BOOKS, MOVIES, AND VIDEOS ON THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY AND RELATED
TOPICS
Listed here are most of the
important references on the Battle of Midway, plus a number of secondary works
that anyone with a desire to learn about the battle may find interesting or
useful. Books are listed in numerical
order by their approximate value as a Battle of Midway reference, as determined
by feedback from Roundtable members.
Many of the listings have
detailed reviews elsewhere on our web site—a link is provided for each.
Note: The mention or linking of various resources for purchasing books
or other media is intended only as a convenience to our members and not as an
endorsement of any such resource.
Please report any errors,
browser problems, or bad links on this page to the Roundtable editor: midway.rt@gmail.com
(ranked
in approximate order of value as a Battle of Midway reference)
1:
THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY
by
Craig L. Symonds (2011)
Relying on the
Midway Roundtable itself for much of his research, Annapolis professor Craig
Sysmonds has produced the best, most up-to-date account of the BOM to be found. Click here
for a detailed review.
2:
SHATTERED SWORD: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY
by Jonathan Parshall and
Anthony Tully (2005)
The definitive history of the Imperial Japanese Navy at Midway.
3:
A GLORIOUS PAGE IN OUR HISTORY
by
Robert Cressman, et al (1990)
A
Glorious Page is considered by most members of the BOMRT to be the
best single-volume reference on the Battle of Midway. It was produced by a group of military historians who felt that
nothing then available provided full and accurate coverage of all of the
important elements of the battle. If
you can only afford one book on the Battle of Midway, Roundtable members will
tell you to get this one.
4:
INCREDIBLE VICTORY
by Walter Lord (1967)
Walter Lord’s book is considered by most to be the classic reference on the Battle of Midway. Virtually every known resource available to the public in both the U.S. and Japan was meticulously researched by the author, resulting in a superb and highly accurate accounting of the battle. Its faults are few and minor, and can generally be attributed to the limits of known and unclassified information in 1967.
5:
JOE ROCHEFORT’S WAR
by Elliot Carlson (2011)
The biography of Station Hypo’s commander who personally led the successful intel attack against the Japanese navy’s radio communications, thus making victory at Midway possible.
6:
AND I WAS THERE
by Rear Admiral Edwin T. Layton (1985)
The whole story of communications intelligence in the Pacific, by CINCPAC’s intel officer
7:
THE FIRST TEAM
by John Lundstrom (1984;
revised 2nd edition 1990)
The First Team is 560 pages of amazing detail,
covering everything one might want to know about "Pacific Naval Air Combat
from Pearl Harbor to Midway" (the subtitle). John Lundstrom knows this topic extremely well and his writing
shows it—the book is essentially devoid of the common errors found in other
works. The only reason it is not higher
on the list is because the Battle of Midway only comprises the last chapter of
the book, about 140 pages.
Nevertheless, its Midway chapter is widely regarded as one of the most
accurate accounts of the battle.
This review is based on the original 1984 edition. The author advises that the second edition has some updates on the Battle of the Coral Sea, but the Midway section is basically unchanged.
8:
MIRACLE AT MIDWAY
by Gordon W. Prange (1982)
This book has been the number one best seller among those that are exclusively focused on the Battle of Midway, although it is not technically nor historically the best of them. That explains its ranking behind several other works. It does provide a good narrative description of the battle, reading more like an interesting novel than a history reference. Knowledgeable readers will find a number of minor errors in the text (and perhaps a couple of major ones), but most will still find it highly interesting and an essential component of any Midway library. The “Chronology” (timeline) at the end of the book is a particularly useful resource.
9:
THE JAPANESE STORY OF THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY
U.S. Navy publication OPNAV P32-1002 (1947)
This is the official Japanese
after-action report on the Battle of Midway.
It includes a detailed chronology of each event during the battle, and
there is an abundance of supporting graphics, charts, and tables. This work has served as a fundamental
resource for most of the books written about the battle. It's readily available on the Internet—to
access it directly, click here.
10:
THE LAST FLIGHT OF ENSIGN C. MARKLAND KELLY, JUNIOR, USNR
by Bowen P. Weisheit (1996)
Bowen Weisheit’s history-changing revelations about
the USS Hornet air group on 4 June 1942.
11:
BLACK SHOE CARRIER ADMIRAL: FRANK JACK FLETCHER AT CORAL
SEA, MIDWAY, AND GUADALCANAL
by John Lundstrom (2006)
An exhaustively researched and revealing account of Admiral Fletcher during the first year of the war.
12:
NO RIGHT TO WIN: A CONTINUING DIALOGUE WITH VETERANS OF THE
BATTLE OF MIDWAY
by Ronald W. Russell (2006)
Full disclosure: both the
above book as well as this brief description were written by this site’s
webmaster. That said, I have
objectively attempted to rank it at a level that is warranted by reader
feedback plus the nature of its content.
It has been unanimously endorsed by the Roundtable’s Midway veterans,
which merits a preferred placement on this list.
The book is a
compilation of eight years of veteran anecdotes and reminisces on the
Roundtable and the understandings (some of them quite new) that can be derived
from them. All of the principal subjects
explored and often vigorously debated on the Roundtable over the years are
covered in depth. Anyone having an
interest in both the BOM and the Roundtable itself will find the book to be an
essential primer on each. Our web site
includes an abundance of updated and added material not found in the printed
book: click here.
13:
MARINES AT MIDWAY
by R. D. Heinl (1948)
The whole story of the
Corps at Midway. You can view or download
it on the Internet, although the book version has more coverage, including Wake
Island. For the web version, click here.
14:
A DAWN LIKE THUNDER: THE TRUE STORY OF TORPEDO SQUADRON
EIGHT
by Robert Mrazek (2008)
The whole story of VT-8,
including the half that you most likely knew nothing about.
15:
THE BARRIER AND THE JAVELIN: JAPANESE AND ALLIED STRATEGY,
FEBRUARY-JUNE 1942
by H. P. Willmott (1983)
This book was
enthusiastically endorsed by Jon Parshall as the source for much of his own
understanding of Imperial Japanese Naval strategy and planning. He rates it among his top three references
on the Battle of Midway exclusive of his own book, Shattered Sword (which
Roundtable members in general rate as number 2; see above). Other reviewers, i.e. on Amazon.com, echo
Jon’s praise of The Barrier and the Javelin, although some take issue
with a few of Willmott’s opinions on what the Japanese could have done in the
way of better strategies.
16:
MIDWAY: DAUNTLESS VICTORY
by Peter C. Smith (2007)
Smith’s second and vastly better history of the battle.
17:
MIDWAY INQUEST: WHY THE JAPANESE LOST THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY
by Dallas W. Isom (2007)
Important new analyses of crucial elements of the battle.
18:
DOUBLE-EDGED SECRETS
by Captain C. Jasper Holmes (1979)
This book
nicely complements Layton’s And I Was There (above), since Jasper Holmes
was an insider in the unit at Pearl Harbor that actually decrypted and analyzed
Japanese radio traffic.
19:
THAT GALLANT SHIP
by Robert Cressman
(1985/2000)
That Gallant Ship is the complete story of USS
Yorktown (CV-5), from its launch in 1936 to its loss at the Battle of
Midway in 1942. All of Yorktown's
operations in the Atlantic, in the island raids of early '42, at Coral Sea, and
at Midway are thoroughly covered. The
book is extensively illustrated with photographs. It's now in its 4th printing (Feb 2000), and the 4th edition
includes photos and text not included in the earlier ones.
20:
COMBINED FLEET DECODED
by John Prados (1995)
A very highly regarded, detailed treatise on both U.S. and Japanese communications intelligence during WW2.
21:
A PRICELESS ADVANTAGE
by Frederick D. Parker (1993)
The subtitle of this work
is "U.S. Navy Communications Intelligence and the Battles of Coral Sea,
Midway, and the Aleutians." It's
freely available in full on the Internet:
click here.
22:
SBD-3 DAUNTLESS; THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY
by Daniel Hernandez (2002)
An outstanding reference on the SBD and its role at Midway.
23:
THE UNKNOWN BATTLE OF MIDWAY: THE DEATH OF THE TORPEDO
SQUADRONS
by
Alvin Kernan (2005)
VT-6 veteran
Kernan’s account of VT-3, VT-6, and VT-8 on 4 June 1942.
24:
MIDWAY: THE BATTLE THAT DOOMED JAPAN
by Mitsuo Fuchida and Masatake Okumiya (1955)
Until the appearance of Shattered
Sword (above), this work was long accepted as the fundamental
resource on the Japanese side of the battle, since one of its authors (Fuchida)
personally led the attack on Pearl Harbor and was present on the Akagi at
Midway. However, new revelations show
that Fuchida embellished his tale significantly for the sake of his primary
audience in Japan. But despite the
book’s several faults (as outlined in Shattered Sword), readers may
still find it important for its first-person Japanese view of the battle,
however inaccurate it may be in some of the details.
25:
SOLE SURVIVOR
by George Gay (1979)
George Gay was a pilot in
Torpedo Squadron 8 aboard the USS Hornet and the only survivor among the
ship’s TBD aircrews that attacked the Japanese carriers on 4 June 1942. As such, he was both a participant in and an
eyewitness to one of the most daring, aggressive, and sadly futile combat actions
in American military history.
It should be noted that
Gay's perspective on the overall battle was rather limited, and he waited 37
years to write his book, long after his recollection of the details could be
considered as fresh. As a result, his text
contains a number of factual errors and a few claims or conclusions that have
been contested by respected historians.
However, Gay’s perspective on his squadron's action was that of one who
was there, and therein lies the value of this book. The last chapter, focusing entirely on his commanding officer,
VT-8 skipper John Waldron, is especially good.
26:
RETURN TO MIDWAY
by Robert Ballard (1999)
Undersea explorer Ballard's
search for the wrecks of Yorktown and Kaga. Published by National Geographic. See also the video version, below.
27:
MIDWAY
by Hugh Bicheno (2002)
Generally well written. Includes a listing of all ships engaged and their disposition after the battle. Compares the differences between Japanese and American cultures, their intelligence resources, and their ships, planes and other military hardware. Includes colorful map graphics, although there are several errors in the placement of certain defenses on Midway atoll.
28:
A BATTLE HISTORY OF THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY
by Paul Dull (1978)
Dull served in the Office of War Information during the war, and thereafter spent a number of years researching Japanese archives in order to get a view of the war as seen from the other side. The book covers the entire war through 1945, but the 1942-43 segments are particularly good. Approximately 10% of the book (56 pages) is on the Battle of Midway.
29:
SUNBURST
by Mark Peattie (2002)
Subtitle: "The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power, 1909-1941." This book is highly recommended for its coverage of Japanese training and doctrine, and especially for its very comprehensive appendices, which are packed with extensive information on key IJN personnel, organizations, ships and planes, and much more.
30: MIDWAY: TURNING POINT OF THE PACIFIC
by VADM William Ward Smith (1966)
The BOM as
seen by the commander of the TF-17 screening force aboard USS Astoria (CA-34).
31:
MIDWAY 1942
by Mark Stille (2010)
Probably the best very short history of the battle.
32:
MIDWAY--BATTLE FOR THE PACIFIC
by Edmund L. Castillo (1968)
Among the best accounts the BOM written in that
earlier era.
33:
GOD WAS AT MIDWAY
by
Stanford E. Linzey (1999)
Many adhere to the belief
that the "incredible victory" at Midway could only have happened as
it did through some sort of supernatural or divine intervention. That theme is eloquently expressed by Navy
chaplain Linzey, a survivor of the USS Yorktown. His harrowing tale of escape from the stricken vessel is
typical of what a couple thousand of the ship’s crew and air group experienced
on the afternoon of 4 June 1942.
34: THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY
by Ira Peck (1976)
This is an
excellent choice for young readers. It tells
the story of the Pacific War from Pearl Harbor to Midway with rare accuracy for
a book of this early vintage. It
includes a good photo set.
35: RENDEZVOUS AT MIDWAY: USS YORKTOWN AND
THE JAPANESE CARRIER FLEET
by Pat Frank and Joseph D. Harrington (1967)
Another
credible account of the BOM from an earlier era.
36: THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY: THE BATTLE THAT
TURNED THE TIDE OF THE PACIFIC WAR
by Peter C. Smith (1976; 2nd
edition 1996)
British author Smith’s first BOM book.
Click for detailed review (including correction to comments
in No Right to Win)
37:
THEY TURNED THE WAR AROUND AT CORAL SEA AND MIDWAY
by Stuart Ludlum (2000)
This book is the story of Yorktown's
air group, from Pearl Harbor to Midway.
There are a number of factual errors, but readers say the book still
gets high marks for its first-person accounts from Yorktown aviators,
particularly at Coral Sea.
38:
MIDWAY 1942: TURNING POINT IN THE PACIFIC
by
Mark Healy (1993)
The main value of this book is its excellent illustrations of ships and aircraft—modelers will find it particularly useful.
39: CLIMAX AT MIDWAY
by Thaddus Tuleja (1960)
One reviewer
reports that this book is an “easy read” and covers the story fairly well, but
a lot of the detail that readers are accustomed to seeing in other books is
absent—there is scant mention of the battle on the atoll itself, and almost
nothing concerning the vital role of communications intelligence. It also suffers from the usual inaccuracies
associated with reliance on Midway: the Battle That Doomed Japan (see
above).
40:
THE BIG E: THE STORY OF THE USS ENTERPRISE
by Edward Stafford and Paul Stillwell (2002)
The Big E is widely acclaimed as the
best history of USS Enterprise (CV-6).
41:
THE SHIP THAT HELD THE LINE
by Lisle A. Rose (1995)
Subtitle: "The USS Hornet and the First
Year of the Pacific War."
42:
THE USS ENTERPRISE
by Steve Ewing (1982)
Subtitle: "The Most Decorated Ship of World War
II, A Pictorial History." Another
tribute to the Big E. Extensive photos. Reviewers rate Stafford’s The Big E
as a preferred choice, followed by this book for its photographs.
43: MIRACLE AT MIDWAY
by Charles Mercer (1977)
Don't confuse this one with the Gordon Prange book by the same title (see above). Contains interesting anecdotes and insight not found in other works.
44: THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY
by Tom McGowan (Scholastic Children's Series, 2002)
For ages 9-12. Has very good reviews on Amazon.com.
45: THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY ISLAND
by Theodore Taylor (1981)
An exceptionally poor work in several important regards. The historical accuracy is worse than its competition and the images are simply abominable. Among its peer group—brief treatises on the battle intended for youngsters or as a general overview—this is a clear last choice.
***
The following are works of fiction about the Battle of Midway—not
ranked. Listed in chronological order. ***
• MIDWAY
by
Donald Sanford (1976)
This is the
novel version of the 1976 movie of the same name, and it therefore replicates the
screenplay with all its flaws (see the movie review below). But it’s a novel, not a history book, and as
such the reader is propelled into the battle in the present tense. That’s a “novel” experience, making the book
worth reading despite the flaws.
• DAUNTLESS
by
Barrett Tillman (1992)
Dauntless, by Roundtable member
Barrett Tillman, traces the fortunes of LT(jg) Philip "Buck" Rogers,
a VB-3 SBD pilot, through Midway in CV-5 and Eastern Solomons in CV-3. Other characters include Marine fighter
pilot Captain Jim Carpenter and Flight Petty Officer Hiroyoshi Sakaida. Those familiar with the facts of the battle
will find this book highly interesting and entertaining.
• LOVE
AND GLORY
by Alvin Kernan (2004)
VT-6
veteran Kernan’s novel based on Torpedo Squadron 8 at Midway.
• HALSEY’S BLUFF
by Larry Schweikart
(2009)
A novel about the Battle of Midway that didn’t
happen, but possibly should have.
Movie
and television productions presented as historical dramas
(listed
in chronological order)
• A WING AND A PRAYER
Starring Don Ameche and Dana Andrews
(1944)
A Wing and a Prayer is a wartime-produced version of the Battle
of Midway. It is a very interesting
film, although not for the reasons you might expect. If you're looking
for accuracy in detail, it's actually worse than the 1976 Midway movie (see below), with wrong planes,
wrong attack scenes, and wrong, unidentified, or curiously
missing ships (both U.S. and Japanese). Worse, there are more
fictional characters than in Midway. But what you have to
remember is that in 1944 the specifics of the BOM were still largely unknown to
the general public (including movie producers), plus wartime security
restrictions prevented revealing much of the detail we now take for granted,
especially the names of the personalities. Consequently, when we see
Hellcats, Avengers, and Helldivers from an Essex-class CV destroying only three
Japanese carriers (Akagi is a no-show in the movie), and
absolutely no mention of reading the Japanese naval code, perhaps we can
understand.
But its
production during the war itself is actually what makes this a great
BOM film. You get the authentic feel of the times by watching rather good
actors portray characters and events that, to them,
are contemporary. There is no misrepresentation of
wartime social or moral values that inevitably creeps in to movies
produced in other eras, like Midway and Pearl Harbor. You
are watching scenes and hearing dialog that is as close to the real thing as
you're likely to ever experience. This is a movie about the Battle of
Midway that has most of the historic details quite wrong, yet you
definitely don't feel disappointed when it ends.
• TASK FORCE
Starring Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan
(1949)
The BOM is a 30-minute segment in this nearly
two-hour movie. The story centers on
the fictional Jonathan Scott (Cooper), the quintessential naval aviator who
rises from a 1920s biplane pilot to the commander of a carrier task group just
prior to retiring from the Navy. The
BOM sequence is fairly well done, with mostly accurate scenes of ships and
aircraft. Unlike the both the previous
and following entry in this list, the producers were as meticulous as the state
of the art would allow in showing scenes of real SBDs, F4Fs, and even
TBDs. The facts of the battle were
mostly portrayed accurately, if a little too briefly.
• MIDWAY
Starring Charlton Heston, Robert Mitchum,
and Glenn Ford (1976)
Midway is the only other
full-length, major Hollywood feature film (in addition to A Wing and a
Prayer) that focuses solely on the Battle of Midway. It is a lavish production, resenting about
the best that Hollywood could do given the resources and techniques available
in 1976. Unfortunately, that did not
include the realistic computer graphics appearing in later productions, which
meant that Midway's producers had to resort to the familiar tactic of
incorporating old combat footage, carefully spliced, edited, and colorized as
best they could in order to convey a more or less authentic look. To the uninitiated moviegoer, the effect was
very good: the scenes were dramatic and the audio (in theaters during the
initial 1976 release) was positively awesome.
But to anyone with a modest amount of familiarity with U.S. aircraft in
WW2, particularly naval aircraft in the Pacific theater, there is much that
disappoints.
However, the non-authentic
aircraft issue is insignificant compared to the plot, which suffers from
excessive soap opera dramatics revolving around Charlton Heston's fictional
character, a CINCPAC staff captain. It
is understood that such scenes were inserted into the film in order to broaden
its appeal—presumably, women would have no interest in a movie giving an
accurate portrayal of an air-sea battle and nothing more. If you're a fan of wartime history, you
simply have to let this sort of thing pass and focus on the majority of the
film, which more or less adequately deals with things that really happened.
Roundtable members have
generally echoed the above criticism, but many still give Midway high
marks for at least bringing an awareness of the battle to the general
public. And on balance, even with the
wrong planes and the sappy soap opera fiction, it's still a good movie that
should be seen at least once by everyone.
Footnote: later releases of the film, principally
shown on cable TV channels in recent years, include a lengthy segment on the
Battle of the Coral Sea that was not included in the theatrical release.
(For a commentary on what
this much-flawed production got refreshingly right, click here, then scroll down to
“Return to Midway.”)
• WAR AND REMEMBRANCE
(VOLUME 1, PART 3)
(single episode within a television
miniseries, 1988)
War and Remembrance is the sequel to The
Winds of War, an expansive TV miniseries about a family caught up in the
worldwide trauma of World War II. Both series
are now available on DVD, and the third disk in Volume 1 of War and
Remembrance is an excellent stand-alone depiction of the BOM. Indeed, compared to other dramatic
re-enactments of the battle, as in the above movies, this production excels in
historical accuracy, authentic dialogue, and in the director’s choices for
scenes of the battle to include in a limited scope of time.
Since it was produced
before the advent of computer-generated imagery (CGI) such as you see in the
likes of Jurassic Park and the 2001 Pearl Harbor movie, this film
contains some of the usual mismatches for aircraft and ships of the BOM era,
but the producers did rather well with what the state of the art allowed in the
1980s. There are numerous scenes with
real SBDs, and other flying sequences are passably well done using scale
models. The ships are less convincing,
but again, there were no Yorktown or Akagi-class carriers to film
in 1980. Besides, the superb quality of
the production in other respects easily overshadows any issues concerning
non-authentic hardware.
This video is highly
recommended to anyone who wants to view a good re-enactment of the BOM, as
opposed to a documentary. The War
and Remembrance series is available in two volumes from Internet vendors,
but you can get the one disk with the BOM segment if you subscribe to an
on-line rental service like Netflix or Blockbuster.
(listed
in chronological order)
• THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY
documentary by John Ford (1942)
Famous Hollywood producer John Ford, equipped with a
16 mm. camera and color film, was dispatched by Admiral Nimitz to Midway just
prior to the battle. He obtained
remarkable footage of the Marines' preparations for the battle plus amazing
scenes of the Japanese air attack. Ford
accomplished this at considerable danger to himself, but the results obtained
are excellent--graphic, real, and professional. This brief documentary is currently available as an added feature
on various commercial DVDs, and segments from the film have been included in a
great many war movies. This is the only
film footage available showing a significant portion of the Battle of Midway
from the actual scene. (Note: Ford's camera on Midway had no sound
capability, so any audio that accompanies your copy of the film has been
inserted by its producers.)
You can view the film
on-line at the Navy’s The Course to Midway web
site. Allow time for the web page to
open (watch the aircraft carrier silhouette turn from black to blue, indicating
loading progress), after which the movie should start automatically. If it doesn’t, click “The Battle of Midway”
at the bottom of the screen.
• TORPEDO SQUADRON 8
U.S. Navy short film (1942)
This official U.S. Navy
short subject was made as a tribute to VT-8 shortly after the battle. The loss of all 15 of the squadron’s TBDs
aboard USS Hornet and all but one of the 30 men who flew them was an
exceptionally emotional event for the Navy as well as the public in 1942, and
you sense that emotion in watching this production. It was filmed aboard the Hornet shortly after the Coral
Sea battle. It opens with the 15 pilots
assembled for their group photo; the famous VT-8 portrait seen as a still photo
in many sources, i.e. p. 91 of A Glorious Page In Our History. We then see close-ups of the TBDs and clips
of the aircraft taking off on a mission.
The heart of the film is the man-by-man tribute to the aircrews: each pilot is seen with his R/G, preceded by
the view of a memorial plaque bearing their two names.
For fans of wartime history
and students of the Battle of Midway, watching this film can be a poignant
experience. You get to see the pilots
and gunners of VT-8 up close and
personal, and in real life. It makes
them much more than a grim statistic in a history book, and gives one pause to
reflect upon who they really were and what they really did.
The film is in color and
runs for only a few minutes. It currently
can be found as an added feature on certain DVDs or other video productions,
and as of December 2008 you can view it on-line at the Navy’s The Course to Midway web
site. Allow time for the web page to
open (watch the aircraft carrier silhouette turn from black to blue, indicating
loading progress), then click the “Torpedo Squadron 8” button at the bottom of
the screen.
• BATTLEFIELD: THE
BATTLE OF MIDWAY
PBS telecast, 1994
Unlike most of
the listings that follow, this video does not appear to be readily available
for purchase. That’s unfortunate,
because it is a rather good production, among the best of the lot. For example, there are plenty of scenes with
F4Fs, SBDs, TBDs, and nary a single Hellcat, Corsair, or Essex-class CV. Another plus: the program starts with a very
good segment on the Coral Sea, including helpful map graphics. On the down side, it perpetuates some of the
familiar myths about the battle; not too surprising for a 1994 production. On balance, though, it’s a worthy addition
to anyone’s BOM video library if a copy can be found.
• THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY
Discovery Channel documentary (Thomas H.
Horton production, 1999)
As
Battle of Midway documentaries intended for the general public go, this may be
the best of them all. Some of our members are quick to point out a few
errors in archival film footage showing the wrong aircraft or ships, but
you always get that in such productions. The Horton program stands out
for its extensive use of the correct ships and planes, including many
scenes of SBDs in action, and a few decent clips of TBDs. One movie clip even appeared to show the
listing Yorktown with the Hammann alongside.
From
the standpoint of the Roundtable, the program is especially interesting
for its extensive participation by three of our membes: F4F pilot
Tom Cheek, Midway Marine Bill Lucius, and VT-8 TBF radioman Harry
Ferrier. Other BOM vets contributing to the program include VB-6 skipper
Dick Best, VB-6 pilot Wilbur Roberts, John Snowden (VS-6 gunner with LTjg
Kleiss), Donald Hoff (VS-6 gunner with ENS Dexter), and Stuart Mason (VB-6
gunner with LTjg Anderson). Several Japanese vets were also interviewed,
including Bill Surgi's friend and Kate crewman Taisuke Maruyama.
The program includes some
simple computerized images showing the four Japanese carriers, and a very
good map graphic that displayed the enemy's complex three-prong strategy for
Midway and the Aleutians. The carrier images are a bit crude, but the map
graphic is excellent for its clear explanation of Yamamoto's convoluted plan.
A
couple of errors in the narration were noteworthy: the program
perpetuated the myth that the Midway "water plant failure" ruse was
an attempt to learn the meaning of the Japanese code symbol
"AF." Of course, Roundtable members are aware that our signal
intelligence experts in Hawaii knew full well before the battle that AF was
Midway, but it was necessary to prove it to Washington. And, there was a
statement that Admiral Nimitz had made an on-the-spot decision to go after
the Hiryu on the afternoon of June 4th. Not hardly—Nimitz was
pretty much in the dark about the battle at that point. The decision was
obviously made by the on-scene commander (Spruance).
But
in summary, this is an excellent portrayal of the BOM, as good as you're going
to get until someone decides to make a better one using modern computer
imagery in order to show the correct ships and planes, and knowledgeable
technical consultants in order to get every last factual detail right.
Commercial copies of the program, new and
used, can be found on Amazon.com and Ebay.
• THE BATTLE FOR MIDWAY:
DISCOVERY OF THE USS YORKTOWN
National Geographic documentary (1999)
The Battle for
Midway is a special National Geographic production covering
undersea explorer Robert Ballard's expedition to find and photograph the wrecks
of the Yorktown and Kaga.
The video includes a lot of wartime footage, some from the John Ford
film. (A few of the clips were
non-authentic, but like the 1976 Midway movie, they had to use what was
available.) But the main thrust of the
production is the modern-day search for the two carriers, and it's a highly
interesting quest.
Ballard took
four Midway veterans with him on the expedition, including Roundtable members
Harry Ferrier and Bill Surgi, plus two Japanese vets from the Kaga. The video also includes interviews of Roundtable
members Lloyd Childers and Bert Earnest, plus VB-6 skipper Dick Best. The participation of these seven veterans is
a key part of the production and adds greatly to its interest. The surround-sound audio is also excellent.
This video is
available from National Geographic, and can be obtained by calling
800-427-5521. Ask for stock number
M1750002. This review is of the DVD
version. A VHS tape version is also
available.
[ Update
5/29/2009: at this time the entire
video can be viewed on-line: click here. ]
• THE SEARCH FOR
THE JAPANESE FLEET
Discovery Channel documentary (2000)
Like the Ballard expedition
above, this is another search for the sunken ships of the Battle of Midway; the
Japanese carrier Kaga in this case.
The search team uses the recorded track of the submarine USS Nautilus,
which had attacked the Kaga at a known position, to successfully plot
the location of the sunken carrier. The
sophisticated equipment aboard the research vessel first produces sonar images
of the wreck, and eventually video of pieces of the carrier strewn about the
sea floor.
The program gives a good
overview of the battle itself, including good coverage on the signal
intelligence aspect. However, it's
somewhat disappointing in that, unlike Ballard's search for the Yorktown
above, the Kaga itself is not found and photographed, due to limitations
in the research vessel's availability.
Aside from that, this is a very well done production that anyone having
a high interest in the Battle of Midway will want to see.
Roundtable member Jon
Parshall appears at the end of the production, aiding the team in determining
exactly what pieces of the ship had been photographed.
The video can be ordered
directly from the Discovery Channel web site.
The cost for the VHS tape (as of mid-2003) is $19.95 plus shipping and
state tax, if applicable.
• WAR STORIES WITH
OLIVER NORTH: THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY
Fox News Channel documentary (2002)
This is one of
the weekly documentaries presented on the Fox News Channel and hosted by Oliver
North. It's a good overall presentation
of the Battle of Midway, ranking a very close second to the Thomas Horton Battle
of Midway documentary (above). But
it particularly excels in its coverage of the signal intelligence aspect of the
American victory.
Roundtable
members and Midway veterans Mac Showers, Lew Hopkins, and Bill Surgi are
extensively interviewed in the program, as are Roundtable members Mark Horan
and Robert Cressman, two of the co-authors of A Glorious Page In Our History. This is a video that most roundtable members
will want to possess, for its commendable all-around treatment of the battle
plus the valuable participation in the production by our members.
The video can
be ordered directly from the Fox News Channel by calling 800-933-0760. The cost for the VHS tape (as of mid-2003)
is $19.95 plus shipping and state tax, if applicable.
• F4F WILDCAT
Aircraft Films DVD set (2003)
This 2-disk set includes
film and still photos of just about every F4F you'll ever want to see,
including a lengthy segment on the magnificently restored Wildcat at the Naval
Aviation Museum at Pensacola. But most
of the photography is vintage, showing early development of the Wildcat
(including its biplane predecessors) during the 1930s, a huge assortment of
WWII combat film and stills, and interesting close-ups with Jimmy Thach and
Butch O'Hare. There is also a lot of
actual combat footage of the Yorktown at Midway, the Enterprise
at Eastern Solomons, and the Hornet at Santa Cruz. And this isn't just a few grainy glimpses of
carriers under attack as viewed from a distant destroyer--we're looking at film
from the carriers themselves; some from a photographer's camera and some from
fixed cameras. The fixed cameras, in
particular, show gripping footage of the attacks on Enterprise and Hornet. Another plus: this set includes the John Ford Battle of Midway movie.
Roundtable member and BOM
veteran Tom Cheek is featured as the narrator on a couple of the segments, one
of which shows his crash landing on the Yorktown during the battle.
Bottom line: this set will tell you about all there is to
know about the history and employment of the F4F, and it includes extras that
are worth the purchase price by themselves.
(Update June 2009: the set is no longer available from Aircraft
Films, but it can be ordered on line here.)
• COMMAND DECISION:
THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY
History Channel production (2004)
After this
program’s debut in 2004, Roundtable members
unanimously lambasted it as the most dismally inept film or video production on
the Battle of Midway ever foisted upon the public. In their opinion, its errors are so egregious as to make the
other works in this section, however flawed, seem brilliant by comparison.
Ironically,
one of the interviewed experts on the show was Robert Cressman, lead author on
one of the most thorough and accurate BOM references available (A
Glorious Day In Our History; see the top of this web page). But he
obviously didn’t have much control over the script itself.
Producing
a good, reasonably accurate video account of the BOM is not that hard (see
“Final Note” below). The History
Channel, though, can’t legitimately claim this one to be in that category, and
in fact, they’ve apparently pulled it from their rerun schedule. That alone speaks volumes, as they seem to
routinely rebroadcast most of their documentaries, often multiple times.
• DAYS THAT SHOOK
THE WORLD: THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY
Lion Television Productions (2005)
This British production has some interesting qualities, but numerous flaws.
• WARSHIPS: PEARL
HARBOR TO MIDWAY
PeriscopeFilm.com DVD (2006)
This DVD set is a compilation
of mostly WWII-era motion picture film clips from official USN sources as well
as studio archives and newsreel footage. Some of it is familiar, but
there is quite a lot that is seldom seen.
The program is arranged
into 8 discreet segments: (1) the Pearl Harbor attack, (2) the Marshall
Islands raids, (3) the Doolittle raid, (4) "Carrier X" (Yorktown and Coral Sea), (5) Coral
Sea and Midway, (6) the John Ford Battle of Midway film, (7)
"Hook Down, Wheels Down" Part 1, and (8) "Hook Down Wheels
Down" Part 2.
The principal value of
this program is its original film footage from the era. You’re watching scenes as they actually
occurred, not Hollywood’s attempt to recreate them in later years, thereby
losing authenticity. That said, viewers
will need to remember that the film segments and their accompanying dialogue
were created in the early 1940s, when the true facts of
the battles were often unknown or classified. Thus when the announcer on
original footage makes a statement that we now know to be historically wrong,
remember the vintage of what you are watching and appreciate it for its classic
quality.
Speaking of
quality, the video imagery is as good as modern digital remastering can
make it, and the surround-sound background music that the producer has inserted
here and there sounds great.
The disk is sold on the PeriscopeFilm
web site. Click the "Warship DVD Series" button on the left
side of the page. You can also find it on Amazon.
• DESTINATION POINT
LUCK: VOICES FROM MIDWAY
U.S. Naval Media Center documentary (2007)
This DVD
program was produced by the Navy for internal distribution in connection with
the 65th anniversary of the battle in June 2007. Its focus is entirely on veteran interviews, and 14 of the 15
Midway vets appearing in the program are members of the Roundtable. In that sense, this video is virtually “the
Battle of Midway Roundtable on DVD,” for the vets’ stories are the tales we’ve
seen from them down through the years in their circulated e-mails and
contributions to our Roundtable Forum newsletter. The program puts a face and a voice to the
likes of HYPO vet Mac Showers, SBD pilots Dusty Kleiss and Roy Gee, and Enterprise
vet and popular author Alvin Kernan, plus several others.
The production
has the usual problem of mismatched archive clips of ships and planes, scenes
that don’t belong in 1942. But that’s
understandable since the resources of the Naval Media Center don’t compare with
those of a major Hollywood studio.
Viewers of this program need to ignore that minor issue and focus on the
veteran testimony, which is invaluable history.
As of December
2008, the program can be viewed on-line:
click here.
• AT THE INTERFACE:
THE WWII RECOLLECTIONS OF DONALD M. SHOWERS
Shoestring Educational Productions (2007)
Rear Admiral “Mac” Showers
was an intel analyst at the Combat
Intelligence Center at Pearl Harbor during most of the war. His first-hand recollections of the
communications intelligence (ComInt) side of the war’s most notable naval
battles in the Pacific comprise the heart of this production. It is ably aided by an excellent assortment
of archive film clips and graphics. You
can read about ComInt from one “who was there” (See I Was There in the
book listings above), but here you can see and listen to another veteran who
also was there and directly involved in the intel aspect of some of the war’s
most crucial battles and operations.
A brief excerpt from the
DVD can be viewed on the Navy TV web site. The full program on DVD can be ordered
directly from the producer. For full
information, click here.
• BATTLE 360
(EPISODE #2): VENGEANCE AT MIDWAY
History Channel production (2008)
This 10-part miniseries covers
the entire history of USS Enterprise (CV-6) during World War II. The second episode, “Vengeance at Midway,”
is a rather good documentary on the BOM.
While its main focus is the Enterprise, the rest of the battle is
covered in sufficient detail to make this one of the better video productions
in this listing, even superior to the rest of them in a few regards.
The program features
extensive narration by Roundtable veteran members Dusty Kleiss, Ed Anderson,
Lew Hopkins, and Lloyd Childers, plus insight on the Japanese side of the
battle by Jon Parshall (see Shattered Sword at the top of this
page). Anderson had been Hopkins’
radioman-gunner in VB-6 at Midway, and production of this documentary resulted
in the two men coming together for the first time in over 60 years. Their on-screen reunion is a delight to
watch.
Vengeance at Midway is for sale in DVD on the History Channel web site.
FINAL NOTE REGARDING VIDEO
PRODUCTIONS:
In ranking all of the
videos in this section of the Library, three of them stand out for their
general accuracy and thoroughness with regard to the Battle of Midway. They are the PBS Battlefield episode,
Horton’s Discovery Channel program, and Oliver North’s War Stories episode. If you could only acquire a single Battle of
Midway video, any one of those three would be very good choices. The Naval Media Center DVD is special for
its focus on Roundtable members, and anyone familiar with those particular
veterans will definitely want to see it.
The same can be said for the “Battle 360” episode. For a total focus on communications
intelligence at Midway, the “At the Interface” DVD is excellent.
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