Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway by Jonathan Parshall (2011)

Author Jonathan Parshall discusses the Battle of Midway from the perspective of the Japanese side of the battle in his book, "Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway."
This talk was recorded at The National WWII Museum International Conference on WWII: From Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal, December 7-9, 2011.
Save the date for the next International Conference on WWII: December 6-8, 2012 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

[mcmneverreadsreplys]

It has been noted that VT3 was the real reason the CAP was sucked down. However, I believe more credit should be given to Lt. Cmdr Thach and VF 3. This was the first use of the Thach Weave. It stunned the formerly invincible Zero pilots and resulted in the lose of 4 Zeros to only 1 Wildcat. It seems likely that in response to calls for help or observation of Zeros being shot down that the distant CAP fighters rushed to help their comrades, inadvertently leaving their carriers unprotected at just the wrong moment. Mega Kudos to Thach.

[bruceclothier]

Im a Brit so maybe my two cents isnt worth much more than two cents. But this massive operation was promulgated on the principle that the Americans would be caught off guard; the carriers would rush out and Yamamoto would bring up Yamato and sink them very quickly. But the key here is that the Americans wouldnt know it was coming. Surely checking the carriers were still in Oahu was an absolute given. But they didnt so they went into battle not knowing where the American carriers were. How dumb was that?
Then, when they attacked Midway they were confronted by a huge number of aircraft which should have alerted them to the fact that the USA knew they were coming. At that point Nagumo should have realised they had been rumbled and retreated out of harms way until they had located the Americans.I reckon this shows a lack of flexibiloity in Japanese battle doctrine. Anybody agree ?

[chironpl]

I'm curious as to how the flight operations records were preserved, given that the carriers were sunk. That story would be interesting.

[guhalakshmiratan]

As much as I enjoy a good story and as much as I can be sentimental - nothing pleases me more than to see someone use cold, hard facts to simply demolish the opposition! I loved it when I enthusiastically took part in debate during school and I enjoy it now as a grown adult!

Misters Parshall and Tully - WELL DONE!

[Loiyaboy]

One of the best, most painstakingly researched history books I've ever read. I highly recommend it.

[WashuHakubi]

This is a fantastic book that clears away much of the "fog of war" about this battle.

[DARisse-jiyw]

Pissed ! I just bought & read Fuchida's book.... now I have to buy another. Oh well

[greathornedowl]

Thank you Jonathan Parshall for keeping the history of this one major battle alive. Must admit, thousands of details are more than my pea brain can handle.

[tomtonkyro]

Now imagine that the American carrier attack that morning had not been the unmitigated uncoordinated clusterfuck it actually was. (Remember that two squadrons of dive bombers and two of fighters didn't even find the Japanese fleet, despite the fact that it had been bombed off and on for two hours by Midway-based aircraft and nobody thought to inform the Navy exactly where it was.) The complete air groups of Enterprise and Hornet, dive bombers, torpedo planes, and fighters, would have been attacking together 0930-1000, instead of unescorted TBDs--and the Japanese strike force would have been spotted on the flight decks ready to launch, armed and fuelled and set to be blown sky high. This was in fact the intention of the American strike planners. And then Yorktown's group would have arrived to administer the coup de grace. Game over, no Hiryu counterstrike, no massacre of torpedo squadrons, no loss of Yorktown.

The miracle of Midway wasn't that the Americans were so outnumbered or that luck was on their side. They made almost every mistake that it was possible to make, but the courage and skill of naval aviators compensated for their leaders' blunders, enough to deliver victory.

[charleschapman]

Parshall's book took the trouble compare the surviving Japanese logs, flight operations and damage control notes with the usual accounts the battle- one conclusion is that Japan's acceptance of some inconvenient decision in the design of their fleet carriers-inability to service aircraft the flight deck-dependanceon a fire-fighting waterman mounted high the walls of the flight deck, difficulties venting aviation gas fumes made them vulnerable to the catastrophic damage they suffered from the American Dive-Bombers.

[fredferd]

Magnificent Book! The definitive account of Midway! Heavily researched! Well Thought out! Balanced!!!

[livingadreamlife]

To use a sports analogy, the attacks by VT-8 and VT-6 pilots were the equivalent of a US Navy football offense running the clock-out by holding the ball against a staunch IJN defense. By maintaining possession of the ball with the clock running, the Japanese couldn’t regain possession to play offense and subsequently were unable to score.

[maxsmodels]

I can only guess that Fuchida lied as to put himself and his men in the best possible light. To say 'we were ready to go' as opposed to 'we were stuck below decks trying to get our act together'.

[TaskForce-nrsd]

The Zero has quite a long range, so it couldn't have been fuel that caused the CAP to be cycled so often. The real problem was that the two 20mm cannon only had 60 rounds each. The two 7.7mm machine guns had 500 rounds each, but they were too light to do much damage to sturdier, well-protected U.S. planes. They're nothing like the .50 cal MG's that U.S. planes carried. That meant the 20mm cannon was its decisive weapon, but it had a tiny magazine. That's why the Zeroes kept landing so often, for more ammo.

[rinkevichjm]

Except those flight decks weren’t filled with planes on the top deck, but the hangar deck was filled with a mess of planes and bombs.

[exilfromsanity]

Good video, it's a great book, a must read.

[PalleRasmussen]

I like Jon. He is such a nice and pleasant guy.

So are most of his peers I know come to think of it.

Just wanted to say that. Jon is nice.

[philcolborn]

Regarding launch of 2 carrier Japanese against Spruance - Japanese had been randomly attacked the morning of the 4th. Carrier doctrine as I understand it "requires" clearing the decks before expected attack. The Japanese had a target well before 1025am

[model-man]

Dad was on the California at Pearl and at Coral Sea and Midway he was on the Yorktown CV5

[phtevlin]

My father was stationed at Guadalcanal (42-45); he did not expect to emerge from this war alive, nor did he expect that the US would win this war. Midway changed all that.