SUMMER READING LIST UPDATED

 On 8/12/1988 the best trial lawyer most of you have probably never heard of passed away, Edward Bennett Willimas. 

Do yourself a favor and read his biography The Man To See. Available on Amazon and wherever fine books are sold, 

We are reading 

Man's Search For Meaning. Viktor Frankle. 

How did we miss this? A holocaust survivor's memoir of finding life's purpose in the death camps. Moving. Deeply human. Stunning in its simple recitation of daily life in a concentration camp when life often hung on the barely discernable movement of a guard's finger. To the left was death; to the right was a chance at life. 

Deeply life affirming. Do not make our mistake and miss this life-changing book. 

Shattered Sword. The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway. Parshall & Tully, 

On May 4, 1942, off the coast of Midway, a small atoll in the Pacific, five minutes starting at 10:20 am would change the course of the war and history as dive bombers from the Enterprise sent all four Japanese carriers (Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu, and Soyru) to the bottom of the Pacific. 

A month before, in the Battle of Coral Sea,  two US carriers Lexington and Yorktown would defeat an Imperial Japanese Naval force and thwart the invasion of Port Moresby- at the high cost of the US Navy losing the Lexington. But it marked the first naval engagement that the Japanese Navy also lost a carrier- and it turns out it was a carrier they would need next month in the Battle of Midway. 

WWII marked the end of the supremacy of the battleship and the rise of the carrier. The US lost most of its battleship fleet in the Pearl Harbor attack, but none of its carriers, as they were all at sea during the attack. 

Admiral Yamamoto was consumed with destroying the US carriers, especially after the Doolittle raid, launched from the Hornet, bombed Tokyo. To that end he sought to lure the carrier fleet out of Pearl Harbor and have one final engagement where he would sink the carriers and leave Hawaii and the West coast open to attack and invasion. 

Shattered Sword examines the battle from the Japanese viewpoint. It dispels the myths that the simultaneous attacks and landing on Alaskan Aleutian Islands by Japan was designed as a ploy and to lure the US carriers out of Pearl Habor. It criticizes Japan's attack, showing how the invasion of strategically limited islands depleted much needed naval forces.  It also dispels the myths about the usefulness of the multiple failed US torpedo and bomber attacks earlier in the morning of June 4 and their contribution to the successful attacks by the Enterprise dive bombers. 

But most significant and fascinating for Rumpole, it illustrates the utter failure in the battle plan and the contribution of Japanese hubris to their defeat. Case in point-during war games the week before, one Japanese commander playing the US had his carriers on scene and ready to attack Admiral Nagumo's carriers two days before Nagumo expected them. After the war game produced the exact outcome- the loss of all four Japanese carriers,  the referee intervened and changed the outcome- as it was deemed an impossibility that Nimitz would use the US carriers as he did. 

Understanding how Japan's battle plan was flawed and how they just could not conceive of defeat is a valuable lesson for all commanders- and trial lawyers for that matter. You need a thorough understanding of the battle of Midway (sorry DeSantis drones, but we hear Deadpool is a good movie and that may be more your speed) to appreciate the fresh look at a historic battle,  and dispelling of many myths that have lasted for fifty plus years. 

Our late friend Judge Manny Crespo would have loved to read this book and discuss its findings.