I’d like to see the same attention paid to Midway, the battle that broke Japan’s back. The story behind it is much more interesting than D-Day. The best D-Day book I have is from the German perspective.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071NTXK2H/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
The best D-Day book I have is from the German perspective.
As you get deeper into 1944, the tone changes. “Our brave boys are shifting moving to more defensible positions”, i.e. retreating. Then, in a later broadcast Goebbels says something to the effect “you won’t get into Aachen as easily as you did into Paris or Bucharest”, which I’m sure told the discerning listener that at this point the war was pretty much lost.
TCM does a good job of showing them when relevant.
I watched about a 20 minute video on Midway. It truly was the turning point in the war in the Pacific. Although the Japanese lost four carriers and a lot of pilots and air crew, they still had a formidable navy. Still had adequate pilots and carriers.
I think Midway (and to a lesser extent, Coral Sea) was more psychological than anything. The Japanese realized they were not invincible.
The Americans were still a long way from the massive Navy we had in 1945.
This was sealed up for 75 years after the Battle of Midway:
Retropolis
Unsealed 75 years after the Battle of Midway: New details of an alarming WWII press leak!: June 5, 2017
Six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the June 7, 1942, edition of the Chicago Sunday Tribune, trumpeted news of a stunning American victory over a Japanese armada at the Battle of Midway.
Jap Fleet Smashed by U.S.; 2 Carriers Sunk at Midway: 13 to 15 Nippon Ships Hit; Pacific Battle Rages, the front-page headlines read. And in the center of the page, an intriguing side story: Navy Had Word of Jap Plan to Strike at Sea.
It was a fascinating, and detailed, description of much of what American intelligence knew beforehand of the enemys fleet and plans. Indeed, it was too detailed.
The report 14 paragraphs long suggested a secret U.S. intelligence coup, and it became one of the biggest and potentially damaging news leaks of World War II.
The leak hinted that the United States had cracked a Japanese communications code, sparking fury in the Navy and the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and starting an espionage probe by the FBI. It also led to a sensitive grand jury investigation for which testimony would be sealed for more than seven decades.
Excerpted, for full story go to link below:
A new movie about Midwsy is in editing right now. Release scheduled for Nov 2019