A real page turner. I do love a good WWII history. I haven’t enjoyed a book as much for quite a while and have been spending an hour or more every evening with it. He expertly zooms out to explain the big political and strategic picture, but can then zoom in to an individual pilot or sailor in action at Midway or in the Coral Sea. Wonderful descriptions of navigating aircraft over the vast Pacific Ocean followed by the horrors of fighting raging fires in the hanger deck of a bombed and torpedoed carrier. He gives a fascinating and salutary account of the Japanese descent into militarism and brutality. The horrible effects of national exceptionalism, “we will win because we have a stronger fighting spirit”, that led a whole generation being thrown into a horrific and unwinnable war. Now very much looking forward to the next two volumes of the trilogy.