The Battle of Midway: The Destruction of the Japanese Fleet (Graphic Battles of World War II)

This book is intended to tell the story of the Battle of Midway to young readers (maybe ages 8-12 or so) who relate to comic books and graphic novels. After a few pages of narrative introduction, the battle itself is told in the style of a graphic novel. Then, the aftermath is described in narrative.The main thrust of the story is told accurately, though there are a few glitches. This book repeats the (recently debunked) fallacy that the Japanese carriers were within minutes of launching their counterstrike when the U.S. dive bombers attacked, and thus their flight decks were packed with planes ready to take off. Though the aircraft types were usually identified correctly, there are a couple of times when Devastator torpedo bombers are incorrectly identified as dive bombers. The Yorktown is mistakenly labeled as CV-10, when in fact she was CV-5. (CV-10 was a later, Essex-class carrier, also named Yorktown.) The Yorktown scout pilot who found the Hiryu was Sam Adams, not Wallace Short. And Midway Island is shown as it was later in the war, with a long runway spanning the length of Sand Island; at the time of this battle, that runway had not yet been built.These errors will surely go over the heads of the young readers for whom this book is intended, and they don't change the story in any meaningful way. I point them out simply for the sake of completeness.Notwithstanding the few points made above, it's clear that the illustrator did his homework. The various ships and plane-types look like they are supposed to -- even to the point where the light cruiser Jintsu is correctly shown with four stacks, the first of which is taller than the other three. Again, the intended audience won't know or care about such things; but for those of us who do, it was nice to see such attention to detail.All in all, I consider this to be a very useful introduction to the Midway story.

There are two combatants, each with three different types of planes and five different types of ships---more or less. After deciding what the enemy is probably going to do, the leaders must plan a maneuver that uses all resources. And then make a backup plan for each leg of the maneuver. There is a tremendous amount of detail. I think anyone planning to study this battle in detail first absorb the details in this book. I have get to hear how a cousin who is interested in World War II reacted.

I bought both Midway books. Didn't like the comic book form and found out, even though they have different titles and covers the INSIDES were almost exactly alike. My grandson liked them, but took one to donate to his school.

Excellent text and artwork

Easy for grandchildren to read and understand.

Quick delivery, product as advertised! A little more simplistic than I would have liked.

DEPICTED LIKE A COMIC BOOK STORY, AN INSULT TO THE AMERICAN FIGHTERS

Great product and service