Wade McClusky and the Battle of Midway Lib/E

by David Rigby

The story of the man who won the battle of Midway and avenged Pearl Harbor for the United States.

During the Battle of Midway in June 1942, US Navy dive bomber pilot Wade McClusky proved himself to be one of the greatest pilots and combat leaders in American history, but his story has never been told-until now.

It was Wade McClusky who remained calm when the Japanese fleet was not where it was expected to be. It was he who made the counterintuitive choice to then search to the north instead of to the south. It was also McClusky who took the calculated risk of continuing to search even though his bombers were low on fuel and may not have enough to make it back to the Enterprise. His ability to remain calm under enormous pressure played a huge role in the US Navy winning this decisive victory that turned the tide of war in the Pacific.

This book is the story of exactly the right man being in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. Wade McClusky was that man and this is his story.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, World War II, American History

Audio CD

Published May 19, 2019

Reviews

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Osprey Publishing for allowing me to read this prerelease digital book in exchange for an impartial review. I really wanted to like this book. I agree with the author that McCluskey was an American hero and played a key role in not only winning the Battle of Midway, but in turning the tide of the war in the Allies favor. I enjoyed reading about Wade McCluskey’s early life and his days at the Naval Academy. I was fascinated by his role in the Battle of Midway, when as the aircraft carrier Enterprise's air group commander he made the critical tactical decision that led to the sinking of two of Japan's fleet carriers, Kaga and Akagi. When McClusky could not find the Japanese carriers where he expected them, and with his air group's fuel running dangerously low, he spotted the Japanese destroyer Arashi steaming north at flank speed. (The Arashi had stayed behind to attack the submarine USS Nautilus, which had been harassing the Japanese fleet.) Surmising that the Arashi must be following the main fleet, McClusky ordered a change in course to follow the Arashi. This led him directly to the enemy carriers. He then directed his dive-bombers into an attack which led to the destruction of both Kaga and Akagi. A squadron from the Yorktown had taken off an hour later, but it used a more recent, and hence more accurate sighting for the location of the Japanese carriers. It arrived at the same moment as the Enterprise's bombers and attacked the Soryu, and within minutes, three of the four Japanese carriers had been turned into burning hulks. All of that was great, but unfortunately rather than dwelling on the McCluskey’s accomplishments and the battle action, the author seemed obsessed with other historians’ critical comments. For example, some recent historians have criticized McCluskey’s lack of experience with dive bombers as leading to errors in judgement. This is because McCluskey had only been promoted to air group commander one month earlier and before that had been a fighter pilot. He had switched to dive bombers upon his promotion. The author does a good job of disputing their claim by describing McCluskey’s extensive fight training hours in all types of aircraft including fighters, dive bombers and torpedoes bombers. He was in fact one of the most experienced pilots in the Navy at that time. The problem is the author refuses to let it go and argues the point over and over throughout the book. He also spends a great deal of time and repetition over other historians’ criticism of McCluskey’s decision as to which carrier to attack first and whether it conformed to dive bomber doctrine. The fact is his group sunk the two carriers they attacked so all the discussion of which should have come first is moot. But the author returns to this over and over. This would have been a much better book had the author concentrated on telling the story of McCluskey and the Battle of Midway and devoted one chapter to correcting criticism and misstatements concerning McCluskey’s actions. His repeated rants ruined the narrative flow of the book for me.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very cool book, especially since I love the new Midway (2019) movie so much. This book really helped round out Wade McClusky as portrayed by Luke Evans in the movie and let me understand even better the pivotal part he played in winning the Battle of Midway during WWII.

Although the book title would suggest that this focuses solely on his role in that particular battle, it's actually a full biography of McClusky, going from his boyhood through his early naval career, and continuing on past the war into his retirement and eventual death. But the bulk of the book does involve that particular battle and all the factors that went into how it played out.

I enjoyed this book overall, and I learned a great deal about Midway and the US Navy's aviation program and presence in WWII as a whole, which was really cool.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating account of the life and career of Wade McClusky, hero of the Battle of Midway and one who's been largely overlooked until now. Thanks to David Rigby's book, we now have a most readable account of McClusky's story, with emphasis of his actions on 4 June 1942. Very few people have single-handedly changed the course of history like McClusky at Midway. I am glad to see his story being told and wish it the readership it deserves.

[Lauren · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. This book reads like a 7th grade history paper. The author is clearly A FAN of Wade and his enthusiasm for the topic can not hide the amateur nature of the writing. I couldn’t finish the book.

[Mark Mears · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wade McClusky & the Battle of Midway

David Rigby

I found the book interesting. There are many people in history who become famous for a small window of public events, who we only know for those few seconds or hours and know nothing else about. Wade McClusky is one of the many I wanted to know more about.

His decisions during the Battle of Midway very likely saved lives and won the battle. We cannot say that definitively, but it is logical to believe so. I did not know he had so many detractors who claim he did these things wrong.

These arguments are likely made by people who have forgotten one the guiding principles of any fight. The best laid plans seldom survive the first shot.

I do believe the author used too much filler language. Some explanations to make a point are necessary; but some are not really pertinent to the subject at hand.

Overall, the book was informative and interesting. I would recommend it to anyone focused on the battle and its participants.

[Jim Beatty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Indeed in the early 1960s Wade earned a modest stipend for serving as the expert consultant for the Baltimore based Avalon Hills company's war game Midway.

[Jonathan Harbour · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gave up at the halfway point because the author would not quit obsessing over Wade's competency as a dive-bomber pilot skilled with the STB Devastator. I just got tired of hearing about it 20x up to the halfway point and quit listening. Very amateur biography and it turns out this author is not a biographer and had no point writing this story.

[Mark Reagen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Primarily a defense of the man against criticisms that a) I never knew existed and b) were petty and irrelevant.

[Shrike58 · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this is an interesting book I do have some doubts about it, mostly in regards to purpose. Although Rigby has the polemical concern of defending the memory of McClusky from accusations gathering since the 1990s that his contribution to the "incredible victory" of Midway was really a semi-failure, due to alleged unfamiliarity with U.S. Navy air attack doctrine, one really has to wonder if this is mostly about an ongoing campaign to get McClusky a posthumous Medal of Honor. Other small issues include setting up Stanhope Ring, air group commander of the "Hornet," as something of a straw man, while disregarding what we now know about Ring's own issues with the bad staff work at the task-force level. There's also Rigby's apparent inability to distinguish his Japanese flying boats using the allied reporting name of "Emily" for the H6K "Mavis," unless he's using the H6K designation when he should be using H8K. This is not to mention that Rigby also invokes the so-called "Gun Club" as an impediment to naval airpower on a regular basis, when current scholarship indicates that the Navy's high command was prepared to use airpower for all it was worth, in the pursuit of creating a balanced fleet within the constraints at hand.

All that said, with the cooperation of McClusky's family, Rigby does give us an interesting portrait of a modest and conscientious man who was, perhaps, not quite forceful enough to advance his own career at the right moments. Besides being part of a mass of eligible candidates that were always going to be subjected to ruthless screening, that McClusky didn't achieve active command at flag-rank I would mostly attribute to his inability to secure a fleet-carrier command at the opportune moment in time. McClusky was certainly being groomed for flag rank, but doesn't seemed to have had the right jobs at the right time.

[patrick Lorelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very captivating story about dive bomber pilot Wade McClusky and how by his steadfast action and patience turned the tide of the war by locating the Japanese fleet. The author mentions numerous times how he should have been acknowledged, more and given more credit for finding the Japanese fleet. This point I got the first few times he mentions it but the author repeats this many, many times in the book and does take away from what actually is a good book. What I believe the author was wanting to do was show how valuable he was to the entire battle and debunk other historians who have said that McClusky should not have been leading his squadron that day or how he missed when releasing his bomb. His group though sunk two carriers and after his miss, the pilots after him had a better alignment for the release of their bombs.
What should be noted is the author speaks about how the Japanese left carriers back in Japan thinking they would not need them. Also, he talks about how Pearl was already in the rebuilding stage and rushed to put a carrier back out with men working around the clock. This would be the beginning of the change that the Japanese did not foresee. The Imperial Navy suffered a great loss that day for the pilots they lost were not replaced. Their experience was far greater than the Americans, but now with the loss of planes and men, the war would begin to change slowly. Overall a good book. I received this book from Netgalley.com I gave it 4 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com

[Dan Curnutt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wade McClusky is an unsung hero from WWII. He was the commanding officer/Pilot of two squadron's of SBD Dive Bombers who found the Japanese Fleet on June 4, 1942 and pressed a surprise attack that sank three of the four Japanese Aircraft Carriers at Midway.

McClusky received high praise from the Navy and even the President of the United States. He was credited with changing the course of the war in the Pacific with the Japanese. But he hasn't always received the honors that he deserves from historians. Some historians felt he did not have a good sense of Dive Bomber tactics. But how can you argue with a man who lead the attack that sunk three of Japan's major air craft carriers and turned the tide of the battle of Midway?

David Rigby doesn't just give you a blow by blow of a "ten minute battle" that changed the war. Instead he gives you the background of who McClusky was and how he earned his "wings" and the gratitude of a nation, even though they didn't really understand what he did.

I found the book completely captivating. I finished it in two days reading. I couldn't put it down because of the intrigue of not just the Battle of Midway but the documentation of the founding of Naval Air Warfare and air craft carriers. This is a great history book that gives a great background into something that more American's should read and understand.

I hope you enjoy it.

[Kipi (the academic stitcher) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it's very appropriate to finally have a biography of one of the most important pilots who flew at Midway, and I very much enjoyed learning Wade McClusky's story. That being said, the author obviously had an agenda in how he presented much of the information in this book, and that was to try to erase the recent trend among historians to accuse McClusky of being unfamiliar with dive-bombing doctrine and nearly screwing up the attack on the Kaga and the Akagi. I think the author does a good job of proving that 1) McClusky was probably much more familiar with doctrine than he's given credit for and 2) the doctrine itself was confusing and contradictory. As another reviewer points out, the book would have been much better had the author perhaps dedicated one chapter to proving this point and then just told the story instead of bringing it up over and over again. I completely agree that this would have improved the book and would probably have been more effective in persuading readers to his way of thinking. Regardless, I'm glad that McClusky's story has finally been told.

The audiobook is narrated by David Stifel. His performance is okay in general, but he mispronounces a number of names and important words, and that drives me crazy.

[Terry Gardner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about a Great Man

When one writes a book about a famous person I would look at the actual written history off when it happened not preconceived ideas as it appears some current authors have done regarding the battle of Midway. I've been a student of the battle for well over 40 years. Lord, Prange, and Morrison talked to the participants. Those who second guess or try to place blame on Wade McClusky for not following the book on how to dive bomb claiming he didn't have the skills to do it didn't do much in the way of research, nor did they look at the final outcome. I agree with others that he should have received the Congressional Medal of Honor. During the early portion of the Pacific war it was given to others that did far less. If Wade McClusky hadn't used his instincts to go beyond what was expected the outcome may have gone terribly wrong and the Pacific war could have lasted much longer.

[Joe Bianco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a good book if interested in the subject matter. I've read many books on the subject and and biographies of the participants. At the present time historians are starting to nit-pick decisions made 75 years ago by warriors in the heat of the battle. While I welcome exploration of different perspectives from a deep historical perspective, often this leads to conclusions on a persons character when the evidence is based on eye witness recollections often years after the events actually occured. Wade McClusky is now the recipient of some of this type of criticism. Rigby skillfully explains the various points of view and defends McClusky's record. I give 4 stars only because the author at times spends too much time explaining secondary players and events. If I could I'd give it 4 1/2 stars.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting history. The book had a lot of information that was unfamiliar to me. It’s odd that McClusky didn’t receive more notoriety, given his pivotal role in the battle of Midway. His level headed decision making combined with a bit of luck may very well have saved the war for us. If he hadn’t located the Japanese, they very well could have destroyed our carriers. Instead we destroyed theirs. The admirals and code breakers got the credit, but the dive bombers did the work. I listened to the book on Libby and probably should have read it. The reader was monotoned and flat. He also had a defensive tone that made it seem that McClusky needed to be defended rather than celebrated.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Half biography half history, Wade McClusky and the Battle of Midway is a fascinating read. There have been many books written about that 1942 battle, but the inclusion of the Wade McClusky details made this book from David Rigby all the more impressive. Mr Rigby made the experience come alive for me and I appreciated his conversational tone. His dedication to research is obvious and I think this book deserves a place on any library shelf.
I received my copy through NetGalley under no obligation.

[Michael Delaware · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a well researched book. The only thing keeping me from giving it 5 stars is that at times it felt the author was overkilling particular points, such as discounting the critics of Wade McClusky. He seemed to be repeating over and over the same clarifying position, which became a bit redundant.
However, the contributions of Wade McCluskly and his incredible career and contributions to serving our nation are well detailed in the book, and it does a great deal of respect and recogition to one of America's great World War II heroes.

[Mark Vetter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read a lot of books on what was the beginning of the end for the Japanese in the Pacific, but this is the first I have ever read that focuses on LCDR Wade McClusky, who led the SBD Dauntless squadrons flying off the carrier USS Enterprise - and the man who single-handedly may have turned the tide of war in the Pacific by choosing to follow a hunch....a hunch that would leave the cream of the Japanese navy burning hulks,

[Diane Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Detailed account of McCluskey,'s part in the Battle of Midway.

This is a very detailed look at the career of Wade McCluskey, who com



I enjoyed this account off Wade McCluskey's career, but of course the meat of this book is McCluskey's decisive role in the Battle of Midway, which as far as I'm concerned is settled for once and for all. Without Wade McCluskey, the battle would have been lost. He was the right man in the right place at the right time.

[Ethan Symon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great read for anyone interested in the Pacific campaign.
With facts and details missed or more likely ignored by critics of Wade McClusky, this book is a great biography of great man and hero.

[Keith A Kildow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Midway account

Good bio and good reading. This gives one of our unsung heroes due justice.
This book gives the reader a better understanding of the man.

[Arnold T. Blostein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good

It was a good book but would have been better had the author let the reader make their own conclusions about the role McCoy sky played.

[sam silberstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Wade McClusky Bio!

This was a very enjoyable and well researched book. The most comprehensive bio of the BoM's most outstanding hero! Very well done Mr. Rigby!

[Mikko Åberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

En tiedä miten Midwayn taistelun ehkä tärkeimmän ratkaisun tehneestä miehestä on saatu näin tylsä kirja.

[Dwayne Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really more like 3.5 stars. Great information but, yeah, the writing is dry and clunky at times.