Berdj Anastassian grew up in Belgium, but his life has never stayed within its borders. Extended postings across three continents — Central Africa, Southern Africa, East Asia and the Korean Peninsula — and periodic visits to Russia, combined with recurring professional engagements across the Indian subcontinent and the Far East, shaped a worldview that few armchair historians can claim.

His passion for military history was sparked in his early teens by the great war films of the era — among them the 1976 Midway — and never left him.

A man of several worlds, Anastassian has built a career at the intersection of precision, expertise and international reach. He spent twelve months in Germany as a military translator attached to the Belgian General Staff, where — as a private — he found himself debating military history over long evenings with colonels and generals. He later entered the professional diamond trade, and today works as a financial risk consultant and internationally recognised judicial expert in the diamond industry.

His second passion is aviation. He holds a glider pilot’s licence earned at sixteen, has worked his way through the ranks, and today serves as an airline pilot instructor and examiner, and as a civilian operator for the Belgian Air Force. Certain chapters of that aviation career, spanning nearly two decades in some of the world’s most demanding operational environments, remain outside the scope of any biography.

The Battle of Midway, by the Minute was born during the Covid lockdown of March 2020, when he set aside his e-reader and decided to write the book himself. What followed was five years of research across the finest published works on the subject, correspondence with acclaimed historians including Mark Stille and the authors of Shattered Sword, and a determination to present one of history’s most complex naval battles in a way that any intelligent reader — not just the specialist — can follow, understand and enjoy.

This is his first book.