Stille, Mark E. (2024) Midway: The Pacific War’s Most Famous Battle. Oxford: Osprey.
As many naval wargamers know, the Battle of Midway is not only one of the most wargamed battles of the Pacific War, it is also the subject of an endless number of books. Too many Midway books, like many Midway wargames, are really nothing more than a repackaging of older analysis or another boring “modern reinterpretation” of data and information that is already well known and understood. As Stille writes in the Introduction:
Midway was a decisive victory for the Americans. It was the product of superior American doctrine and tactics, luck, and the ineptitude of Nagumo who proved unsuited for the job.
This simplistic, and in some ways simply wrong, view of the battle has survived largely intact until the present day. All so the first accounts of the battle played up the superiority of the Japanese and their expectation of another victory. Even the titles of these books, such as Incredible Victory and Miracle at Midway, suggested the inevitability of a Japanese victory. The sole Japanese account translated into English was easily woven into the standard account.
Stille, p. 23
Mark Stille in Midway succeeds in avoiding becoming just another Midway book by taking a fresh perspective; a close examination of the Japanese doctrine, plans, personalities, ships and weapons. Rather than ascribe the U.S. victory to luck (though it always has a role to play), Stille looks at the systemic reasons the Japanese set themselves up for failure. Drawing again from the Introduction we read:
The author of this account contends the battle was not a miraculous American victory, nor was it mainly the product of good fortune, which plays a role in every battle. Rather, the author believes that once all the plans, personalities, doctrines , ships, and weapons of the two sides ar examined, a Japanese defeat was the more likely outcome. However, as Clausewitz famously pointed out, there is no certainty in war. Given the vagaries of war and the tactical weaknesses of the American forces concerned, an American victory was certainly not inevitable.
Stille, p. 23
Recommended.
Feature image “The Battle of Midway” by R.G. Smith
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