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Battle of Midway: 4-7 June 1942

A Select Bibliography

Ballard, Robert D., and Rick Archbold. Return to Midway. Washington DC: National Geographic Society, 1999. [Ballard and his team located the sunken aircraft carrier Yorktown (CV-5) at a depth of over three miles in 1998.]

Craven, Wesley Frank and James Lea Cate. eds Plans and Early Operations, January 1939 to August 1942. Vol.1 of The Army Air Forces in World War II. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press, 1948. [See "Midway," pp.451-62.].

Cressman, Robert J. "Blaze of Glory: Charlie Ware and the Battle of Midway." The Hook 24, no. 1 (Spring 1996): 24-29. [Ware was an aviator with VS-6 in Enterprise].

____. "Flight to Midway." Marine Corps Gazette 65, no.5 (May 1981): 73-78.

____. That Gallant Ship: USS Yorktown (CV-5). Missoula MT: Pictorial Histories Publ. Co., 1985.

Cressman, Robert J. et al. “A Glorious Page in Our History”: The Battle of Midway, 4-6 June 1942. Missoula MT: Pictorial Histories Publ. Co., 1990.

Dunnigan, James F. and Albert A. Nofi. The Pacific War Encyclopedia. 2 vols. New York: Facts On File, 1998. [Useful reference source containing a number of entries relating to the Battle of Midway.].

Ferrier, H.H. "Torpedo Squadron 8: The Other Chapter." United States Naval Institute Proceedings 90, no.10 (Oct. 1964): 72-76.

"50th Midway Victory Celebration." Wings of Gold 17, no. 3 (Fall 1992): 8.

Fuchida, Mitsuo and Masatake Okumiya. Midway, the Battle That Doomed Japan: The Japanese Navy's Story. Annapolis MD: Naval Institute, 1955.

____. "Two Fateful Minutes at Midway." United States Naval Institute Proceedings 81, no.6 (Jun. 1955): 660-665.

"George Gay's Fisheye View of Midway." Naval Aviation News (Jun. 1982): 18-21. [Interview with a veteran from Torpedo Squadron Eight who was shot down, wounded, and survived 30 hours in the water before rescue].

Hough, Richard A. The Battle of Midway: Victory In the Pacific. New York: Macmillan, 1970.

Houser, William D. "Battle of Midway to be Remembered." The Hook 26, no. 1 (Spring 1998): 25.

Karppi, Wendy. "Ghost of Midway." Naval Aviation News (Dec. 1995): 22-23. [The recovery in 1994 of a Dauntless scout bomber lost in a training accident in Lake Michigan in 1943. The aircraft had originally participated in the Battle of Midway.].

Knott, Dick. "Night Torpedo Attack." Naval Aviation News (Jun. 1982): 10-13.

Layton, Edwin T. with Roger Pineau and John Costello. "And I Was There:" Pearl Harbor and Midway - Breaking the Secrets. New York: William Morrow, 1985.

Levite, Ariel. Intelligence and Strategic Surprise. New York: Columbia University Press, 1987. [See chapter 3, "Prelude to Midway."].

Lewis, Graydon A. "Setting the Record Straight on Midway." Cryptologia 22, no.2 (1998): 99.

Linder, Bruce R. "Lost Letter of Midway." U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 125, no. 8 (Aug. 1999): 29-35. [Concerning a personal letter about the Battle of Midway, written in 1946 by CDR Stanhope C. Ring, Commander, Hornet (CV-8) Air Group.]

Lord, Walter. Incredible Victory. New York: Harper and Row, 1967.

Love, Robert W. History of the U.S. Navy, 1942-1991. vol.2. Harrisburg PA: Stackpole Books, 1992. [See ch.2, "From the Marshalls Raid to the Battle Off Midway."].

Lundstrom, John B. The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat From Pearl Harbor to Midway. Annapolis MD: Naval Institute Press, 1984.

____. Black Shoe Carrier Admiral: Frank Jack Fletcher at Coral Sea, Midway & Guadalcanal. Annapolis MD: Naval Institute Press, 2006.

Morison, Samuel Eliot. Coral Sea, Midway and Submarine Actions, May 1942 - August 1942. Vol.4 of History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1949.

____. "Six Minutes That Changed the World." American Heritage 14, no.2 (Feb. 1963): 50-56, 102-103.

____. The Two Ocean War: A Short History of the United States Navy in the Second World War. Boston: Little Brown, 1963. [See ch.6, "Carrier Strikes, Coral Sea and Midway, December 1941- June 1942."].

Mrazek, Robert J. A Dawn Like Thunder: The True Story of Torpedo Squadron Eight. New York: Little, Brown, and Co., 2008.

Murray, James F. "Midway: the View from a Bombing Six Rear Seat." The Hook 17, no. 1 (Spring 1989): 40-47. [combat aircrewman with VB-6 on board Enterprise].

Nesmith, Jeff. No Higher Honor: The U.S.S. Yorktown at the Battle of Midway. Atlanta GA: Longstreet, 1999.

Parker, Frederick D. A Priceless Advantage: U.S. Navy Communications Intelligence and the Battles of Coral Sea, Midway, and the Aleutians. Ft. Meade MD: Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency, 1993.

Parshall, Jonathan, and Anthony Tully. Shattered Sward: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway (Washington: Potomac Books, 2005).

Peattie, Mark R., Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power, 1909-1941 Annapolis MD: Naval Institute Press, 2007.

Potter, Elmer B. "Admiral Nimitz and the Battle of Midway." United States Naval Institute Proceedings. 102, no.7 (Jul. 1976): 60-68.

Powers, Thomas E. "Incredible Midway." United States Naval Institute Proceedings 93, no.6 (Jun. 1967): 64-73.

Prange, Gordon W., Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon. Miracle at Midway. New York: McGraw Hill, 1982.

Sanger, Grant. "Freedom of the Press or Treason?" United States Naval Institute Proceedings. 103, no.9 (Sep. 1977): 96-97.

Smith, Myron J., Jr. The Battles of Coral Sea and Midway, 1942: A Selected Bibliography. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.

Smith, William W. Midway: Turning Point of the Pacific. New York: Crowell, 1966. [Written by the commander of the escort force responsible for protecting Yorktown.].

Stafford, Edward P. The Big E: The Story of USS Enterprise. New York: Random House, 1962. [See "Action Off Midway," pp. 73-99.].

"Surgi and Yorktown." Wings of Gold 23, no.2 (Summer 1998): 49. [participation by former Aviation Machinist Mate with VF-42 who was assigned to VF-3  in Yorktown, who accompanied Ballard's expedition to locate Yorktown in 1998]

Tanabe, Yahachi and Joseph D. Harrington. "I Sank the Yorktown at Midway." United States Naval Institute Proceedings 89, no.5 (May 1963): 58-65. [Tanabe was the captain of the Japanese submarine I-168.].

Tillman, Barrett. "The Battle of Midway." in Jack Sweetman ed. Great American Naval Battles. Annapolis MD: Naval Institute Press, 1998.

Tuleja, Thaddeus V. Climax at Midway. New York: Norton, 1960.

Wheeler, Howard. "With [Ensign Albert K.] Earnest at Midway." Naval Aviation News (Jun. 1982): 22-23.

Wildenberg, Thomas. "Midway: Sheer Luck or Better Doctrine." Naval War College Review 58, no. 1 (Winter 2005) 121-135.

Wrynn, V. Dennis. "Missing at Midway." American History Illustrated. 27, no.3 (Jul. 1992): 34-35, 62. [Story of the interrogation and murder by the Japanese of three American fliers shot down at Midway.].

Note: Allied intelligence successes in breaking Japanese coded communications, as well as other communications intelligence activities are an essential part of the story of the Battle of Midway. Due to national security needs to protect sensitive intelligence sources and methods, documentary support of the story of World War II Allied communications intelligence only became available to researchers in 1978 as declassification of relevant documents began. Authors writing prior to this time had access to detailed operational records, but not to the full intelligence picture.

Published: Mon Jan 28 11:57:00 EST 2019