Posted on 06/03/2019 2:32:07 AM PDT by Jacquerie
Why was Midway such a critical victory? First, the fact that the U.S. Navy lost just one carrier at Midway meant that four carriers (Enterprise, Hornet, Saratoga, and Wasp) were available when the U.S. Navy went on the offensive during the Guadalcanal campaign that began the first week of August 1942. Second, the march of the Imperial Japanese Navy across the Pacific was halted at Midway and never restarted. After Midway, the Japanese would react to the Americans, and not the other way around. In the language of the Naval War College, the “operational initiative” had passed from the Japanese to the Americans. Third, the victory at Midway aided allied strategy worldwide.
That last point needs some explaining. To understand it, begin by putting yourself in the shoes of President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the beginning of May 1942. The military outlook across the world appears very bad for the Allies. The German army is smashing a Soviet offensive to regain Kharkov, and soon will begin a drive to grab the Soviet Union’s oil supplies in the Caucasus. A German and Italian force in North Africa is threatening the Suez Canal. The Japanese have seriously crippled the Pacific Fleet, driven Britain’s Royal Navy out of the Indian Ocean, and threaten to link up with the Germans in the Middle East.
If the Japanese and the Germans do link up, they will cut the British and American supply line through Iran to the Soviet Union, and they may pull the British and French colonies in the Middle East into the Axis orbit. If that happens, Britain may lose control of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Soviet Union may negotiate an armistice with Germany.
(Excerpt) Read more at warontherocks.com ...
Awesome! Beat me to it!
It is a good read
Often, we hear that Midway was the “turning point” in the pacific war, etc etc.
I am not convinced of that...I think the solomons campaign, and specifically, the Japanese loss of Guadalcanal that was the true pivot point. While Midway was a crushing defeat for the Japanese, they lost no ground as a result of that battle...indeed, they were able to assemble a massive naval force for the Guadalcanal campaign barely two months later..albeit down 4 carriers.
Losing Guadalcanal really put a damper on furthering their territorial expansion...not to mention bleeding their forces significantly.
just my .02
The American fleet headed to Midway following the breaking of the code. A Japanese submarine was in the area and could have radioed Tokyo but the fleet had passed. Could have changed the outcome of he war.
The Battle of Khalkhin-Gol had an effect on Japanese thinking also. And Sorge probably factored that into his analysis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Khalkhin_Gol
Here’s a nice summary from Wikipedia; it’s a defensive tactic, devised by Lt (later Adm) Jim Thach. Highly successful in negating some of the speed and maneuverability advantages of the Japanese Zero.
Thach was a brilliant tactician. But perhaps he deserves most credit for believing the fleet intel report (issued in September 1941) that reported the Zero was much faster and far more maneuverable that U.S. fighters like the F4F Wildcat and the P-40 Warhawk.
Much of that information came from Claire Chennault’s Flying Tigers, who had been battling Japanese Zeros for many months and learned they could not survive a turning fight with the enemy fighter. Many Army Air Corps pilots had access to the same info and dismissed it; there was no way the Japanese could produce fighter aircraft and pilots superior to our own. A lot of those pilots paid for that assumption with their lives.
Here’s a description of the Thach weave: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thach_Weave
Imagine what the butch swordfish could have done.
Actually, Taranto is one of the most amazing operations of the whole war. An attacking force of 21 obsolete biplanes, only eleven carrying torpedoes, damaged three battleships, effectively sinking them because they ran aground in the shallow harbor, for the loss of two planes, two casualties, and at NIGHT!
I think I read that the Japanese had military attaches at Taranto who assessed the aftermath.
We forget surprise fits the bushido tradition, also the had the Battle of Port Arthur (opening of the Russo-Japanese War) as a model.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Port_Arthur
Hello Fellow Traveler,
Thanks for the suggestion on “The Fast Carriers”. I have it on order with Amazon and it should slide into my mailbox on Wednesday.
If you read my profile you will see that I used to fly for Uncle Sam’s non-profit Naval airline.
Best to you.
Lowbuck
If you have a chance read James D. Hornfischers “Neptune’s Inferno”. It relates in very painful detail how the U.S. Navy learned to fight.
Not to take anything away from the Marines who held on when the Navy pulled back and left them to the mercy of the big Jap guns.
Read the book and while Midway checked the Japs and destroyed air power that was never to return, Guadalcanal marked one of the major turning points in the war. The Japs were defeated by bleeding them to death and then we just when island to island until they were bled dry.
Hornfischer has my nod for all his works. Well researched and well written. Enjoy
Oh cool, they ran a pick on them. :)
Thanks for kick-starting my memory. I had forgotten the details.
Got any recommendations on a good book about the Battle of Leyte? Found out my father was a 17 year old on a Navy ship in the midst of that battle (He never said anything)....need to read more.
Thanks to the Coral Sea and Midway, the Japs had fewer carriers to devote to the sea battles for Guadalcanal.
Very good post..!
This important but little-known campaign was unclear to me until now.
Thanks!
Yes it was. While D-Day was planned more than a year in advance, Midway's defense was slapped together in less than a month. Yorktown, badly damaged at the Battle of the Coral Sea, did not even arrive at Pearl Harbor for repairs until May 27. That she could be made battle ready in less than a week was nothing sort of a miracle itself.
But contrast, two Japanese carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku who suffered lesser damage in the same battle took almost three MONTHS to repair and were in repair dock for the duration of the Midway battle as a result.
Side note: My father volunteered to join the naval air force the day after Pearl Harbor. They told him to come back a month later because the recruiting office could not process people fast enough. When he did, he was assigned to NAF training but washed out in May. However, he still did well enough that he was reassigned to OCS and spent the duration of the war in training before being assigned as communications officer on an LST, which saw hot action 1944-45. Had he passed, there is a good chance he would have fought at Midway and not survived.
Unfortunately we've taken the opposite tack since 9/11. Giving our monstrous enemies light wrist taps instead of the scouring they have earned out of fear that our own traitorous media would say bad things about us.
If Today's Media Reported the Battle of Midway
https://www.strategypage.com/militaryforums/532-228.aspx#startofcomment
http://www.politicsforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=48826
http://forum.pafoa.org/showthread.php?t=27201
https://www.ign.com/boards/threads/if-todays-media-reported-the-battle-of-midway.103231398/
The book I have is The Battle of Leyte Gulf..... The last Action Fleet by H.P Willmott. I can’t compare it to others but it is recent, 2005.
Also, The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy’s Finest Hour by James D. Hornfischer. This book describes the extrodinary heroism of the destroyers and destroyer of Taffy 3 as they met the main Japaneese fleet head on.
The battle of Lyte Gulf is the largest naval engagement in history and took place over literally hundreds of miles of ocean. There were hundreds of ships involved. As such, there are many written accounts that either gloss over details or focus on some aspect of the various engagements that took place.
Lately, I have been watching You Tube a lot. If you can, I would advise searching on You Tube for the Battle of Leyte Gulf. You will get way more videos than you want but they will provide a geographical back ground for the events in places you never heard of and probably can’t relate to. Having the marine geography in mind is very helpful to understanding the detailed written accounts. The maps and conputerized graphics of the various American and Japanese fleet elements movements is crucial for an understanding of an extremely complex action that took place over several days.
Being able to find out about your father’s experience is a worthy goal. Do you know the ship on which he served?
If they didn’t have attaches there, they certainly studied the attack closely and used it as a model for Pearl Harbor.
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