Taking Midway, Martin Dugard
Taking Midway, Martin Dugard
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Taking Midway
Naval Warfare, Secret Codes, and the Battle that Turned the Tide of World War II

Author: Martin Dugard

Narrator: Samuel Roukin

Unabridged: 10 hr 59 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 05/20/2025


Synopsis

From Martin Dugard, #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Bill O'Reilly's Killing series, comes a fast-paced, dramatic account of the famous yet little-understood battle that turned the tide of World War II.

1942. Everywhere around the world, the Allies are losing the war. Nowhere is this felt more completely than in the Pacific, where Japanese sea and ground forces claim victory after victory. Singapore falls. Then the Philippines. The vaunted American Navy fights to a draw with the Japanese at the Battle of Coral Sea. America's lone moral victory is Colonel Jimmy Doolittle's bombing raid on Tokyo—though even that is tinged with tragedy as two crew members are shot down and beheaded.

Meanwhile in Honolulu, a brilliant young naval officer is determined to break Japan's top secret codes. Lieutenant Commander Joseph Rochefort is close to cracking the code by April. He is then startled to learn that the Japanese are planning yet another major invasion somewhere in the Pacific. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is planning to send four aircraft carriers to complete this task, in a bold attack that will be even larger than the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

Rochefort's methods are unique, and those in power in the US Navy find his data flawed. Simply, many don't believe him. The best mind in the US Navy believes the next big attack will come at New Guinea or Australia.

To prove himself, Rochefort must not only find the precise location but predict the date. What ensues is the cat-and-mouse adventure that will become the epic fight known as the Battle of Midway. American and Japanese pilots duel in the skies. Japan's Yamamoto will go toe-to-toe with American admirals Chester Nimitz, Jack Fletcher, and Raymond Spruance. The dramatic battle will involve strategy, luck, heartbreak—and will dramatically alter the course of World War II.

About The Author

Martin Dugard is the New York Times bestselling author of Taking London, Taking Paris, and Taking Berlin, and coauthor of the Killing series, and, most recently, Confronting the Presidents.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Brendan on March 18, 2025

Martin Dugard is a "gateway drug." Please let me explain. I had the distinct honor to interview Dugard for my podcast and he even described himself as a gateway drug to the casual reader who doesn't realize they love history, yet. His latest is Taking Midway and it might just be the best of his "Taki......more

Goodreads review by Suzanne on May 31, 2025

This is a great story about the Battle of Midway. Dugard is an excellent writer and I couldn't put the story down (most of the time) but...way too much background information with way too much jumping back in time throughout the book. Way too much about the history and birds of the island - chapter......more

Goodreads review by Dr. Alan on January 13, 2025

Prior to reading this latest work by Martin Dugard my knowledge base around the battle of Midway was largely from watching the two movies that centered on the subject; one in the 1970s with an all-star cast with Henry Fonda playing Admiral Charles Nimitz, and the 2019 remake with the Admiral played......more

Goodreads review by Dave on March 03, 2025

The Battle of Midway was a turning point in the Pacific theater of World War II, after months of the Imperial Japanese Navy dominating all aspects of the region. From the disaster of Pearl Harbor to the invasion of so many smaller island nations in the South Pacific, Midway was always seen as a flys......more

Goodreads review by Terri on April 17, 2025

This is an engrossing book. It starts with Britain’s Prince of Walesbattleship. What has that to do with Midway? Selected steps are covered from the start of WWII to the Battle of Midway. And the Prince of Wales was among the greatest battleships, precisely the sort of fighting vessel expected to c......more


Quotes

"Dugard provides a book that combines the history of Midway Island, the herculean cryptological efforts to discover the Japanese operation, the bold risks taken by the U.S. Navy to make good that advantage, and the experiences of the men fighting in the air and on the island that is most certainly worth a read.” Cipher Brief

"All the familiar characters are here... in Mr. Dugard’s dramatic style." —Wall Street Journal

"Invigorating…. I highly recommend.” —History Nerds United

Taking Midway is a great book - it reads like a thrilling novel. Dugard’s writing is easy to read, direct, comprehensive in scope, and page-turning from start to finish.” —Roy Harkins, CAPT, USN (Ret). The Submarine Review

“Dugard’s clipped, no-nonsense prose…and raw style…make this into an immersive adventure. WWII buffs will be engrossed.”Publishers Weekly

Praise for Martin Dugard's Taking Series:
“[Dugard’s] ambition is to tell a gripping story. In this he succeeds triumphantly. One reads his narrative, mostly in the present tense, as if watching a film…. Dugard has real narrative gifts.”The Washington Post

Taking Paris reads like a film script; such is the immediacy of the writing and use of the present tense that you feel yourself in the action, striding up the Champs-Élysées liberating the French capital from the Nazis.”—Andrew Roberts, New York Times bestselling author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny

“Taking Paris
does for Paris during World War II what The Splendid and the Vile did for London. Martin Dugard knows how to make history read with as much pace as the best fiction.”James Patterson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Deadly Cross

“With a master storyteller’s faultless pacing, Martin Dugard brings to life all the glory, tension, heroism, and tragedy of the last months of the Third Reich. I loved this book—gripping, popular history at its page-turning best.”—Alex Kershaw, New York Times bestselling author of Against All Odds and The First Wave

"Colorful, delightfully evocative, and filled with a cast of some of the greatest characters of the 20th century, Martin Dugard's Taking London is the closest you can get to London in 1940 without a time machine." Garrett M. Graff, New York Times Bestselling author of The Only Plane in the Sky and UFO