The untold story of the Battle of Midway, as the subtitle says.

Drawing from previously [in the West] unused Japanese sources, this book tells the story of the Dai-Ichi Kido Butai [the First Mobile Striking Force] in it's final battle

Parshall and Tully dispel the myths about Midway,which have grown around this battle,among them that the Aleutians invasion was a diversion for Midway,when in fact it was a separate operation in it's own right or that the late launch of Tone's seaplane prevented the Japanese from discovering the American Fleet earlier than they did[quite the reverse in fact]

The book also looks at the organisation,operation and equipment of the Carrier Fleet,it's strengths and weaknesses,and how these affected the battle.Also it is very critical of Admiral Yamamoto's battle plan and force dispositions,and the validity of the entire operation.Interestingly, in one of the appendices, the authors make a compelling argument that even if the Japanese had won the naval battle, the invasion of Midway Island would have been repulsed.

Anyone who wants to learn about the Battle of Midway is recommended to read this book.

There is a very good book about the battles for the Aleutian Islands.

War on our Doorstep by Brendan Coyle ISBN 1-894384-46-6.

This book also details how badly the US treated their Canadian allies, plus Japanese Balloon Bombs on US West Coast.



Regards..............Alan

When it comes to high command it is very difficult to find any memoir written by anyone who has ever found themselves in the position of joint command with the US under the status of "ally" who has a genuinely good word to say about their American counterparts. Mind you, the distrust works both ways and the same is true for American memoirs. One sees the other as arrogant, all too unilateral and unwilling to acknowledge valid contribution, while the reverse position is that allied commanders are dilatory, indecisive and all too political.

Read "Crusade in Europe" by Eisenhower and then "Memoirs" by Montgomery regarding the planning of D-Day and beneath the veneer of civility (thin in Eisenhower's case) there is an undercurrent of almost open hostility between them that makes one wonder how anything finally got arranged at all.

And not just amongst allies. Shattered Sword makes clear the antipathy between the Japanese Army and Japanese Navy,to the extent that Tojo's initial reaction to the news of Midway was a "waspish self satisfaction that the Navy had been defeated in an action that the Army had opposed".
Thanks guys, that will be more books for my reading list.

I went masd yesterday and ordered four books I found in the Culture section of the "Sunday Times".

"The King's Revenge" - this is about the retribution exacted by Charles II against his father's killers.

"Not Me" a childhood biography of Joachim Fest, who wrote a number of books about the NAZI regime, including what I think to be the best biography of Hitler.

"Hiroshima Nagasaki" - Needs no explanation

"Nagasaki, The Massacre of the Innocent and the Unknowing" - Also needs no explanation.



My TBR list is becoming ever longer. Watch this space!

I bought a copy of Montgomery's Memoirs a little while ago. It cost $5 but I'm not sure where I got it. It seems to have been part of the local library stock, but dating back a fair while to when the Council was a borough council and not a district one, and when fines were for ONE PENNY per day. (We haven’t had pennies since 1967.

I don’t really expect to ever read these memoirs, though perhaps I should check out the areas where my father was involved. I have been warned by people who admire Montgomery quite a lot that I should approach his memoirs with a great of caution as to their objective veracity. Not that I would be reading war strategy and tactical things carefully enough to be confused, and one expects any memoir to show its writer in either a good light or at least a deprecatingly humorous one or as a victim perhaps. But mostly this book sill sit with the hundreds of others that look temptingly at me, but don’t actually get opened. (Not that Montgomery’s Memoirs look very tempting – they look old and worn and with a somewhat stained cover.)

This is my favourite book about Pearl Harbour;



has anyone else read this one?



which non-fiction books is everyone else reading at the moment?

I'm redaing "The Age of the Plantagenet and Valois" by K. Fowler. Very slowly I'm afraid as the garden is growing too fast.

Couldn't resist treating myself to this one;

http://www.faber.co.uk/work/challenge/9780571273195/

Onto this one now;