REVIEWS

Stansfeld has penned a very intriguing alternative to the Pacific War and I recommend it to any Pacific War student.

ww2 Today

This new study (2021) considers in considerable detail an alternative history regarding the Japanese approach to war in the 1930s and 1940s. If the Japanese had spent more resources on building carriers rather than battleships would they have been better placed to fight the war that they fought in 1941? Did they have the capacity to build such carriers, did they have the planes and pilots to arm them properly? As such this book is very much for those deeply interested in the Pacific War.

The author ranges far and wide in his considerations of Japanese military capabilities with particular attention to the underlying philosophies that drove the Japanese Navy, not least the influence of Yamamoto.

The following excerpt concerns the thinking and tactics adopted by Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, the Japanese commander at the Battle of Midway. Did he take a massive gamble that he would have the time to launch a complete knock-out blow against the US carriers? What influenced that gamble?

Click here to read excerpt …