Taking Midway - by Martin Dugard (Hardcover)

About the Book

"From Martin Dugard, #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Bill O'Reilly's Killing series--with more than twelve million copies sold--comes a fast-paced, dramatic account of the famous yet little understood battle that turned the tide of World War II"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

From Martin Dugard, #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Bill O'Reilly's Killing series, comes a fast-paced, dramatic account of the famous yet little-understood battle that turned the tide of World War II.

1942. Everywhere around the world, the Allies are losing the war. Nowhere is this felt more completely than in the Pacific, where Japanese sea and ground forces claim victory after victory. Singapore falls. Then the Philippines. The vaunted American Navy fights to a draw with the Japanese at the Battle of Coral Sea. America's lone moral victory is Colonel Jimmy Doolittle's bombing raid on Tokyo--though even that is tinged with tragedy as two crew members are shot down and beheaded.

Meanwhile in Honolulu, a brilliant young naval officer is determined to break Japan's top secret codes. Lieutenant Commander Joseph Rochefort is close to cracking the code by April. He is then startled to learn that the Japanese are planning yet another major invasion somewhere in the Pacific. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is planning to send four aircraft carriers to complete this task, in a bold attack that will be even larger than the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

Rochefort's methods are unique, and those in power in the US Navy find his data flawed. Simply, many don't believe him. The best mind in the US Navy believes the next big attack will come at New Guinea or Australia.

To prove himself, Rochefort must not only find the precise location but predict the date. What ensues is the cat-and-mouse adventure that will become the epic fight known as the Battle of Midway. American and Japanese pilots duel in the skies. Japan's Yamamoto will go toe-to-toe with American admirals Chester Nimitz, Jack Fletcher, and Raymond Spruance. The dramatic battle will involve strategy, luck, heartbreak--and will dramatically alter the course of World War II.

Review Quotes

"Dugard provides a book that combines the history of Midway Island, the herculean cryptological efforts to discover the Japanese operation, the bold risks taken by the U.S. Navy to make good that advantage, and the experiences of the men fighting in the air and on the island that is most certainly worth a read." --Cipher Brief

"All the familiar characters are here... in Mr. Dugard's dramatic style." --Wall Street Journal

"Invigorating.... I highly recommend." --History Nerds United

"Dugard's clipped, no-nonsense prose...and raw style...make this into an immersive adventure. WWII buffs will be engrossed." --Publishers Weekly

Praise for Martin Dugard's Taking Series:
"[Dugard's] ambition is to tell a gripping story. In this he succeeds triumphantly. One reads his narrative, mostly in the present tense, as if watching a film.... Dugard has real narrative gifts."--The Washington Post

"Taking Paris reads like a film script; such is the immediacy of the writing and use of the present tense that you feel yourself in the action, striding up the Champs-Élysées liberating the French capital from the Nazis."--Andrew Roberts, New York Times bestselling author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny

"Taking Paris does for Paris during World War II what The Splendid and the Vile did for London. Martin Dugard knows how to make history read with as much pace as the best fiction."--James Patterson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Deadly Cross

"With a master storyteller's faultless pacing, Martin Dugard brings to life all the glory, tension, heroism, and tragedy of the last months of the Third Reich. I loved this book--gripping, popular history at its page-turning best."--Alex Kershaw, New York Times bestselling author of Against All Odds and The First Wave

"Colorful, delightfully evocative, and filled with a cast of some of the greatest characters of the 20th century, Martin Dugard's Taking London is the closest you can get to London in 1940 without a time machine." --Garrett M. Graff, New York Times Bestselling author of The Only Plane in the Sky and UFO

About the Author

Martin Dugard is the New York Times bestselling author of Taking London, Taking Paris, and Taking Berlin, and coauthor of the Killing series, and, most recently, Confronting the Presidents.