Andy's Reviews > Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway
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Recently read the new Battle of Midway (Pivotal Moments in American History) by Craig L. Symonds. A nice summary, which brought up a few points I'd either forgotten or never learned. It did extensively reference Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway and hinted at a the Imperial Japanese Navy point of view. I had to track down this book.
Shattered Sword goes back to air operations logs and is the first English publication that sources the updated Japanese accounts published in 1970s. Examining the Battle of Midway, and to a smaller degree Coral Sea, against IJN fleet doctrine and building a timeline, the authors deflate the "miracle" of American victory.
According to Shattered Sword, the greatest error in both battles was allowing the carrier strike force to be committed piecemeal. If the invasion of New Guinea had been conducted with 6 fleet carriers, the island assault may have succeeded. At the very least, two American carriers would have been lost. The same error, splitting the assault force and conducting distributed operations incapable of joint support was duplicated at Midway.
On the strategic side, one of the most interesting points is comparison of aircraft lost. Ignoring the actual numbers, the United States lost less than 2 weeks production of aircraft. The IJN lost just under 2 months production of aircraft. For those with a gaming bent, the authors' point of view is very compelling.
Rather than being a lucky victory, Midway was a calculated ambush. Breaking the Japanese strike carrier group was the beginning of a production battle. This doesn't diminish the victory, but casts new insight into the choices made and risk calculated by both sides.