Fulminata reviewed Shattered sword by Jonathan Parshall
Review of 'Shattered sword' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This book provides an in-depth re-examination of the Battle of Midway utilizing sources that have been available in Japan for at least a couple of decades, but that hadn't made it into any English works on the subject until this book.
The book questions long held assumptions about the battle, including the ideas that the Japanese carriers were caught with fully armed and fueled planes on their decks that would have launched an attack within five minutes had they not been hit by the Americans, and that Admiral Nagumo could have taken steps to avoid the initial disaster that befell three quarters of his carrier force during those attacks.
The primary sources for this re-examination are the logs of the carrier air groups assigned to the Kido Butai, the Japanese combined fleet. While the logs of the ships themselves no longer exist, the logs of their air groups do, and …
This book provides an in-depth re-examination of the Battle of Midway utilizing sources that have been available in Japan for at least a couple of decades, but that hadn't made it into any English works on the subject until this book.
The book questions long held assumptions about the battle, including the ideas that the Japanese carriers were caught with fully armed and fueled planes on their decks that would have launched an attack within five minutes had they not been hit by the Americans, and that Admiral Nagumo could have taken steps to avoid the initial disaster that befell three quarters of his carrier force during those attacks.
The primary sources for this re-examination are the logs of the carrier air groups assigned to the Kido Butai, the Japanese combined fleet. While the logs of the ships themselves no longer exist, the logs of their air groups do, and the authors' examination of those logs go a long ways towards recreating the course of events that led up to the destruction of Japan's premier carriers.
This is definitely a recommended, if not required, read to anyone with an interest in the subject.
