Remembering the Battle of Midway 75 years later

One of the greatest naval battles of all time, the Battle of Midway, along with the Guadalcanal Campaign, is widely considered a turning point in the Pacific Theatre in World War II. From June 4-7,1942, the U.S. Navy decisively defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy at Midway, a tiny atoll at the extreme northwest end of the Hawaiian Island chain. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Midway.

The Manatee County Public Library System has books, DVDs, and other resources about the Battle of Midway in particular and the Pacific Theatre of World War II in general.

“The Battle for Midway” is a National Geographic online streaming video available anytime on Hoopla, one of the library system’s electronic databases. Running almost an hour, the documentary recreates the famous battle and follows Dr. Robert Ballard, the discoverer of the “Titanic,” as he leads a team of experts and American and Japanese World War II veterans to locate the USS Yorktown and one of the four Japanese aircraft carriers that was also sunk.

Originally produced as a NBC television series (in cooperation with the U.S. Navy) in 1952, “Victory at Sea” is a two DVD set comprised of 26 episodes about the campaigns of World War II, concentrating on battles and action at sea and featuring actual documentary footage.

N. Jack “Dusty” Kleiss spent years working with naval historians Timothy and Laura Orr to publish his memoir, “Never Call Me a Hero,” in time for the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Midway. Sadly, as the book neared completion in 2016, Dusty Kleiss passed away at age 100, the last surviving dive-bomber pilot to have fought at Midway. On the morning of June 4, 1942, Kleiss piloted his SBD Dauntless into a daring near vertical dive, dropping three bombs onto the deck of one of the Japanese Navy’s aircraft carriers. Remarkably, that same afternoon after flying back to the USS Enterprise, he returned to assist in sinking another Japanese carrier. Three days later, he helped sink a third Japanese ship.

In “Joe Rochefort’s War: the Odyssey of the Codebreaker who Outwitted Yamamoto at Midway,” author Elliot Carlson tells the biography of Capt. Joe Rochefort who headed the U.S. Navy’s decrypt unit at Pearl Harbor and broke the Japanese Navy’s code before the Battle of Midway. An irreverent and fiercely independent officer, Rochefort’s opponents in Washington forced his removal from the decrypt unit at Pearl and denied him the Distinguished Service Medal recommended by Admiral Nimitz.

“The Search for the Japanese Fleet: USS Nautilus and the Battle of Midway” by David W. Jourdan, details the role that American submarines played in the Battle of Midway. The USS Nautilus, one of the oldest subs in the navy, played a pivotal role in the engagement. Fifty-seven years later, Jourdan’s team of deep sea explorers set out to find the Japanese ships sunk by allied forces.

Access the online library catalog at http://manatee.polarislibrary.com to learn more about the Pacific Theatre in World War II.

Speaking Volumes, written by Manatee County Public Library System staff members, is published each Sunday. Fran Barba is a reference librarian at the downtown Central Library.

This story was originally published June 2, 2017 at 5:15 PM with the headline "Remembering the Battle of Midway 75 years later."