Attacking atolls.

[Halsey]

ORIGINAL: FatR

ORIGINAL: Halsey

Plus, don't put small escorts in the invasion.
Use stout CA's CL's and DD's.

CD's eat up the smaller ships.
Whereas the escorts will suck up and return the fire of CD batteries.[;)]

The invasion TF was escorted by light cruisers. However, I should have detached fast BBs for bombardment immediately after seeing that Midway has no credible bomber airforce.

Got to do a bombardment the turn before, in cojunction with ground attack airstrikes.
If you can swing it.
It makes a big difference.[:D]

[Halsey]

ORIGINAL: canuck64

I see no one mentioning engineers as part of the initial force, but is this not recommended highly?

You're going to get a shock attack anyway.
Combat Engs are a premium unit.

I usually save them for the bigger island bases, where the forts are a lot larger.

But, if you have them to spare, by all means include them in the mix.
Small armor units are a good choice too.[;)]

[xj900uk]

Construction engineers don't do anything but get in the way during a beach assault.

The 'Fighting Seabees' being an obvious exception. There are loads of accounts of their construction engineers beavering away whilst under heavy fire on the beaches trying to secure landing stages, piers, temporary paving to get armour ashore etc