Shattered Sword

The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway

By: Jonathan Parshall, Anthony Tully

Narrated by: Tom Perkins

Length: 24 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Many consider the Battle of Midway to have turned the tide of the Pacific War. It is without question one of the most famous battles in history. Now, for the first time since Gordon W. Prange's best-selling Miracle at Midway, Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully offer a new interpretation of this great naval engagement. Unlike previous accounts, Shattered Sword makes extensive use of Japanese primary sources. It also corrects the many errors of Mitsuo Fuchida's Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan, an uncritical reliance upon which has tainted every previous Western account. It thus forces a major, potentially controversial reevaluation of the great battle.

Parshall and Tully examine the battle in detail and effortlessly place it within the context of the Imperial Navy's doctrine and technology. With a foreword by leading World War II naval historian John Lundstrom, Shattered Sword is an indispensable part of any military buff's library.

Shattered Sword is the winner of the 2005 John Lyman Book Award for the "Best Book in U.S. Naval History" and was cited by Proceedings as one of its "Notable Naval Books" for 2005.

©2005 Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully (P)2019 Tantor

Critic reviews

“This incredibly detailed book provides a whole new approach to the study and interpretation of the battle.” (Ships and Shipping)

John Lyman Book Award, Best Book in U.S. Naval History, 2005

Notable Naval Books, Proceedings, 2005.

One of my all time favorite naval books

I bought the actual book in 2005 upon release, I have read it a couple times over the years...but I have been into audio books lately, and I wanted to experience this gem as a listening experience, and I enjoyed it just as much!

Detailed and well researched

If you are looking for entertainment, watch the Midway movie. If you want to know what REALLY happened, listen to this audiobook. The authors have researched the battle in such detail it approaches boredom at times. It is a story of blunders at the highest levels of command....on BOTH sides of the battle and the heroic efforts of the sailors and aviators as they struggled to fight and survive. This book revises some of the history we previously believed about the Japanese side of the battle.

Interesting dual perspective of Midway

24 hours was too long, still very interesting in parts

Seems Japanese were doomed to failure

Wow, not your typical war book

Exhaustive is correct! So much insight into the battle of midway from an interesting perspective, the Japanese. took me an hour or two to get into this book, not your typical war story. This is more of a full on documentary. If you have a long commute, love war history, give this one a try. You will get a whole new appreciation for the warriors on both sides and more detail than you could ever believe.

great book good narration.

Easy to recommend this book and the narrator does a good job. I just wish that they would just use billingual or Japanese American narrator's to smooth out pronunciation.

This narration is strong in general but I think he pronounced Suzuya 3 different ways in the book which is more funny than anything else.

Fresh view of historical oversights

Found review to be perfect to those wanting accuracy of event improved. Liked way views supported by reference to operational records. Further, explanations of why previous works failed to properly portray real events was appreciated. Certainly changed my overall view of what happened and why. Casual listeners looking for an action yarn might be disappointed but those interested in correction of historical view will rewarded.

Great detailed book.

Heard about this book on Hardcore History. The most detailed book on the battle. Great read.

Important new study of the history of Midway

Using new technology and historical resources, the authors provide a fresh and honest rendition of the events of the battle of Midway. Seeking not to find heroes or villains, but just to accurately describe the timeline and actions of this important historical battle

New View of Midway 1942

This is a view of the battle primarily from the Japanese point of view which debunks the popular conceptions of this important battle in the story of the war in the Pacific. I suggest that the most valuable chapter in this study is the last one in which the authors savagely refute Fuchida’s account of the battle.

This is a work well worth listening to ( or reading)

a well done documtery of this era and battle

the narration is first rate. the research conclusion s are not likely to make many military history readers or the few remaining participants very happy.