Flattops at War

by Wallace B. Black

An account of aircraft carrier activity during World War II, focusing on the battles of the Coral Sea, Midway, and the Marianas

48 pages, Library Binding

First published October 1, 1991

About the author

Publisher and husband of author Jean F. Blashfield / Jean Blashfield Black , who he married in 1976. He has collaborated with his wife on a number of juvenile non-fiction works.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Continuing a trend I began a few years ago of reading a book – any book, including books for children – on special occasions to commemorate them, I chose this book during a busy time to commemorate the battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway for the 75th anniversaries of those events in May and June of 2017. This book begins with the Pearl Harbor attack and also covers Doolittle’s Raid on Tokyo (the 75th anniversaries of which were also recent events) and proceeds through the rest of the war with the focus (obviously) on the role of aircraft carriers, but it’s apparent that Coral Sea and Midway changed the momentum of the war.

This was a pretty good book for kids. It gives the basics of the war in the Pacific and recounts briefly the stories of the war and the evolution of aircraft carriers as the premiere weapon of navies. The last 1/3 of the book was informative, talking of the use of light carriers and their use against U-Boot Wolf Packs in the Atlantic Ocean and as supports for island invasions in the Pacific as the war progressed.

I was glad I read this book, and although the information was superficial, it was nevertheless worth a quick read. This would be a good primer for teaching about the history and development of the aircraft carrier during WW2 and will probably lead to more reading about the battles mentioned, so I will give it 5 stars.