Midway 1942: Turning-Point in the Pacific (Praeger Illustrated Military History)

This is a high quality book and an excellent example of Osprey Campaign Series. One of the most important goals of the Osprey series is to allow readers with little or no knowledge of a subject to quickly understand the battle or campaign being studied. In this regard Midway 1942 succeeds very well. The book provides an overview of the battle in an easy to follow, easy to understand manner. All aspects of the campaign are covered from the lead up to the aftermath. Readers will come away with a good grasp of this pivotal battle. The only weak part of the text deals with its description of the initial Japanese strategic situation; Japanese motives were often complex due to internal struggles between the Japanese army, navy, and political factions. Though the author does his best to explain the background situation, novice readers may have a hard time understanding the rational for some of the Japanese strategic actions. The Osprey series is well known for its remarkable visual material. As always there are lots of excellent photographs and many beautiful drawings, 2D and 3D maps. 3D maps include details of the Japanese air attack on Midway Island, and the attacks on the Akagi and Yorktown. There is also a very interesting photograph (that I had not previously seen) taken just as one of the bombs hits the Yorktown. Oddly, a table giving Japanese battleship statistics was accidentally printed twice. Given the location of the second copy, it is likely that there was suppose to be a table comparing the capabilities of Japanese and US bombers. This would have been helpful, but little is lost without it.

An excellent work for those interested in this decisive battle. Well written and well illustrated.

Osprey Campaign series does it again. Why does it take the British traditionally to hire detail illustrators as good as this series? For the modeler who wants to REALLY display his stuff DIORAMAS do it better.