[MattinNJ]

My Grandfather was a firefighter on a small carrier in the Pacific. Young boys would try and land their shot up, flame-engulfed, planes on the carrier's deck. This could lead to a chain reaction explosion so they were waved off. That meant certain death so some boys would actually land-and would be quickly pushed into the sea by a small dozer. My grandfather could never, ever, get their faces in the canopies as they slowly sunk out of his mind's eye.

The Japanese had a choice-the Brits, Dutch, and the US shut them off from their oil. It was either fight or surrender. A fool could see that the Japanese would fight. While we eventually would have won, Midway saved us years of fighting.

I have read that Midway truly was a miracle. War colleges have re-enacted the battle on computers tens of thousands of times and they cannote generate a US victory.

[LouAvul]

I have read that Midway truly was a miracle.

Given the small size of our army in 1941, our lack of weapons, lack of armor, lost initial battles, etc, I believe the fact we won the war at all was largely due to God's providence.

[tanknetter]

I have read that Midway truly was a miracle. War colleges have re-enacted the battle on computers tens of thousands of times and they cannote generate a US victory.

The reason why those computer models fail is that it's impossible to quantify traits such as improvisation and initiative that were (are) part of the American character and therefore exemplified by our servicemen. In the case of Midway, while there are lots of examples, the two critical ones are John Waldron deciding to take Torpedo 8 in against the Japanese decks immediately, rather than waiting for the "textbook" coordinated attack with dive bombers, and Wade McClusky's hunch-based search with the Enterprise SBD force.

Same thing showed true in the ETO as well. The initiative and improvisation by the scattered US airborne forces and the initial-waves landing forces at Omaha Beach on D-Day.

[Tallguy]

I have read that Midway truly was a miracle. War colleges have re-enacted the battle on computers tens of thousands of times and they cannote generate a US victory.

I'm not sure that this is true. US carriers were tougher & could survive hits. OTOH, the IJN gave poor attention to Damage Control. At Coral Sea he Lexington was gutted by fire yet we had to sink her because she continued to float. The Yorktown survived to be quickly turned around to fight again at Midway. A little latter in the war the IJN carrier Shokaku was heavily damaged & it took a year for her to return to action. I'm not sure that a simple accounting of planes & ships available to both sides were a predictor of which side would be victorious in battle. The intangibles all seemed to favor the US in retrospect.