Shattered Sword. The book looks at the battle from the standpoint of procedure and standards. It shatters the preconceptions that many of us have, and the image of the battle we've had all our lives.
For example. We have all grown up with the image in our minds of the Japanese Planes sitting on the deck while the bombs were taken off, stacked haphazardly, and Torpedo's were installed. We have that image from movies, and from the writings of Commander Fuchida who wrote the Japanese version after the war, who wrote that five minutes made the difference in the battle.
The problem is that during this time, Japanese Fighters were landing to take on more fuel and reloading ammunition, then taking off again. There is no way this was possible if the aircraft were sitting on the deck of a carrier. Remember, that the angled flight deck we are all so comfortable with seeing which allows simultaneous recover and launching of aircraft was a post war development of the British. If the planes were sitting on the deck, awaiting launch, there is no way that you could recover any aircraft. They had to move those aircraft into the hanger deck before they could recover the strike force from Midway. There was no where else to land.
There are many other contributing factors to the American success and Japanese failures. Poor planning certainly applied. But the damage control and design of the carriers themselves also played an important role in the victory of American forces, and failure of the Japanese. Fascinating book, which I can recommend without reservation.
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