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  • Scratch One Flattop

  • The First Carrier Air Campaign and the Battle of the Coral Sea (Twentieth-Century Battles)
  • By: Robert C Stern
  • Narrated by: Bill Nevitt
  • Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (23 ratings)

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Scratch One Flattop

By: Robert C Stern
Narrated by: Bill Nevitt
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Publisher's summary

By the beginning of May 1942, five months after the Pearl Harbor attack, the US Navy was ready to challenge the Japanese moves in the South Pacific. When the Japanese sent troops to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, the Americans sent the carriers Lexington and Yorktown to counter the move, setting the stage for the Battle of the Coral Sea.

In this book, historian Robert C. Stern analyzes the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first major fleet engagement where the warships were never in sight of each other. Unlike the Battle of Midway, the Battle of the Coral Sea has received remarkably little study. Stern covers not only the action of the ships and their air groups but also describes the impact of this pivotal engagement. His analysis looks at the short-term impact as well as the long-term implications, including the installation of inert gas fuel-system purging on all American aircraft carriers and the push to integrate sensor systems with fighter direction to better protect against enemy aircraft.

The essential text on the first carrier air campaign, Scratch One Flattop is a landmark study on an overlooked battle in the first months of the United States’ engagement in World War II.

The book is published by Indiana University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

©2019 Robert C. Stern (P)2021 Redwood Audiobooks
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
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Critic reviews

"Highly recommended." (Lisle A. Rose, author of The Northern Mariner)

What listeners say about Scratch One Flattop

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    4 out of 5 stars

Excellent book, weak narrator

If only the narrator had spent several hours learning to pronounce Japanese! It is not difficult, and hearing him butcher the names of ships, captains, pilots was very distracting from this otherwise excellent account of the battle.

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Excellent

An excellent, detailed (for both US & Japan), study of this important battle. I especially enjoyed the description of Japanese offensive actions in the Indian Ocean. I have read several books that discuss the events around the battle of the coral sea, but this book is by far the most extensive and best.

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