I wasn’t sure where to post this but with it dealing with history and the navy I’ll put it here.

The Military Channel will be airing a 2 part show (documentary) on the battle of midway on Thursday and Friday starting at 6:00PM (eastern time) on there show “battlefield”
I’m not positive but I think I saw this one before and it’s pretty good.

Also on the 17th and 18th of July they will be showing the Battle of Leyte Gulf as well (same time.).

I figured you guys might be interested in these with the Flattops campaign coming to an end and the up coming Leyte gulf campaign.

Thanks for the heads up, Jacob!
I too agree that the "Battlefield" series is a good one, mate...they give you lots of pertinent info with fantastic film footage. Bookmark these shows, folks, if you haven't seen them, they are well worth the watch (and recording! )
~Gunny

Thanks for the heads up. Won't be able to watch when broadcast, but that's why they invented the DVR!

I'll be especially interested to see how much of the research and corrections to the long held version of the battle which were published in "Shattered Sword" will be incorporated into this account.

For over 50 years much of what was held to be true about the battle in the US, came from Mitsuo Fuchida's book, published in the very early 50's. However, many of the things he stated have actually been known to be untrue in Japan for many years, and only recently have many of the "myths" of the battle been uncovered and set straight. He did have some personal reasons to ascribe much of the victory to luck on our part.

It was a magnificent victory for the US Navy, but the book points out that while many things still fell to chance, the outcome was a LOT less in doubt than we've long held here. If you enjoy reading Naval history, this book is outstanding, as it includes a ton of pictures, drawings, charts, tables and references.

Tom

Well I finally got around to watching the shows on Midway, and generally it wasn't too bad.

The show appeared to have been done in 1994 if I read the copyright date correctly, and the biggest gripe I have is that with the publication of "Shattered Sword", it's difficult to accept that a program would air with such a (now) completely discredited take on the key events of the battle.

For years, Fuchida's book claimed that the carrier flight decks were littered with bombs discarded from the disarming process and the strike aircraft on the Japanese carriers were all packed on deck and just seconds from launching. Additionally the program claimed that the destruction of the group on Akagi's deck eliminated most of her aircrews as well, in the destruction. In fact, official records indicate that a grand total of just 110 air crew from all FOUR carriers combined were lost due to ALL causes, and most of those from Hiryu. By way of comparison, a total of 370 air crew survived the battle.

It turns out that Fuchida painted a more face saving picture of the events when he published his story in 1953, and had Western researchers taken the time before this brand new book, they would have discovered that Fuchida's telling of the events has long been known to be incorrect in Japan.

In fact, unlike US practice, refueling and rearming in the Japanese fleet all took place below decks and that's where their aircraft still were when the US dive bombers showed up and took Akagi, Kaga and Soryu out of the fight.

The proof is in the air group records which survived the battle in amazing detail. They show a steady stream of take offs and landings by the fighters on each of the carriers throughout the morning including a landing on Akagi at 1010. With no angled decks, these ships had no way to recover any aircraft once they had begun to spot a strike on deck. And because of the cycle times of her elevators, it took in excess of 45 minutes or more to move a strike from the hanger deck to the flight deck and position them astern for launch.

The reality is that when our dive bombers hit, the Japanese carriers were still at least 30 minutes away from being ready to launch. And any aircraft on the flight decks were fighters participating in the ongoing CAP operations, and not strike aircraft.

Fuchida's version was intended to make it appear that it was only through luck and not bad management of the flight deck operations, that led to the disaster. His version has been accepted in the West for 50 years when some further digging (such as in the book) would have revealed a much different picture.

The truth is that all the piecemeal attacks throughout the morning kept the Japanese off balance, and despite the fact that not one ship was hit prior to the arrival of the dive bombers, the continuous attacks did keep the Japanese from gettting a strike off to attack the American carriers before three of theirs were taken out of action.

The show does a very good job of provided the background leading up to the battle and most of what happened, and is worth watching. But, while it is quite detailed and not a short book, to get the REAL story of what actually happened, "Shattered Sword" is the place to go.

Tom