Clash of the Carriers
The True Story of the Marianas Turkey Shoot of World War II

I picked this up from a used bookstore because they had it cheap. I've read one other book about the Battle of the Philippine Sea, Red Sun Setting: The Battle of the Philippine Sea, but it was over a decade ago. I liked that this didn't just cover the Turkey Shoot and strike into darkness the next da......more

There is a lot of information packed into this book. I hate to say too much, but Tillman seems to want to leave no account unturned. The prose is a bit sloppy and uneven. Some passages soar others are ham-fisted. At any rate, the battle is interesting. Much of modern carrier operations and doctrine s......more

Clash of the Carriers is a moderately detailed run down of the naval battles off the coast of Saipan, which featured the American navy transforming fully into it's endgame combat form: multiple fists of unmatched naval aviation. Meanwhile, the Japanese squandered the remnants of their veteran air wi......more

A really good writer and an extremely well researched book. It is loaded with a large amount of technical details about the different aircraft and their capabilities - which I personally find fascinating and wish more historians would do. Tillman also has did a tremendous amount of research collectin......more

Marvel of extensive research, in-depth knowledge, and skilled writing. Aerial combat is a tremendously difficult subject to write clearly due to the three dimensional nature it entails. Then add opponents of two drastically different national air squadrons and aircraft, it takes a very skilled histor......more