Posted on 05/25/2012 4:11:11 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/may42/f25may42.htm
Japanese and Americans ready for Midway
Monday, May 25, 1942 www.onwar.com
From Japan... A Japanese small carrier task force consisting of two light carrier and two cruisers leave port in Hokkido. Their mission is to carry out a diversionary raid in the Aleutian Island off the coast of Alaska.
From Hawaii... American submarines move into patrol positions as part of the countermeasures to the expected Japanese attack on Midway.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
May 25th, 1942
UNITED KINGDOM: Escort carrier HMS Slinger laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
ITALY: La Spezia: An Italian naval flotilla continues its journey to Lake Ladoga in the USSR. It is loaded onto trucks and driven to Stettin. From there it is loaded on a ship (the German Thielbeck) to Helsinki, towed by sea from Helsinki to Punkasami (through the Saimaa Channel), then by rail to their logistical base at Lahdenpohja, and then finally by their own means to their new operational base at Sortanlahti. (Arturo Lorioli)
INDIA: Elements of the 38th Division of the Japanese Army reach India.
JAPAN: The Japanese army issues orders to several units to begin preparing for an amphibious attack against Hawaii. Training for the assault is to be completed by September 1942. The original operational order (Dairikushi no. 1159) gave notification to the Seventh and Second Divisions to prepare for the invasion. (Johjn Stephen, Hawaii Under The Rising Sun, p117) (Jon Parshall)
PACIFIC OCEAN: Two light carriers and two cruisers leave Hokkaido, Japan to begin diversionary raids on the Aleutian Islands as part of the Japanese Midway operation.
The Japanese submarine HIJMS I-9 launches a Yokosuka E14Y1, Navy Type 0 Small Reconnaissance Seaplane, Allied Code Name “Glen,” to fly a reconnaissance mission over Kiska and Amchitka Islands in the Aleutian Islands. (Jack McKillop)
The light cruiser USS St. Louis (CL-49), part of a reinforcement group carrying Marine aircraft and personnel to Midway, disembarks Companies C and D of the Second Marine Raider Battalion and a 37mm gun battery of the Third defence Battalion. (Jack McKillop)
US submarines sail to patrol positions from Hawaii to counter the Japanese Midway operation.
MIDWAY ISLANDS: Light cruiser USS St. Louis (CL-49) arrives and disembarks Companies “C” and “D,” 2d Marine Raider Battalion, and a 37 mm gun battery of the 3d defence Battalion. (Jack McKillop)
CANADA: Patrol vessel HMCS Raccoon returned Gaspe Defense Force, escorting Convoys Quebec-Sydney. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: MIS Language School is moved from San Francisco, California to Camp Savage, Minnesota because of the exclusion order, restricting all people of Japanese ancestry from military zones. (Gene Hanson)
GULF OF MEXICO: Another unarmed U.S. merchant freighter is sunk by torpedoes and shellfire from the German submarine U-103. (Jack McKillop)
During a patrol in the Caribbean one man from U-594 was lost during crash-diving. [Matrosengefreiter Walter Kunde]. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 1552, USS Blakeley was patrolling off Martinique in the French West Indies, when she was hit by a torpedo from U-156 which carried away 60 feet of her bow. The explosion killed six men and wounded 21, but the ship did not sink and reached Port de France, Martinique for emergency repairs. After additional repairs in Port Castries, Santa Lucia and in San Juan, Puerto Rico the destroyer sailed to Philadelphia where she was refitted with the bow taken from her stricken sister ship USS Taylor and was thoroughly overhauled. She returned to duty in the Caribbean in 1942.
At 0134, the unescorted and unarmed Beatrice was hit by a torpedo from U-558 in moderate seas, which failed to explode. U-558 then surfaced directly astern and opened fire with the 88-mm and the 20-mm guns at the zigzagging ship from a range of about one mile and fired about 30 shells. After the first hits, the master concluded he could not escape and ordered the ship abandoned. The crew of eight officers and 22 men left the ship in one lifeboat and three rafts. One of the rafts drifted into the firing line of the U-boat and presumably one man was killed. At 0305, a PBY Catalina aircraft appeared and dropped depth charges, but U-558 escaped undamaged. The Beatrice was last saw by the survivors afloat and burning, she sank 15 hours after the attack. The lifeboat with 21 men sailed to Pigeon Island, Jamaica. The patrol boat HMS Hauken picked up the nine remaining survivors from one raft and landed them at Kingston, Jamaica.
At 2053, the Persephone sailing in an unknown convoy was torpedoed by U-593 off Barnegat Light and sank later in only eight fathoms of water in 46°15N/74°02W after breaking in two. The bow section was salvaged and towed to New York, where 21,000 barrels of oil were saved by barges. Her midship house was even removed intact and placed on the tanker Livingston Roe. The USCG later blew up the stern section after passing ships collided with it more than once.
At 0416, the Haakon Hauan was hit by one torpedo from U-753 amidships. The U-boat had then to evade an escort vessel and did not find the tanker again. The damaged ship was taken to New Orleans, then towed to Mobile where she was repaired for three months.
(Dave Shirlaw)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/155_mm_Long_Tom
The 155 mm Gun M1 and M2 (later M59), widely known as Long Tom, were 155 millimeter calibre field guns used by the United States armed forces during World War II and Korean War. The Long Tom replaced the Canon de 155 mm GPF in United States service.
These 2 carriers could of helped the Japs in Midway but they were sent to the Aleutians. Combined they carried over 100+ planes and could have tipped the scale in favor of the Japs at midway.
“Work or Don’t Eat Adopted by State as relief policy”
Needs to be re-adopted.
Note the article about Soviet agent Richard Sorge, who had been arrested on October 18, 1941 in Tokyo.
The Japanese offered several times to exchange him for a captured Japanese agent, but Stalin refused. Sorge was executed in 1944.
“helped” is a relative term.
Even had the Japanese sunk every US ship at Midway, we were still going to come back with a fleet twice as large in two years time.
Also, the Japanese Midway occupation force was actually smaller than the Marine garrison on Midway. Had the Japanese invaded, it would have been a slaughter. They had only scheduled a short cruiser bombardment, the battleships carried little or no high explosive ammunition, and did not have enough fuel to stay near Midway for long anyway.
Without reducing the island, the Japanese assault would have been futile.
Japan could never “win” at Midway, it was only a question of what kind of loss they would have. It was a poorly planned operation that had no hope of real success.
The occupation of Midway itself was not the main the objective; the central strategic premise was to stage the operation as bait to lure the American carriers out to the “decisive battle” where they would be destroyed. However, the Japanese plan mutated into a mish-mash of unfocused and conflicting objectives.
It turned out that Midway was dual-purpose bait, used by Nimitz to lure the Japanese forces into battle as well.
As for the carriers tasked to the Aleutian sideshow, they were a mismatched pair. They had limited air components, and could not handle complex flight operations off their limited decks. One other thing to note from the photographs is you can see Japanese carrier design philosophy; they have double hangar decks stacked one on top of the other. The hangar decks are also enclosed. This is in contrast to the American design philosophy that featured hangar decks with large openings on the side. The Japanese design will have some very bad consequences for the fleet carriers at Midway, as blast effects from bomb detonations are amplified in the enclosed hangars. Also, American damage control parties can push fires, debris, ordnance and aircraft out of the openings. The Japanese can’t.
What Japan has at this point is one, just one, strategic military asset, and that is the six fleet aircraft carries of Carrier Divisions 1, 2 and 5. The Japanese have developed the ability to fight all six carriers as a single combat entity, in contrast to the Americans who are still operating carriers singly. But the IJN margin of superiority over the Pacific Fleet is Carrier Division 5, and it’s not going to Midway. Without Shokaku and Zuikaku, Carrier Divisions 1 and 2 are roughly equivalent to American Task Forces 16 and 17.
And as you noted, the Japanese Carrier force is irreplaceable, their margin of superiority is temporary, once it is lost they will never regain it, and the Japanese know this. They know we are building at least 12 Essex class carriers right now, and they won’t get another fleet carrier until Taiho is completed in 1944.
So the cook “put miso on food” to make a mess of Yamamoto’s dinner party. Yamamoto “put miso on” Japan’s one and only chance to stay in the fight by creating a bad plan of operation. Had he been paying real attention to his own wargaming of this exercise he would have realized what a risk he was taking with the one real asset held by Japan.
I’m assuming that what we see pictured is 12 guns, three batteries, one battalion. In other words, the heavy artillery battalion of the standard infantry division’s artillery regiment.
Which is followed by everyone in the fleet getting absolutely hammered, from admirals on down to ratings. Supposedly “latrine duty” the next day was not for the faint of heart as the ships sortied.
Lol! Well, have you ever spent a night drinking just Sake? It’s not for the weak constitution.
No Sake for me thank you. I’m a gin & tonic man, although it brings out my “alter ego,” Stuart Pidasso. But you can call me Stu.
“Well, have you ever spent a night drinking just Sake? It’s not for the weak constitution.”
I resemble that remark!
That looks like Bud Bundy of “Married with Children” on the tractor!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.