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Book Review: Shattered Sword – The Untold Story of the Battle Of Midway

Most military historians rate the Battle of Midway as one of the true turning points in history, a single battle where history could have changed direction based on the outcome of the battle. The Battle of Midway is the first true battle of this new type of war, The Carrier Air War. While other battles had occurred prior to midway that involved Aircraft Carriers and Naval Aviation, no battle had been seen to be so decisive in its deployment of the new technology to result in the changing of Naval strategy. Prior to Midway, the debate between the worlds Navy’s broke into two camps, the “Gun Clubs” maintained by the Battleship Admirals and “Airedales” championed by those farsighted commanders who saw the future of Naval Aviation. After Midway, there was no more debate, it was clear to everyone that any Navy or Fleet operation that did not have an effective Carrier Air Group tightly integrated into its day to day operations was doomed from the start. The sinking of the Bismarck, The raid on Taranto, The sinking of the HMS Prince of Wales and the HMS Repulse as well as the Battle of the Coral Sea all showed the potential of Naval Aviation, but the battle of Midway showed how utterly essential it was to combat operations. While the authors of this fine book make the case that the Battle of Midway was poorly planned and poorly executed by the Japanese and totally misunderstood by both sides, the role the Battle of Midway and the analysis of the battle in establishing the need for the dominance of Naval Aviation cannot be misunderstood.

Before you read “Shattered Sword”, its best that you forget everything that you have been taught or had been lead to believe about the Battle of Midway. Even for those who consider themselves to be well versed on the subject of pre war Japanese politics from the role of Admiral Yamamato in IJN success and the true role of the American code breakers, this book is likely to cause you to reexamine many of the things you only “thought you knew”.

This book spends a great deal of time explaining how the Japanese came to the decision to attack Midway, and the politics behind the decision. In addition, the authors explain in great detail how Japanese Carriers operated within their fleet, and how the ships were manufactured to meet that task. Many authors of books on the same subject have always assumed that Japanese Carrier Operations Doctrine was similar to American Carrier Operations Doctrine, but this book makes clear the deep flaws in that analysis and the conclusions drawn from it as a result. The vast majority of the books is spent in the actions prior to the battle, but the analysis of the battle itself makes clear just how near the Americans came to losing this crucial battle in the history of the western world.

Anyone that is interested in World History and Military Strategy wall find this book a very good read. The material is well researched, with good footnotes and the appendices are almost as good as the book itself.

Posted @ December 27, 2005 02:44 PM | Book Reviews