Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway

by Jonathan Parshall, Anthony Tully, Anthony Tully, et al.

Book Overview

"Shattered Sword is] a necessary read for anyone interested in the Pacific War."--NYMAS Review

Shattered Sword is the winner of the 2005 John Lyman Book Award for the "Best Book in U.S. Naval History" and was cited by Proceedings as one of its "Notable Naval Books" for 2005.

Many consider the Battle of Midway to have turned the tide of the Pacific War. It is without question one of the most famous...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1574889249
• ISBN13: 9781574889246
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: Potomac Books
• Length: 640 Pages
• Weight: 2.91 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 7.7" x 9.9"

Customer Reviews

A great book with deeply insightful analysis of the Battle of Midway and the Pacific conflict

I first read about the Battle of Midway a long time ago and decided to revisit this history. "Shattered Sword" has to rank as one of the best ever books that I have read about this conflict. The book, through careful research of Japanese and American naval records ends up shattering a number of long standing myths (both American and Japanese) about this battle. (Another book "The Unknown Battle of Midway: The Destruction of the American Torpedo Squadrons" should be read as a companion piece to "Shattered Sword" - it gives an in-depth account of the failings of American naval aviation at the Battle of Midway). There is a reason that it has taken over sixty years for such a book to be written about this battle. It has taken that long to finally get a dispassionate look at the events as they really happened. Almost all the major participants who contributed to the original story of the battle are now dead. American pride about her victories in WWII and the need for myth-making about the heroics of the Greatest Generation have faded. The result is a greater emphasis on examination of the written record of naval operations to recreate what happened, rather than relying on the spin put out by the original participants of the time. Japan has also gone through some major societal changes, and is now finally beginning to re-examine her conduct during WWII. Much of what is new in this book comes from the Japanese record, and the authors were assisted along the way by a number of Japanese historians. While eyewitness accounts are normally critical for historians, "Shattered Sword" makes clear that, for this battle, certain participants had motives for not telling the truth. One of the major fabricators of history singled out by this book is Mitsuo Fuchida, the Japanese pilot-author who single-handedly created the myth (with his book "Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan") that the Japanese carriers were only five minutes away from launching their attack on the American carriers, and that the Enterprise dive bombers came down on carriers fully laden with planes ready to launch (not true - the Japanese carriers were caught totally unprepared with empty decks). Another contributor to fabricated history was Air Commander Stanhope Ring, whose gross incompetence made the Hornet almost useless in this battle, and contributed to the destruction of Hornet's VT-8 torpedo squadron. The subsequent US Navy cover-up of Ring's failures (he was even awarded a Navy Cross) started the myth that the sacrifice of VT-8 was not in vain, that the result of having the entire torpedo squadron shot down was that the covering Zeros were pulled down to sea level, away from the oncoming Enterprise dive bombers. The authors show how this could not have been the real reason - after the destruction of VT-8, there was plenty of time for the Japanese fighters to regain altitude and their original covering positions before the Enterprise dive bombers arrived, but this simpl

Totally Shatters 8 Midway Myths

When I first picked up this book I almost put it back down, after all what could possibly be 'untold' about the story of the Battle of Midway. Upon reading the third page of the introduction the authors promise to lay aside some eight myths of the conventional history. . The American Dauntlesses hurtling down from the heavens to drop their bombs on helpless Japanese carriers, their decks packed with aircraft just moments away from taking off. . The Ameiricans triumphed against overwhelming odds at the battle. . The Aleutians Operation was a diversion designed to lure the American fleet out of Pearl Harbour. . Admiral Yamamoto withheld important intelligence information from Admiral Nagumo, so Nagumo was operating in the dark. . Had the Japanese implemented a two-phase recon on 4 June, they would have found the Americans in time to win. . The late launch of cruiser Tone's No. 4 scout plane doomed Admiral Nagumo to defeat. . Had Admiral Nagumo not decided to rearm his aircraft with land-attack weapons he would have been in a position to attack the Americans as soon as they were discovered. . USS Hornet's Torpedo Squadron 8 pulled the Japanese combat air patrol fighters down to sea level clearing the sky for the dive bombers. . Japan's elite carrier aviators were all but wiped out during the battle. How could these be myths? How could one book possibly counter so many myths? But counter them it did. More than counter them, it demolished them. Put this book on your shelf right next to Walter Lord's 'Incredible Victory' and Gordon Prange's 'Miracle at Midway.' If, of course you ever get it back from your friends who you'll have to convince to read it.

Enemy Dive-bombers Over Your Ship!

Shattered Sword is an outstanding new analysis and history of the Battle of Midway as seen primarily from the Japanese perspective. The foreboding of doom is evident from the overconfident getting underway of the Japanese fleet in Imperial home waters to the moment American SBDs nose over above the condemned carriers. But unlike many narratives, the story does not end there. The reader is aboard those blazing infernos as desperate and heroic actions prove futile. This is history that relives events as the story moves along. We are plane handlers positioning torpedo bombers on the hanger deck or a Japanese damage control boss on June 4, 1942. It is an analysis in that the authors closely examine conflicting or uncertain aspects of events to redefine and clarify those conflicts, probably as well as the fading details allow. Along that line of examination, we discover fresh and fascinating aspects of Japanese aircraft carrier design features, operations, and doctrine. We also look down on the battle with new understanding and perspective. The events themselves are unchanged, but the interpretation of causes and the resulting options available are newly presented due primarily to the determination of the authors to run loose ends to ground with sources not previously available or closely examined. Although some of the conclusions are speculative, and always will be, the surrounding investigation provides additional constraints that lead to a more likely scenario. The illustrations are first rate as are the notes and appendices, which offer further insight for those so inclined. I was fortunate to receive an advanced copy, and, while this has not influenced my opinion of this excellent book, I am grateful to the authors for that opportunity. The book is insightful, absorbing, and a must read for those interested in the naval war in the Pacific and the wheels down, hook down, flaps down adventures of carrier aviation.

Groundbreaking history

Very few histories can be considered groundbreaking treatments of an event more than 60 years afterward, but "Shattered Sword" meets that exceptional standard. As the authors conclusively prove, much of what has been written about the most important naval battle of the 20th century was incomplete, inaccurate, or simply fabricated. No future account of Midway will be worthwhile without reference to "Shattered Sword". Parshall and Tully delve far beyond their unmatched mastery of the technical aspects (some more detailed than accounts of US Navy operations!) to explain why Japan lost the battle. The reasons are many and varied, extending from procedural, operational, and strategic concerns to the very culture that produced the Imperial Navy. In the process, the authors not only provide rare clarity to their analysis, but they raise the bar for naval histories of the Second World War. Readers yet unborn will be grateful to them. I know that I am. Barrett Tillman, "Clash of the Carriers"

The Imperial Japanese Navy at the Battle of Midway

. Don't be misled by the title, this is not just another telling of the entire Battle of Midway story. Instead it's an exhaustively detailed new account of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) at Midway, accomplished with a depth of research and analysis not previously seen. The book is crammed with a dazzling set of graphics, including brilliant computer-generated charts and diagrams that very signficantly aid the text. . Of course, anyone attempting to rewrite the history of the IJN at Midway needs to convince potential readers that the new book offers something signficant over the time-honored resource for that subject, Fuchida and Okumiya's "Midway, the Battle That Doomed Japan." The authors of "Shattered Sword" not only accepted that challenge, but they convincingly demonstrate that Fuchida was very loose with certain key facts in his Midway book, done in order to serve personal aims that didn't necessarily require telling the truth. The result has been a number of deeply-entrenched myths that permeate the popular history of the battle. "Shattered Sword" ably exposes those myths and convincingly demonstrates in each case what really happened and why. . This reviewer frequently has occasion to recommend references on the Battle of Midway to students and others beginning a study of that epic clash. In such cases I always recommnend Robert Cressman's "A Glorious Page In Our History" as the best overall account of the battle. I now need to add "Shattered Sword" to the short list of works that those doing serious research on Midway really must have. In particular, anyone who has read Fuchida's "Midway" and puts significant stock in it really ought to read "Shattered Sword" to learn what the earlier work either omitted or got quite wrong.