Overview

What really happened at the famous Battle of Midway? A survivor sets the record straight. ""The clearest and most persuasive story of the Battle of Midway I have ever read or heard.”—Donald Kagan, Yale University The Battle of Midway is considered the greatest U.S. naval victory, but behind the luster is the devastation of the American torpedo squadrons. Of the 51 planes sent to attack Japanese carriers only 7 returned, and of the 127 aircrew only 29 survived. Not a single torpedo hit its target. A story of avoidable mistakes and flawed planning, The Unknown Battle of Midway reveals the enormous failures that led to the destruction of four torpedo squadrons but were omitted from official naval reports: the planes that ran out of gas, the torpedoes that didn’t work, the pilots who had never dropped torpedoes, and the breakdown of the attack plan. Alvin Kernan, who was present at the battle, has written a troubling but persuasive analysis of these and other little-publicized aspects of this great battle. The standard navy tactics for carrier warfare are revealed in tragic contrast to the actual conduct of the battle and the after-action reports of the ships and squadrons involved.

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9780300122640

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...brilliant... Kevin Myers, Irish Times Professor Kernan served as an eighteen year old ordnance technician aboard the USS Enterprise during the battle, and the book reads almost as though your grandfather is telling you what he did in the war. And in tracing the story beyond the Second World War to how the Navy and the participants reacted, he makes it an emotionally powerful story, not merely one of war but of its lasting effects. Times Literary Supplement

Author Information

Alvin Kernan (1923–2018) was Avalon University Professor of Humanities, Emeritus, Princeton University. He served in the U.S. Navy, 1941–45. Among his previous books are The Fruited Plain: Fables for a Postmodern Democracy and In Plato’s Cave, both published by Yale University Press.

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