Wade McClusky and the Battle of Midway

摘要

There's a lot to be said, pro and con, about this latest book on one of history's greatest naval battles. An occasional problem is the length in which the author often gets slowed down in details that have been either repeated or not properly edited so as not to drag the text out. It also has a rather poor choice of photographs that definitely detract from what could have been an excellent addition to Midway literature. Conversely, the author is dedicated to presenting his stories and opinions to what he believes is a new cadre of readers seeking to learn about the six-month period following the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor and the events that followed that found- the U.S. wallowing in self-guilt and unpreparedness. Midway seems to bring out annual reassessments of this pivotal engagement where the United States stood up to the Japanese steamroller thrusting through all obstacles in the Pacific. The Japanese strategy for gaining complete control over the vast reaches of the world's largest ocean and all its land and peoples was unstoppable until it met Adm. William Halsey's fleet of ships and aircraft on June 4, 1942. Things were unsure in those early hours on June 4. The Americans had trouble finding the enemy fleet, and then once they had found it, deciding how to attack its center weapons, the four fleet carriers and their armadas of dive bombers and torpedo bombers set to attack the two-island atoll and the ships bent on defending it.