Shattered Sword by Jonathan Parshall

The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway

A revisionist, tightly argued account of the Battle of Midway that uses Japanese operational records, technical analysis, and damage assessments to overturn common myths about how the battle was won—showing that a combination of intelligence, American attacks, and critical Japanese damage-control and doctrinal failures (rather than luck alone) led to the loss of four Japanese carriers, and providing a detailed, nuanced reconstruction of the actions, equipment, and decisions that determined the outcome.