Am "reading" (listening in the car) to an excellent book on the Battle of Midway.
Takeaways so far:
Both sides lost the battle numerous times, if you count all the blunders they made. The Americans in particular seem to have blundered into the battle without thinking basic stuff out. Like, shouldn't your pilots all be on the same frequency, so they can talk to each other? Is it really a good idea to make your planes take off then circle the carrier, running out of gas while waiting for other planes before heading to a distant battle? Shouldn't the pilots plan their attack before getting into the air?
The Japanese had by far the best airplanes, too, and seemed to work together better.
The author is trying to make the case that Providence need not be mentioned to explain American victory in the battle. But his account sometimes has the opposite effect.
Among human agents, the code-breakers may deserve the most credit. Their cracking of the Japanese code was not a simple, linear breakthrough, though -- there was lots of guesswork involved, and other bodies of evidence and soft reasoning. There was also a large element of trust: from Admiral Nimitz, for instance.
It is excruciating, listening to the fate of wave after wave of American attack aircraft, one after the other ripped to pieces and sent to the sharks by Zeros. "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again." Only the first seven or so waves didn't just fail, they died trying. Yet those continuous waves kept the Japanese from launching their own attack, until it was too late.
One American commander (from the Hornet) led his flock in the wrong direction, and never found the Japanese fleet. But one of his subordinates. who was partly Sioux (I think) Indian, decided to ignore his boss and take the torpedo planes under his command to where he thought the enemy really lay. He was right, but those planes, too, were shot down.
However, all these failures set the Americans up for victory, by keeping the Zeros busy, using up their ammo, keeping guns on the ships aimed low, all for the dive-bombers to do their thing.
Japan lost the battle in large part because of over-confidence. They ignored even the possibility that the Americans would be flanking them, and failed to bring all the weapons available.
If ever the Japanese thought the Americans lacked morale or courage, that was the day they should have learned different.