INCREDIBLE VICTORY

by Walter Lord ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 8, 1967

They had no right to win. Yet they did, and in doing so they changed the course of a war."" Got it? It's Midway, 1942, that gets the Lord treatment here as he details the ""incredible victory"" won at incredible costs. The Japanese, latterly self-diagnosed as having ""victory disease,"" approached their objective with confidence and a seemingly invincible fleet including four carriers; the transport group alone numbered thirty-one vessels. The Americans, clued in by Combat Intelligence, who broke the crucial code, flew in everything and one they had, raw pilots straight from school among them, and in ""six incredible minutes"" crippled the fleet, sinking three carriers. Lord writes from the enlisted man's level, has a weather eye for the human touch (a Japanese sailing into the water over the side of the Akagi, an American officer leaving the wounded Yorktown -- ""Alas, poor Yorick, I knew her well""), gives evidence of assiduous interview-research. But Incredible Victory is Lord without the Titanic, PT-109 without Kennedy, and whether it will score in the marketplace remains in doubt.

Pub Date: Aug. 8, 1967

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1967

Categories: NONFICTION