A Glorious Page in Our History, Adm. Chester Nimitz, 1942: The Battle of Midway, 4-6 June 1942

by Robert J. Cressman and Steve Ewing

Book Overview

Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, c. November, 1990 Paperbound, about 11 inches tall by 8.5 wide, 226 pages. Appendices, capsule biographies of authors, bibliography, index. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0929521404
• ISBN13: 9780929521404
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 8.6" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

A Glorius Page...

There's not much doubt about the exhaustive detail of this book. It's about as close as you are going to get to a blow by blow account of the most important battle in US Navy history. The authors recount virtually every movement that any ship, squadron, or commander made in those 3 crucial days. Although the detail is minute, I couldn't put it down. The battle was apparently, a continuous stream of action. This book is really for the dedicated historian and hardcore history buff. It isn't really intended to be a good read, but it sure was for me. The writing style is easy and flowing, not as dry and dusty as you would expect from a history book. The story really focuses on the men. It is full of pictures of the flyers, commanders and squadrons. There are only a couple small weak points. One is the poor quality of the printed pictures. This is not an expensive book, so it is printed on medium quality paper. Photos don't turn out very clear on this kind of paper. Several captions describe details in the photo that I can't for the life of me see. Still the picture collection here is huge. It was especially touchng to look at the faces of these great heroes. They look like ordinary guys. I guess they were. It impresses me that ordinary guys are capable of rising to such high levels of dedication and valor. The other problem is the lack of good maps. There are only 6, and they aren't very high quality. The 3 battle maps are given on only 2 pages, and contain too much information to make much sense. I would have prefered more larger maps showing more specific phases of the battle. I tracked down some better maps on the internet, but the data in this text could be used to produce many more detailed maps. The book starts witb an interesting brief history of Midway atol, itself. Such an important place, and yet it is just a couple of tiny piles of sand literally in the middle of nowhere. Altogether, I can highly recommend this book if you want a lot of detail in an easy-reading style.

Battle of Midway researchers: start here.

. This is THE definitive work on the Battle of Midway. It accurately provides the detail that most of the others omit or get wrong, and it corrects all of the popular myths about the battle that some of the others perpetuate, i.e. the controversial flight of the USS Hornet's air group on the morning of 4 June 1942, and the "Midway is short of water" ruse pulled off by the signal intelligence wizards at Pearl Harbor. . You have to be very familiar with the events and personnel involved in the battle to find even a minor flaw in this book. This reviewer knows of only two (in the 4th printing, March '98); one photo caption cites the wrong PBY squadron and another has the wrong names for an SBD aircrew. Beyond that sort of miniscule nitpicking that very few would notice, "A Glorious Page" can be relied upon as meticulously thorough and accurate to a level that no other volume on the Battle of Midway approaches. . If you are researching the battle, start here. And if you can only afford one book on the Battle of Midway, this is the one you want. (Reviewed by R. W. Russell, Battle of Midway Roundtable, www.midway42.org)

A Glorious Book

This book is the result of a cooperative effort by a number of noted experts in the field of naval history. It provides the latest known facts regarding tactical details, numerous pertinent photos and previously unpublished (to my knowledge) biographical info about many heros of the battle. Every student of the war in the Pacific needs this book.

Insert any superlative- it's that good.

This is another book about the critical Battle of Midway in WWII- but not just any book. I first read about this story in grade school. The fate of our country came down to a small outnumbered fleet and a few obsolete airplanes. The aircrew in particular faced almost certain death in many cases but the battle was so critical they took off anyhow... Needless to say I was hooked from then on. That has always inspired me- the unbelievable courage displayed here. I have tried to find out more ever since. This book is promoted as a pictorial history and the pictures are excellent and cover almost all of the amazing aircrew. But the narrative could also easily stand by itself. It is as detailed as any I have ever read about this. A must-have for Midway buffs. How did they get so much in this small space? The best account I have ever read about a truly inspiring story.

Highly informative, superbly illustrated, first class book

There have been numerous accounts of Midway, to mention just two, Walter Lord's wonderful _Incredible Victory_ and Fuchida et al's _Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan. Each of these is superb in its own right, but what the collaborative effort of these writers had turned out is certain to rank not much from the top of the list. There are probably more illustrations in this one book than in the others combined, and the fine text clears up many points in which earlier accounts were mistaken. By tracing the history of Midway from its first U.S. occupation until much after the battle itself, a nice framework is given into which the battle is set; and in its own right, what the writers termed their book's appendix, is a superb collection of Midway-related essays that alone would have made me spend my money.