Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully · 2005 · sea

Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully's 2005 history of the Battle of Midway, told for the first time chiefly from the Japanese side. In June 1942 Admiral Nagumo's carrier striking force, the Kido Butai, sails east from Japan to seize Midway and lure the American fleet to destruction. Instead, in a few catastrophic minutes, four Japanese carriers are sunk, and the tide of the Pacific war turns. The route follows the doomed fleet out and back.

1. 1
   Hashirajima

   The Combined Fleet sorties from its anchorage in Japan's Inland Sea, the carriers of the Kido Butai steaming east toward Midway in overwhelming strength.

2. 2
   Midway

   Off Midway the Japanese carriers launch their strike, but in the confusion of rearming, American dive-bombers fall on them and within minutes Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu are blazing wrecks.

3. 3
   Hashirajima

   The shattered remnant of the fleet turns for home, carrying word of a defeat that has broken the spell of Japanese invincibility and changed the course of the war.