that the chaotic situation required
5. The twist: US codebreakers get wind of the Japanese plan, allowing the US Pacific commander, Nimitz, to take a calculated risk and try to surprise the Japanese at Midway--a fairly unimportant objective that the Japanese would probably not have been able to capture even if they had won the naval battle, and that the US would have been able to recapture at their leisure
6. The battle, still full of twists and turns: the late Japanese search plane launch actually provides Japan a chance to spot US forces that it would have missed had it launched on time! Struggling to respond to a rapidly-changing situation, Nagumo is faced with a nearly-constant string of uncoordinated but spirited US attacks that keep him busy launching aircraft to defend his own ships rather than preparing to attack the US force. He has not even begun readying his counterattack when the fatal blow comes.

I was familiar with Parshall and Tully already from their excellent website about the WWII Japanese Navy, combinedfleet.com. They are enthusiastic amateurs, who gleefully distill the technical minutae of ship design and naval operations to show how bad doctrine, design flaws, and luck combined to doom the Japanese on June 4th. Parsall and Tully also cite many Japanese sources which have not been well known in the west, dispelling a number of misconceptions that have resulted from self-serving memoirs by some Japanese veterans. Their extensive use of first-hand accounts brings the terror of the battle to vivid life, from the lonely aviators struggling to strike blows far from land, to the desperate sailors battling to save their burning ships. The end result is that Shattered Sword is the best sort of revisionist history, using new information to clarify an episode that has been overrun by popular mythologizing.

If you're any kind of naval or military history geek with an interest in WWII (like me), this book is essential reading. It's also accessible for the lay reader, with the technical details and footnotes banished to appendices in the back. Well worth the $22 it'll cost you at Amazon.