Black shoe carrier admiral : Frank Jack Fletcher at Coral Sea, Midway, and Guadalcanal / John B. Lundstrom.

Collection type	Library
Author	Lundstrom, John B.;
Call Number	940.545973092 L947b
Document type	Monograph
Year	2006.
Pagination	xxii, 638 p. : ill., maps ; 27 cm.
Publisher	Naval Institute ; Greenhill [distributor],
Note	Includes bibliographical references (p. 525-618) and index. "A mountain of new evidence demanded this reevaluation of Frank Jack Fletcher, the "black shoe" admiral who won his battles at sea but lost the war of public opinion. A surface warrior- in contrast to a "brown shoe" naval aviator - Fletcher led the carrier forces that won against all odds at Coral Sea, Midway, and the Eastern Solomons. These and other early carrier victories decided the Pacific War not only because they inflicted crippling losses but also because they denied Japan key strategic positions in the region." "Despite these successes, by 1950 Fletcher had become one of the most controversial figures in U.S. naval history and was portrayed as a timid bungler who failed to relieve Wake Island in December 1941 and who deliberately abandoned the Marines at Guadalcanal.". "Drawing on many newly discovered documents, massive dispatch files, and personal papers that no historian has previously used, the author offers not only a fresh look at Fletcher's decisions and actions but also a careful analysis of the effect of radiointelligence on decision making in the carrier battles during the first nine months of the war in the Pacific."--BOOK JACKET.
Place made	Annapolis, Md. : London :

Abstract

Chapter 1. The World Turned Upside Down -- Chapter 2. "To Retrieve Our Initial Disaster" -- Chapter 3. The Wake "Fiasco" -- Chapter 4. To Samoa with a Carrier -- Chapter 5. The First Counterattack -- Chapter 6. To the Southwest Pacific -- Chapter 7. "The Best Day's Work We Have Had" -- Chapter 8. Alone in the Coral Sea -- Chapter 9. Nimitz Takes Charge -- Chapter 10. Clearing for Action -- Chapter 11. The Battle of the Coral Sea I: Opening Moves -- Chapter 12. The Battle of the Coral Sea II: 7 May, Offens e -- Chapter 13. The Battle of the Coral Sea II: 7 May, Defense -- Chapter 14. The Battle of the Coral Sea III: A Costly Victory -- Chapter 15. From the Coral Sea to Pearl Harbor -- Chapter 16. Time Is Everything -- Chapter 17. The Battle of Midway I: "Gi ve Them the Works" -- Chapter 18. The Battle of Midway II: Counterattacks -- Chapter 19. The Battle of Midway III: Finale -- Chapter 20. A Brief Intermission -- Chapter 21. Watchtower -- Chapter 22. The 27 July Conference -- Chapter 23. From Fiji to Guada lcanal -- Chapter 24. The Watchtower Landings -- Chapter 25. The Recommendation to Withdraw the Carriers -- Chapter 26. The Savo Disaster -- Chapter 27. Covering Cactus -- Chapter 28. The Battle of the Eastern Solomons I: In the Land of the Blind -- Chapt er 29. The Battle of the Eastern Solomons II: Anticlimax -- Chapter 30. The Right of the Line -- Chapter 31. The Clean Sweep -- Chapter 32. War on the Periphery -- Conclusion. "An Excellent, Sea-Going, Fighting Naval Officer".