Product Description

It has been called "the greatest naval battle since Trafalgar." On June 4, 1942, near a tiny island 1,500 miles from Hawaii, the course of the Pacific War changed dramatically. Before the battle of Midway the forces of Imperial Japan seemed unstoppable. After Midway the Japanese would never again take the offensive.

Fifty-six years later, famed underwater explorer Robert Ballard embarked on a search for the lost ships that had sunk in that historic battle. Accompanying him were a group of Japanese and American veterans who had once faced each other as enemies. Their memories of the epic conflict act as an affecting counterpoint to the story of the high-tech hunt for this great sunken battlefield.

Dr. Ballard's search area was enormous and his targets -- the Yorktown and four Japanese carriers -- lay over three miles down, far deeper than the Titanic or the Bismarck. Equipment failures and time constraints kept working against him, and it often seemed that he might return with nothing. But finally, on May 19, 1998, Robert Ballard and his team located the remains of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Yorktown.

Astonishing underwater photographs of the Yorktown by David Doubilet and Ken Marschall's haunting paintings of the nearly intact carrier are among the visual highlights of this richly illustrated book. In addition, archival and modern images and paintings by leading aviation and maritime illustrators complement this gripping account of one of history's great air-and-sea encounters and the mission to document the lost ships that today bear witness to it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #252345 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-01
• Released on: 1999-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

Amazon.com Review
On the morning of June 7, 1942, six months to the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the USS Yorktown "turned over on her port side and sank in about 3,000 fathoms of water with all battle flags flying." Many of her men watched from the decks of the Vireo, the Benham, the Hughes, and the Hammann, weeping as the Old Lady went down. The Battle of Midway was finally over. Though the Yorktown was lost, the battle was won--what John Keegan has called "as great a reversal of strategic fortune as the naval world has ever seen." From that point on, the Japanese remained primarily on the defensive at sea.

On the morning of May 19, 1998, Robert D. Ballard stared into a video monitor hoping for a glimpse of metal on the bottom of the sea. "Thar she blows! Bingo!" After almost three weeks out, painstakingly scanning the ocean floor with high-altitude sonar, and many months of research and planning, Ballard and his crew had spotted the Yorktown some three miles down. The wreck was in remarkably good condition: "It was as if we had stumbled on the ship a few minutes after it made its death plunge."

In Return to Midway, Ballard weaves a compelling narrative, blending the story of the famous battle with his battle to find the sunken ships--the Yorktown and the USS Hammann, as well as four Japanese aircraft carriers. First-hand accounts by the men who were there, including two Japanese and two American servicemen who joined Ballard and his crew for the hunt, as well as paintings and archival photographs, detail the battle in all its horror, while capturing the honor of the men who fought on both sides. Military-history buffs will find this book--the first in decades specifically about the Battle of Midway--especially valuable, though fans of Ballard's work as an oceanographer will be equally captivated. --Sunny Delaney

From Library Journal
Midway--the name evokes images of insurmountable odds and heroic sacrifice on the part of the U.S. Navy in 1942, for it was this battle (and those of the Coral Sea and Guadalcanal) that stemmed the tide of Japanese aggression in the Pacific and began the march to victory that would end in Tokyo harbor in August 1945. In this rich visual and narrative account, Ballard deftly intersperses chapters on the Battle of Midway with a fascinating account of his search for the U.S.S. Yorktown, which was sunk by a Japanese destroyer on June 7, 1942. Period photographs from the battle are combined with those of the Yorktown as she rests today, and paintings by marine artist Ken Marschall add detail to complete the record. The lively narrative is punctuated with two Japanese and two American oral history accounts of the battle. As with his books on the Titanic, the Bismarck, and the ships of Guadalcanal, Ballard has once again produced a visual tour de force that will evoke memories in those remaining veterans of what the late Gordon W. Prange termed the "miracle at Midway" while firing the imaginations of a younger generation. Highly recommended.
-Harold N. Boyer, Springfield Twp. Lib., Aston, PA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Excellent overview of the battle and expedition
This was an excellent overview of both the battle and the expedition to find the 5 carriers. Well illustrated. The only thing I would like to have seen more of was the details of the Yorktown wreck. Only a few photos of the wreck are included, although the text mentions that they took hundreds of detailed photos. Get the companion video, too!

A rediscovered history of the Greatest Generation
This book falls into the same grade as Dr. Ballards other excellent books such as on the Titanic and the Bismark.

To most WWII Navy History buffs, the story of Midway is both great and a little over told. The dumb fact is America won the battle because the IJNS Cruiser Tone couldn't launch a recon aircraft. I don't think the American dumb luck factor was stressed enough in the book. However, luck makes a huge amount of difference in war. Right now the CSA would be alive and well had General Robert E. Lee had not made an extra copy of his orders of attack prior to the Battle of Antitiam.

I can't fault the fantastic pictures of the USS Yorktown. The book is worth the price of that alone. Seeing the 1.1 inch machine guns pointing skyward is like seeing a moment frozen in time. There are few things like this in American history.

The cold fact is Midway was THAT important of a battle. Had the three American carriers been sunk then the USA could not have gone on the offensive until 1944 or later.

The stories of veterans of the battle were quite insightful. However, you can't get over this weird feeling that both groups of veterans still really don't like one another over the war. Strange, old hatred dies hard.

I look forward to Dr. Ballard getting funding from Japan to find the Japanise carriers. If the Akagi or any of her sister ships are in this good condition then we could look forward to a small salvage operation being done to raise a small part of the ship in the future.

Now, all readers should know that National Geographic ran a shorter version of this book in just the last year. You can read it for free if you just go to your local library.

This is a great coffee table book and would make a great history present to any Navy buff.

Return to Midway
Overall, this book does a good job of telling the story of the re-discovery of the carrier Yorktown, which was lost in the Battle of Midway in June, 1942. The book also gives a pretty good, albeit slimmed down, account of the battle, as well as talking to veterans of the battle who are still alive today. The only problem I have with this book is that very little of the book is actually devoted to illustrating the Yorktown (either in words or pictures) as she appears today, resting on the floor of the ocean. Out of 200 pages in the book, maybe 25 are actually used to show the results of the discovery, and I would really have enjoyed more of this material. Regardless, this is a good book, and should be a welcome addition to the collection of any World War II or nautical enthusiast.