Posted on 11/13/2019 10:51:45 AM PST by gaijin
The newly-released movie Midway has generated some interest and a 150-post Freeper thread yesterday:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3793171/posts
In the video below a professor at the US Navy War College hits key info helping an viewer who choses to see this great movie.
A key one that I'd read long ago but had not fully embraced:
US damage control was considerably better than that of Japan. When Japanese pilots hit the USS Yorktown, they returned to their carriers joyous, "We have sunk a US carrier..!"
Yet inside of an hour or so US damage control had bent Heaven & Earth to save her; the fires were out and she was underway; she looked like a totally different ship from the one those pilots had departed.
Yorktown damage control efforts had been so fruitful, so miraculous that when a totally different set of Japanese pilots hit her again later, they, too, returned to the then solely remaining Japanese carrier Hiryuu, blissfully gushing, "We have gone and sunk a SECOND American carrier..!"
They were totally unaware that both different sets of pilots had attacked the SAME carrier, seemingly resurrected twice.
The truth at that point was that ZERO US carriers had gone to the bottom, when they'd gone and reported two false carrier sinkings.
The Japanese command mindset at the time had to have been, "We mourn the loss of 3 of our 4 carriers, yet the Americans, too, have lost two of theirs...."
THAT is surely an aggravating reason why the Hiryuu stayed stubbornly on station --the IJN battle caculus at that point for the case of continuing on at Midway, in spite of their dire setbacks, had to have appeared fairly reasonable.
The Japanese perception at that point was that Midway was at best a draw for the USA.
While the film does not make this important point clear, the film is great.
I recommend that any Freeper interested in the Pacific War go and see the movie.
The the SOURCE link above I start you off mid-point in the video where the point I make in this post is made by the professor. However, you can manually backtrack to start off his excellent talk from the very beginning.
His whole lecture is stellar.
Yes they are. Battlefield has US banned on a lot of episodes. If you have a VPN you can log in through a European connection and see some additional episodes.
“... that some of the comments made by the characters were too dramatic but in fact they were exact quotes.”
I recall reading about Audie Murphy playing a movie role about one of his exploits in World War II. The director told him they wanted to do the scene exactly as it had happened.
Audie replied something like: “No we aren’t. Nobody would believe it.”
I remembered it to have been ALBERT E. NEWMAN.
IJN Arashi was alone but the circumstance wasn’t weird.
US Sub Nautilus had just previously launched torpedoes that just missed one of the 4 Japanese carriers, I forget which one
The Japanese command staff ordered Arashi to remain behind to depth charge Nautilus. Unsuccessfully.
After a long time on station, Arashi raced to rejoin the Kido Butai.
So it wasn’t just random that the destroyer was there and available for following — she had been ordered to kill Nautilus.
Actually it was VERY skillful
From “Shattered Sword”
The chapter entitled ‘The Iron Fist — 1030 - 1030
“Best was a noted dive-bomber pilot and had a reputation for both boldness and consummate skill. In the words of Best’s backseater, Aviation Chief Radioman James F. Murray, ‘Nobody pushed his dive steeper or held it longer than Dick.’ His 1,000-pound payload sliced through the flight deck and exploded in the upper hangar amid the ‘kanko’ parked there.”
IIRC, the destroyer that McClusky spotted had earlier been detached to hunt down the USS Nautilus, which had been spotted by Japanese fleet scout planes. Later, the Nautilus tried to finish off the burning Kaga, but the torpedo failed to detonate (it broke in pieces upon impact). There's a multi-part documentary, Eagle Against the Sun, that shows a picture of part of the dud torpedo floating next to the stricken carrier.
I guess the submarine's role is usually understated, due to the lion's share of the action belonging to the aviators.
(start about the 18-19 minute mark to get to it)
Naval Heritage | Jonathan Parshall: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway
149,224 views
Jun 24, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9rkKtK1b44
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.