Manuscript Sources
American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, Laramie
Frank Jack Fletcher Papers
Husband Kimmel Papers
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York
Map Room Files
National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
CINCPAC Files, Record Group 38
Record Group 457
Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island
Richard W. Bates Papers
Ernest J. King Papers
Edwin T. Layton Papers
Raymond A. Spruance Papers
Operational Archives, Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.
Ernest J. King Papers
Walter Lord Collection
Marc A. Mitscher Papers
Chester W. Nimitz Diary #1 [Serial letters to Mrs. Nimitz], Dec. 20, 1941–May 7, 1945
Papers of FADM Chester W. Nimitz [“Gray Book”]
Raymond A. Spruance Papers
University of Maryland, Hornbake Library, College Park
Gordon Prange Papers
Oral Histories and Interviews
National Museum of the Pacific War, Fredericksburg, Texas
Richard H. Best Interview (Aug. 11, 1995)
Judson Brodie Interview (March 13, 2007)
Richard Byram Interview (April 14, 2005)
Richard E. Cole Interview (Aug. 8, 2000)
Eugene Conklin Interview (March 17, 2007)
Douglas C. Davis Interview (Oct. 1, 2000)
Albert Earnest Interview (July 20, 2003)
Kaname Harada Interview (Oct. 7, 2007)
Byron K. Henry Interview (June 13, 2002)
John V. Hillard Interview (Feb. 28, 2002)
Henry Hise Interview (Sept. 30, 2000)
Lewis R. Hopkins Interview (Jan 15, 2004)
Jack Kleiss Interview (Sept. 29, 2000)
Sam Laser Interview (April 9, 2003)
Edwin T. Layton Interview (n.d.)
James H. Macia Interview (July 21, 2000)
Gilbert Martin and Paul McKay Interview (Sept. 2000)
Willard “Robbie” Robinson Interview (July 20, 2003)
William G. Roy Interview (June 6, 2003)
Ellis Skidmore Interview (June 3, 2005)
Floyd Thorn Interview (Aug. 14, 2000)
Richard Toler Interview (Nov. 11, 2003)
John E. Underwood Interview (Feb. 8, 2007)
Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island
Charles F. Barber Interview (March 1, 1996)
Francis Fabian Interview (Feb. 6, 2009)
Peter E. Karetka Interview (May 26, 2010)
Hugh Moure Interview (July 30, 2008)
John C. Powell Interview (Oct. 8 and 15, 2008)
Operational Archives, Naval History and Heritage Command
Noel Gayler Interview (Feb. 15, 2002)
U.S. Naval Institute Oral History Collection, Naval Academy, Nimitz Library (Special Collections), Annapolis, MD
Slade Cutter Oral History (June 17, 1985)
John F. Davidson Oral History (Sept. 4, 1985)
James Doolittle Oral History (Aug. 3, 1987)
Thomas Dyer Oral History (Sept. 14, 1983)
Earnest Eller Oral History (Aug. 25, 1977)
Stephen Jurika Oral History (1973)
Edwin Layton Oral History (May 30 and 31, 1970)
Henry “Hank” Miller Oral History (May 23, 1973)
Joseph Rochefort Oral History (Aug. 14, Sept. 21, and Oct. 5, 1969)
Paul Stroop Oral History (Sept. 13 and 14, 1969)
John S. Thach Oral History (Nov. 6, 1970)
Joseph M. Worthington Oral History (June 7, 1972)
“The Battle of Midway: Transcripts of Recorded Interviews” by Major Bowen P. Weisheit, USMCR (Ret.), Nimitz Library, USNA.
Ben Tappan Interview (1981)
Samuel G. Mitchell Interview (1981)
Richard Gray Interview (1981)
Johnny A. Talbot Interview (March 31, 1981)
Humphrey L. Tallman Interview (April 4, 1982)
John E. McInerny Interview (1982)
Walter Rodee Interview (1982)
T. T. Guillory Interview (March 14, 23, and 24, 1983)
Jerry Crawford Interview (Aug. 28, 1984)
Interviews conducted by the author
John C. “Jack” Crawford Interview (May 5, 2005)
William D. Houser Interview (May 5, 2005)
William Price Interview (May 4, 2010)
Donald “Mac” Showers Interview (May 4, 2010)
Official Records and Published Collections
Goldstein, Donald M., and Katherine V. Dillon, eds. The Pacific War Papers: Japanese Documents of World War II. Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2004.
———, eds. The Pearl Harbor Papers: Inside the Japanese Plans. Washington, DC: Brassey’s, 1993.
Kimball, Warren F., ed. Churchill and Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence. 3 vols. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984.
Loewenheim, Francis L., Harold D. Langley, and Manfred Jonas, eds. Roosevelt and Churchill, Their Secret Wartime Correspondence. London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1975.
Office of Naval Intelligence, Combat Narrative: The Battle of the Coral Sea. Washington, DC: Office of Naval Intelligence, United States Navy, 1943.
OP-20G File of CINCPAC Intelligence Bulletins (March 16–June 1, 1942), Special Collections, Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy.
Spector, Ronald H., ed. Listening to the Enemy: Key Documents on the Role of Communications Intelligence in the War with Japan. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1988.
Traffic Intelligence Summaries, Combat Intelligence Unit, Fourteenth Naval District (July 16, 1941–June 30, 1942). 3 vols. Special Collections, Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy.
U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Naval Affairs. Hearings before the Committee on Naval Affairs on the Nomination of William Franklin Knox to be Secretary of the Navy. 76th Cong., 3rd sess., 1940.
———. Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack, Pearl Harbor Attack: Hearings before the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack. 79th Cong., 1st sess., 1945.
U.S. Navy Action and Operational Reports from World War II, Pacific Theater, Part I: CINCPAC (16 microfilm reels). Bethesda, MD: University Publications of America.
U.S. Navy, Office of Naval Intelligence. The Japanese Story of the Battle of Midway. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1947. (Translation of “CINC First Air Fleet Detailed Battle Report No. 6.” Published in ONI Review 5 (May 1947).
Primary Sources and Memoirs
Bates, Richard W. The Battle of the Coral Sea, May 1 to May 11 Inclusive, 1942: Strategical and Tactical Views. Newport, RI: Naval War College, 1947.
———. The Battle of Midway Including the Aleutian Phase, June 3 to June 14, 1942: Strategical and Tactical Analysis. Newport, RI: U.S. Naval War College, 1948.
Buell, Harold L. Dauntless Helldivers: A Dive-Bomber Pilot’s Epic Story of the Carrier Battles. New York: Orion Books, 1991.
Clark, J. J., with Clark G. Reynolds. Carrier Admiral. New York: McKay, 1967.
Doolittle, James H. “Jimmy,” with Carroll V. Glines. I Could Never Be So Lucky Again: An Autobiography. New York: Bantam Books, 1991.
Evans, David C., ed. The Japanese Navy in World War II: In the Words of Former Japanese Naval Officers. Translated by David C. Evans. 2nd ed. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1986.
Fisher, Clayton E. Hooked: Tales and Adventures of a Tailhook Warrior. Denver: Outskirts, 2009.
Forrestel, E. P. Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, USN: A Study in Command. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1966.
Fuchida, Mitsuo, and Masatake Okumiya. Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan, the Japanese Navy’s Story. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1955, 1992.
Gay, George. Sole Survivor: The Battle of Midway and Its Effects on his Life. Naples, FL: Naples Ad/Graphics, 1979.
Halsey, William F., and J. Bryan III. Admiral Halsey’s Story. New York: Whittlesey House, 1947.
Holmes, W. J. Double-Edged Secrets: U.S. Naval Intelligence Operations in the Pacific during World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1979.
Ickes, Harold L. The Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1953–54.
Ito, Masanori, and Roger Pineau. The End of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Translated by Andrew Y. Kuroda and Roger Pineau. New York: Norton, 1962.
King, Ernest J., and Walter Muir Whitehill. Fleet Admiral King: A Naval Record. New York: Norton, 1952.
Layton, Edwin T., with Roger Pineau and John Costello. “And I was there”: Pearl Harbor and Midway—Breaking the Secrets. New York: Morrow, 1985.
Ludlum, Stuart D. They Turned the War Around at Coral Sea and Midway: Going to War with Yorktown’s Air Group Five. Bennington, VT: Merriam, 2000.
Mears, Frederick. Carrier Combat. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1944.
Robert R. Rea. Wings of Gold: An Account of Naval Aviation Training in World War II; The Correspondence of Aviation Cadet/Ensign Robert R. Rea. Edited by Wesley Phillips Newton and Robert R. Rea. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1987.
Rowland, Buford, and William B. Boyd. U.S. Navy Bureau of Ordnance in World War II. Washington, DC: Bureau of Ordnance, Department of the Navy, 1953.
Russell, Ronald W. No Right to Win: A Continuing Dialogue with Veterans of the Battle of Midway. New York: iUniverse, 2006.
Sherman, Frederick C. Combat Command: The American Aircraft Carriers in the Pacific War. New York: Dutton, 1950.
Sherwood, Robert E. Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History. Rev. ed. New York: Harper, 1950. Reprint, New York: Enigma Books, 2001.
Stimson, Henry L., and McGeorge Bundy. On Active Service in Peace and War. New York: Harper, 1948.
Stover, E. T., and Clark G. Reynolds. The Saga of Smokey Stover. Charleston, SC: Tradd Street, 1978.
Ugaki, Matome. Fading Victory: The Diary of Admiral Matome Ugaki, 1941–1945. Edited by Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon. Translated by Masataka Chihaya. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1991.
Books
Agawa, Hiroyuki. The Reluctant Admiral: Yamamoto and the Imperial Navy. Translated by John Bester. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1979.
Asada, Sadao. From Mahan to Pearl Harbor: The Imperial Japanese Navy and the United States. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2006.
Astor, Gerald. Wings of Gold: The U.S. Naval Air Campaign in World War II. New York: Ballantine Books, 2004.
Barde, Robert E. “The Battle of Midway: A Study in Command.” Ph.D. diss., University of Maryland, 1971.
Belote, James H., and William M. Belote. Titans of the Seas: The Development and Operations of Japanese and American Carrier Task Forces during World War II. New York: Harper & Row, 1975.
Brown, Louis. A Radar History of World War II: Technical and Military Imperatives. Bristol, UK: Institute of Physics, 1999.
Buell, Thomas B. Master of Sea Power: A Biography of Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King. Boston: Little, Brown, 1980.
———. The Quiet Warrior: A Biography of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance. Boston: Little, Brown, 1974.
Buford, Rowland, and William B. Boyd. U.S. Navy Bureau of Ordnance in World War II. Washington, DC: Bureau of Ordnance, 1953.
Campbell, John. Naval Weapons of World War Two. London: Conway Maritime, 1985.
Catton, Bruce. The War Lords of Washington. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1948.
Coletta, Paolo E. Bald Eagle: Admiral Marc A. Mitscher and U.S. Naval Aviation. Lewiston, NY: Mellen, 1997.
Cressman, Robert J., Steve Ewing, Barrett Tillman, Mark Horan, Clark Reynolds, and Stan Cohen. “A Glorious Page in Our History”: The Battle of Midway, 4–6 June 1942. Missoula, MT: Pictorial Histories, 1990.
Dull, Paul S. A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941–1945. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1978.
Ewing, Steve, and John B. Lundstrom. Fateful Rendezvous: The Life of Butch O’Hare. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1997.
Gannon, Robert. Hellions of the Deep: The Development of American Torpedoes in World War II. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996.
Glines, Carroll V. Doolittle’s Tokyo Raiders. Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand, 1964.
Haufler, Hervie. Codebreakers’ Victory: How the Allied Cryptographers Won World War II. New York: New American Library, 2003.
Heinl, R. D., Jr. Marines at Midway. Washington, DC: Historical Section, Division of Public Information, U.S. Marine Corps. 1948.
Hoehling, A. A. The Lexington Goes Down. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1971.
Hoppes, Jonna Doolittle. Calculated Risk: The Extraordinary Life of Jimmy Doolittle, Aviation Pioneer and World War II Hero. Santa Monica, CA: Santa Monica Press, 2005.
Horn, Steve. The Second Attack on Pearl Harbor: Operation K and Other Japanese Attempts to Bomb America in World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2005.
Isom, Dallas Woodbury. Midway Inquest: Why the Japanese Lost the Battle of Midway. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007.
Kahn, David. The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1967.
———The Reader of Gentlemen’s Mail: Herbert O. Yardley and the Birth of American Codebreaking. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004.
Kernan, Alvin. The Unknown Battle of Midway: The Destruction of the American Torpedo Squadrons. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005.
Larrabee, Eric. Commander in Chief: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, His Lieutenants, and Their War. New York: Harper & Row, 1987.
Lewin, Ronald. The American Magic: Codes, Cyphers and the Defeat of Japan. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1982.
Lord, Walter. Incredible Victory. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.
Love, Robert William, Jr. The Chiefs of Naval Operations. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1980.
———. History of the U.S. Navy. Vol. 2, 1942–1991. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1992.
Lundstrom, John B. Black Shoe Carrier Admiral: Frank Jack Fletcher at Coral Sea, Midway, and Guadalcanal. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2006.
———. The First South Pacific Campaign: Pacific Fleet Strategy, December 1941–June 1942. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1976.
———. The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1984.
MacIntyre, Donald. Fighting Admiral: The Life of Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Somerville, G.C.B., G.B.E., D.S.O. London: Evans Brothers, 1961.
Middlebrook, Martin, and Patrick Mahoney. Battleship: The Loss of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse. London: Lane, 1977.
Morison, Samuel Eliot. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. 15 vols. Boston: Little, Brown, 1947–63.
See esp. vol. 3: The Rising Sun in the Pacific, 1931–April 1942 (1948); and vol. 4: Coral Sea, Midway, and Submarine Actions, May 1942–August 1942 (1949).
Mrazek, Robert J. A Dawn Like Thunder: The True Story of Torpedo Squadron Eight. New York: Little, Brown, 2008.
Nesmith, Jeff. No Higher Honor: The U.S.S. Yorktown at the Battle of Midway. Atlanta: Longstreet, 1999.
Parker, Frederick D. A Priceless Advantage: U.S. Navy Communications Intelligence and the Battles of Coral Sea, Midway, and the Aleutians. Ft. Meade, MD: Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency, 1993.
Parshall, Jonathan B., and Anthony P. Tully. Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway. Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2005.
Peattie, Mark R. Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power, 1909–1941. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2001.
Potter, E. B. Bull Halsey. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1985.
———. Nimitz. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1976.
Potter, John Deane. Admiral of the Pacific: The Life of Yamamoto. London: Heinemann, 1965.
Prados, John. Combined Fleet Decoded: The Secret History of American Intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II. New York: Random House, 1995.
Prange, Gordon W., Donald M. Goldstein, and Katherine V. Dillon. Miracle at Midway. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982.
Regan, Stephen D. In Bitter Tempest: The Biography of Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1994.
Reynolds, Quentin. The Amazing Mr. Doolittle: A Biography of Lieutenant General James H. Doolittle. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1953.
Schultz, Duane. The Doolittle Raid. New York: St. Martin’s, 1988.
Simpson, B. Mitchell, III. Admiral Harold R. Stark: Architect of Victory, 1939–1945.
Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1989.
Smith, Peter C. Midway: Dauntless Victory; Fresh Perspectives on America’s Seminal Naval Victory of World War II. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2007.
Stafford, Edward P. The Big E: The Story of the USS Enterprise. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2002. First published 1962 by Random House.
Stephan, John J. Hawaii under the Rising Sun: Japan’s Plans for Conquest after Pearl Harbor. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1984.
Symonds, Craig L. Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles that Shaped American History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Taylor, Theodore. The Magnificent Mitscher. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1991. First published 1954 by Norton.
Thomas, Lowell, and Edward Jablonski. Doolittle: A Biography. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976.
Tillman, Barrett. The Dauntless Dive Bomber of World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1976.
———. Wildcat: The F4F in WWII. 2nd ed. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1990.
Weisheit, Bowen P. The Last Flight of Ensign C. Markland Kelly, Junior, USNA, Battle of Midway, June 4, 1942. Baltimore: Ensign C. Markland Kelly, Jr., Memorial Foundation, 1993.
Wildenberg, Thomas, and Norman Polmar. Ship Killer: A History of the American Torpedo. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2010.
Willmott, H. P. The Barrier and the Javelin: Japanese and Allied Pacific Strategies, February to June 1942. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1983.
———. Empires in the Balance: Japanese and Allied Pacific Strategies to April 1942. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1982.
Winton, John. Ultra in the Pacific: How Breaking Japanese Codes and Cyphers Affected Naval Operations against Japan 1941–45. London: Cooper, 1993.
Wolf, William. Victory Roll! The American Fighter Pilot and Aircraft in World War II. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Books, 2001.
Articles
Earnest, Albert K., and Harry Ferrier. “Avengers at Midway.” Foundation 17, no. 2 (Spring 1996): 48–53.
Hudson, Alec [Wilfred J. Holmes]. “Rendezvous.” Saturday Evening Post, August 2, 1941, 9–11, 70–72, and August 9, 1941, 30–32, 71–75.
Knott, Dick. “Night Torpedo Attack.” Naval Aviation News, June 1982, 10–13.
Linder, Bruce R., “Lost Letter of Midway.” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 125, no. 8 (August 1999): 29–35.
Lundstrom, John B. “A Failure of Radio Intelligence: An Episode in the Battle of the Coral Sea.” Cryptologia 7, no. 2 (1983): 97–118.
Parshall, Jonathan. “Reflecting on Fuchida, or ‘A Tale of Three Whoppers.’” Naval War College Review 63, no. 2 (Spring 2010):127–38.
Pineau, Roger. “The Death of Admiral Yamamoto.” Naval Intelligence Professionals Quarterly 10, no. 4 (October 1994): 1–5.
Schorreck, Henry F. “The Role of COMINT in the Battle of Midway.” Cryptologic Spectrum 5, no. 3 (Summer 1975), 3–11.
Schultz, Robert, and James Shell. “Strange Fortune.” World War II, May/June 2010, 58–65.
Vote, Robert. “The Death of Admiral Yamamoto.” Retired Officer, November 1979, 27–30.
Wildenberg, Thomas. “Midway: Sheer Luck or Better Doctrine?” Naval War College Review 58 (Winter 2005): 121–35.
Worthington, Joseph M. “A Destroyer at Midway.” Shipmate, January 1965, 4–8.