Shattered sword

What Hacker News says

1. bloopernovaApr 2025
   The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by James Hornfischer. The amazing courage shown by the US Navy sailors as their tiny 2,000 ton Destroyers and Destroyer Escorts faced a Japanese fleet of Battleships, Cruisers, and Destroyers at The Battle Off Samar. Inspiring and horrifying, the DDs and DEs of the US navy were protecting "Escort Carriers" which were smaller aircraft carriers made from cargo ship hulls. Warning, may inspire you to learn a whole bunch more about world war 2.

   And 2 books that sort of go together:

   Incredible Victory: The Battle of Midway by Walter Lord, and Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully. Read Incredible Victory first, learn about the luck, good and bad, that led to a much-needed victory in the Pacific. Then read Shattered Sword and get a fuller picture of events, especially from the Japanese side. Learn about how hubris and dogma led to the Japanese Navy's defeat. Then learn about how saving face led to history not being accurately told by the witnesses on the Japanese side.

   All 3 are great books that are well worth your time.

   Others that I've enjoyed:

   Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (near future post-apocalyptic sci-fi).

   The non-fiction Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson (more WW2 non-fiction, nice details about North Africa through Italy, then France to Germany).

   Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham.

   Most Secret War by RV Jones (nerdy, funny history of one scientist's world war 2 experience).

   The Discworld City Guard books, starting with Guards! Guards!, by Terry Pratchett. Fantasy fiction satire, hilarious and comforting. Highly, highly recommended!!

   Peter F Hamilton sci-fi adventure books: Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained are a duo of great space opera stretching across multiple planets and people. Don't spoil yourself by reading any descriptions of Judas Unchained before you read Pandora's Star. Also by the same author, The Night's Dawn Trilogy: The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, and The Naked God. Fantastic big canvas space opera with lots of threads, great world-building, and amazing situations. Both sets of books are highly recommended escapes from reality.

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2. bloopernovaJun 2024
   These 2, in this order:

   Incredible Victory by Walter Lord[1]. The story of Midway, fairly balanced.

   Shattered Sword by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully[2]. also about Midway, but more research on Japanese sources. Has updated information about some things that are taken as "truth" about Midway. Amazing book.

   EDITED to add:

   James Hornfischer has some great books about the Pacific Naval war:

   The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour[3]. 6 small escort carriers, and a handful of destroyers and destroyer-escorts vs the heavyweights of the Japanese fleet: Battleships and cruisers. Jaw-dropping descriptions of courage under fire. Fantastic book.

   Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal[4]. Covers several naval battles, but not much on the ground conflict. Really good book too.

   The Fleet at Flood Tide: America at Total War in the Pacific[5]. The late Pacific war, with the invasion of Saipan, and the naval aircraft battle of the Philippines, leading up to Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the end of the war.

   ----

   [1] https://www.amazon.com/Incredible-Victory-Battle-Midway-Clas...

   [2] https://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Sword-Untold-Battle-Midway/...

   [3] https://www.amazon.com/dp/0553381482

   [4] https://www.amazon.com/Neptunes-Inferno-U-S-Navy-Guadalcanal...

   [5] https://www.amazon.com/Fleet-Flood-Tide-America-1944-1945/dp...

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3. bloopernovaJun 2024
   Oh yeah, on the applying military concepts to software engineering: Shattered Sword talks a lot about organizational/strategic/doctrinal deficiencies and I found the lessons to be very relevant to how teams work. I definitely recommend that book if you're any kind of leader or work in development.
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4. DylanSpJan 2023
   Shattered Sword, by Anthony P. Tully and Jonathan Parshall. An in-depth analysis of the battle of Midway, primarily from the Japanese perspective, covering everything from the organizational culture of the IJN and its impact on Japanese doctrine and planning to the minute-by-minute events of the battle.
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5. ezsmiMay 2022
   > no ship-on-ship

   Do submarines count? If so, then yes.

   An important detail of the battle of midway was the Japanese didn’t think the American carriers were present. If they knew from the get go then the out come very likely would’ve been different. I.e. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Santa_Cruz_Isl...

   In the game, the Japanese would not be surprised.

   I think the concept could work. Just choose a different battle. :)

   P.S. If you’re into this stuff this is a must read. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shattered_Sword

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6. csoursDec 2021
   SOME of the dive bombing at Midway was effective, a lot of it was not. This was the first combat mission for many US pilots and so their dives were slow and shallow.

   Yes, it was bungled. The odds were hopeless at a certain point - which is what makes this operation so interesting to me. When did the odds become hopeless? October 1941 or December 7th or 10th or ... 1941?

   For poor navigation - it's not all on the pilots, this was hard throughout the war for all sides, but specifically I mean that different groups went different places.

   For Midway, I highly recommend reading Shattered Sword or watching any number of the presentations the authors have given.

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