Battle of Midway 70th Anniversary

[mirth]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2012/06/04/navy_marks_battle_of_midways_70th_anniversary/

http://www.washingtontimes.com/specials/battle-midway-70th-anniversary/

[Jack Nastyface]

As an aside to this story...
A couple of years ago, an underwater research team located and inspected the wreakage of the Yorktown.  Although I understand the interest in seeing the "American" side of this battle, I think an investigation into the Japanese wrecks (Hiryu, Soryu, Kaga and Agaki) may have produced more archealogically interesting information.  The loss of the Yorktown is fairly well documented; the loss of the IJN carriers is not.

Also..anyone interested in reading about the experience of Torpedo 8 at Midway and later at Guadacanal should pick up "A Dawn Like Thunder".  An excellent but sobering read.  The almost complete loss of Torpedo 8 that morning (1 survivor from the flight of devastators that flew from the Hornet, 2 survivors from the avengers that flew from Midway) is heroic and moving.

[LongBlade]

Thanks for the recommendation, Jack. I've added that to my wishlist.

[mirth]

^ +1. Thanks for the heads up on 'A Dawn Like Thunder'.

And I agree that finding the wrecks of the Japanese carriers would be worthwhile.

[Gusington]

I think I read just yesterday that more and more info has been discovered on the Kaga recently.

[FarAway Sooner]

For anybody who's interested in the Battle of Midway and hasn't done so, I heartily recommend Shattered Sword.  It's one of the best-researched military history books I've read in a long time.  It debunks a number of the Midway myths and qualifies some others.

While most American story books portray it as a "David versus Goliath" kind of battle, when you look at the details, you realize it was a much more even knife-fight.  And you also realize that, unlike the Japanese commanders, the American commanders had a pretty good grasp that was the case going in.

[besilarius]

Not positive, but believe that when they found Yorktown, the Woods Hole searchers also found Kaga.