Overview

A vivid new history of the Battle of Midway that transforms our understanding of the iconic turning point of the Second World War. The stunning and decisive battle of Midway was perhaps the most crucial naval battle in the Pacific theater during World War II. Walter Lord explained away the US victory at Midway against a numerically superior and apparently more skilled Japanese fleet due to 'Lady Luck.' In The Silver Waterfall acclaimed historian Brendan Simms and historian and military veteran Steve McGregor show it was no such thing. Luck had little to do with it.Instead the authors show how the forces of industrial dynamism and innovation were central to the US being able to win the war in the Pacific. Engineers, machinists, test pilots, and a willingness to experiment at scale were vital to the creation of the decisive element that would sink the hopes of Japan along with the pride of their aircraft carrier fleet: the Douglas Dauntless Dive Bomber dive bomber, whose vicious near vertical plummet from the sky to deliver a brutally accurate attack was the silver waterfall that the Japanese quickly came to dread. In a few deadly minutes they changed the course of the war in the Pacific.Equally important, the Navy drew on the skills of a wide variety of immigrants or descendants of immigrants--especially those from Germany, the principal hostile power. The engineer who designed the plane which decided the Battle of Midway was Ed Heinemann, the strategist who decided America would defend Midway Island was Chester Nimitz; and the pilot who symbolized American performance on the day was Dusty Kleiss. Without these men, America could not have designed, planned, or done what was needed to win. The Silver Waterfall offers a revelatory new history of Midway, showing that if the Americans were lucky, they made their own luck.

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9781668615256

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A vividly told and compelling history of one of history's most remarkable battles. While the Americans famously had much luck on their side, Simms and McGregor make clear that fortune favored the prepared--the Americans brought not only luck but also determination, skill, intrepidity, and professionalism. As the American Pacific primacy Midway helped gain is now under challenge from a rising China, this book serves as a timely and stirring reminder of the qualities it will take to sustain it.-- Elbridge Colby, author of Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development at the US Department of Defense The authors work hard to deliver new information... Satisfying World War II history.-- Kirkus Silver Waterfall provides a top-to-bottom description of the epic Battle of Midway.-- Barrett Tillman, author of Enterprise: America's Fightingest Ship The Silver Waterfall is a splendidly written account of America's greatest naval battle. Simms and McGregor capture the grand sweep of history and strategy while bringing to life the skill, luck and heroism of the men who turned the tide. An elegant tribute to the past with sobering reflections for our own time.-- A. Wess Mitchell, former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs From aeronautical drawing boards in Southern California to Pacific waters aflame with spilled oil from twisted steel hulks, The Silver Waterfall is a unique new telling of one of history's greatest battles. Written by one of the world's leading historians and by a US Army combat veteran, The Silver Waterfall reveals in detail how advanced technology, intelligence gathering, planning, and unimaginable heroism turned the tide of the Pacific War in a single, blood-soaked day. As America faces a geopolitical challenge in Asia potentially equal to that of the 1940s, Brendan Simms and Steven McGregor remind us why history remains a critical guide to thinking about the future. All policymakers should read the lessons in this book.-- Michael R. Auslin, author of Asia's New Geopolitics, Hoover Institution, Stanford University If you only read one book of history this year, make it Silver Waterfall. Nobody better conjures military history into view. We need urgently to understand their conclusion that 'unless the United States wakes up to the steady erosion of its naval power, it risks another Pearl Harbor-- without any guarantee of another Midway.'-- Kori Schake, Director of Foreign and Defense Policy at the American Enterprise Institute In The Silver Waterfall, authors Brendan Simms and Steven McGregor focus on how the pivotal 1942 Battle of Midway was equally a result of technology and solid training as it was good fortune in catching Admiral Nagumo's Japanese carrier fleet at such an inopportune moment. In their original presentation, the authors build up to the climax by focusing on dive bomber engineer Ed Heinemann, military strategist Chester Nimitz, and SBD Dauntless dive bomber pilot Norman Dusty Kleiss, a skilled aviator who epitomized American performance on June 4. The book is rich with gripping drama during its lengthy coverage of the key five-minute span where Nimitz's carrier air groups assault the Japanese carrier fleet. Simms and McGregor offer excellent Japanese perspectives of the chaos and destruction as carriers Kaga, Akagi, and Soryu are blasted apart. This fresh look at the Battle of Midway belongs on the bookshelf of any serious student of the Pacific War.-- Stephen L. Moore, author of Battle Stations: How the USS Yorktown Helped Turn the Tide at Coral Sea and Midway The battle of Midway in June 1942 has rightly held a commanding place in the history of the Second World War. And this great and significant new book by Professor Brendan Simms and veteran Steve McGregor not only reminds us of Midway's importance and drama, but also clearly establishes that the US victory was not just luck, despite common views to the contrary. Simms and McGregor relate a riveting story of migration, innovation, and skill that takes us from 1920s California to the climactic five minutes that doomed the Japanese strike force to destruction--and from there to the lessons of a climactic battle for a United States that once more faces a rising power in the Pacific. The Silver Waterfall is story of authentic American characters, settings, issues, and heroism that will stay with readers long after they put the book down.-- General David Petraeus, US Army (Ret.), former Commander of the Surge in Iraq, US Central Command, and US/Coalition Forces in Afghanistan and former Director of the CIA While the Battle of Midway was decided by a margin of just five minutes, this was a critical difference made possible by the U.S. Navy's relentless, painstaking effort. Numerous books have been written on this monumental battle to prove this point, but none shed better light on the battle-winning weapon, the Dauntless, than The Silver Waterfall. With extensive research on the technologies, tactics, and people behind the battle's aerial warfare, this book stands out among the literature, skillfully elucidating the ultimate causes of U.S. naval victory.-- Tsukamoto Katsuya, Head of the Security and Economy Division of the National Institute for Defense Studies, Japan

Author Information

Brendan Simms is author of The Longest Afternoon (2014) a dramatic description of the defence of the farm of La Haye Sainte during the battle of Waterloo. In 2019 he published an acclaimed biography of Hitler (2019). His most recent book, co-written with Charlie Laderman, Hitler's American Gamble. Pearl Harbour and Germany's March to Global War, appeared last year. Steven McGregor deployed to the Sunni Triangle of Death as an Infantry Officer in the 101st Airborne Division. There he earned the Combat Infantryman's Badge and the Purple Heart. After his military service he moved to England and completed post-graduate studies in History. This will be his first book. Brendan Simms is author of The Longest Afternoon (2014) a dramatic description of the defence of the farm of La Haye Sainte during the battle of Waterloo. In 2019 he published an acclaimed biography of Hitler (2019). His most recent book, co-written with Charlie Laderman, Hitler's American Gamble. Pearl Harbour and Germany's March to Global War, appeared last year. Steven McGregor is a US Army veteran with a graduate degree in history from the University of Cambridge.

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