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Originally Posted by joea
I really, really have to get that book.
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It's definitely worth it. To me the most interesting passage was near the end after summing up. The authors make a case that had the Japanese even won the naval battle, they almost certainly would have been decimated in the land battle. The Japanese landing forces were without proper maps, landing craft or even amphibious doctrine for a landing on Midway against a force that, unbeknowst to them actually larger and better armed than their own. The most successful Japanese amphibious landings of the war up to that point had taken place at deserted, undefended beaches far from their objectives, such as in the Philippines and Malaysia where the Japanese would then march overland to their objectives. The Japanese forces at Midway would be landing in front of a reef they didn't know was there, straight against the teeth of bristling US Marine defenses, which included tanks and would likely have suffered the same fate as the intial Japanese landing at Wake, if not worse.