Naval Order of the US – Northwest

One of the books discussed at the June 10 Battle of Midway brunch was “Joe Rochefort’s War”, the winner of the NOUS New York’s 2012 RADM Samuel Eliot Morison Book Award.  (Other annual NOUS New York awards can be accessed here.)   This work was authored by Elliot Carlson and is sub-titled “The Odyssey of the Codebreaker Who Outwitted Yamamoto at Midway.” 

A summary of the book and numerous reviews can be found at the U.S. Naval Institute’s website here, including the following text: “Readers share (Rochefort’s) frustrations as he searches in vain for Yamamoto’s fleet prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but share his joy when he succeeds in tracking the fleet in early 1942 and breaks the code that leads Rochefort to believe Yamamoto’s invasion target is Midway. His conclusions, bitterly opposed by some top Navy brass, are credited with making the U.S. victory possible and helping to change the course of the war.”