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.
Some Freepers have complained a lot about the CGI effects in the movie. They are actually quite good, and encompass a lot more than just the battle scenes. Shots of the carriers just sailing, and wartime Washington DC are CGI effects.
I think the reason some people think the CGI “looks fake” in the battle scenes is because our minds expect to see flying airplanes photographed by conventional means. If the filmmakers had managed to have actual flying replicas of all the planes, the planes would be photographed from the ground, or from other planes or stationary objects. With CGI, it’s like Superman is the cameraman flying right along with the planes. so you see planes flying in areas where you normally would not get a good shot if everything was “real”.
I saw it on Veterans Day too! Does anybody know if the Japanese war gaming scene before the battle where the younger officers win by not placing the American ships at Pearl Harbor was accurate?
I remember the audience erupted in applause when we hit the Jap carriers.
1976 was a different time in America.
Sounds like this might be a good one.
Unlike some recent dramas based loosely around historic battles/attacks. Pearl Harbor, anyone?
The one that really disappointed me was “Dunkirk”. Could have been a good story. And while the attempt to avoid CGI was admirable, the lack of people, vehicles, and ships at the beaches was noticeable (as was the modern container port in the background of some shots).
OTOH, I though “Hacksaw Ridge” was quite good. Realistic? I don’t know, but at least it had some characters to actually care about.
WWII is a complicated subject. Every time you dig deeper a whole stories pop up. Kind of like those pictures where you drill down to infinity.
There’s a 30 part show 2 hrs each on YouTube called Battlefield. That still just scratches the surface.
Victor David Hansen has some good in sights too.
Battlefield and The World At War, are the two best WWII Documentaries.
Best concise Pearl Harbor analysis I’ve ever seen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6cz9gtMTeI
Did you know that SIXTY PERCENT of all Jap torpedos at Pearl Harbor were DUDS..?
As bad as it was, it could have been much worse.
From the same genius this Midway link that for me very annoyingly starts you off, MID-WAY through the vid, something you can manually fix with the progress bar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd8_vO5zrjo&t=2002s
I saw it in a “Sensurround!” theater in the 70s. It sure was a different time, but there are still a lot of patriotic people in this country, which is why I want to go see this “Midway”, and watch it with like-minded people.
I remember that too! I grew up in San Diego, so there may have been men in the audience that participated in the battle.
In high school I had a history teacher who was on Yorktown during Midway. Us boys who knew about the battle of course were fascinated and asked him a lot of questions. I remember him saying he didnt remember much but a lot of noise and smoke. He said he was fighting fires most of the day.
When the movie was over I have to confess feeling emotional, reflecting on the incredible courage those men displayed that day.
I get that way with films like this, even documentaries. Partly because all of the family and friends who actually participated in WW2 are now gone, and they were from an America now gone, forever.
Embarked Marines aboard the Amphibious ships also get basic fire fighting and DC training. I got it when I deployed with the 11th MEU aboard the USS New Orleans, and again when I deployed with the 15TH MEU aboard the USS Tripoli.
Oh yes! Me too. Sensuround! When the bombs exploded that was cool.
Yes, many sub skippers knew this issue but were ignored. Our magnetic warheads were the problem. Direct hits broke the firing pins and caused no damage. Glancing blows would explode, also the idea was to have the torpedo run under the ship and have the magnetic warhead explode with the idea, that it would cause more damage.
Many skippers resorted to turning off the magnetic warheads and using them like regular torpedoes. While this produced better results, they did not tell command and this prolonged the problem.
It wasn’t until the USS Tinosa, made its report that the message finally got through. This was in 1943, 2 years after the war started!!!
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/americas-world-war-ii-mark-14-torpedo-was-total-dud-81771
He blamed any torpedo failures on the people using them, and forbade any tinkering with them, to the point of painting the access screw heads with colored nail polish so the armory back at Freemantle could tell if they had been tampered with. (There was a market for the proper color of polish among CPOs)
Another little blunder was that Christie would meet returning subs at dockside with a handful of medals for the crew, because he was using Ultra intercepts to confirm the sinkings they were claiming. These awards would then be posted in the local papers. (Ultra was supposed to be tippy Top Secret, and there was a justified fear that the Japanese would realize that their codes were compromised.)
The Navy finally got tired of his grandstanding, and he finished the war as head of the Puget Sound Navy Yard.
I saw it with my Mom in Sensurround also. She knew I was a big fan of history of WW2, and knew the other kids in the family would not like it.
I also discovered a terrific young author, Adam Makos, who has written 2 great books on WWII. Spearhead about a tank unit, and A Higher Call about a B-52 bomber who made it back over the channel, aided by a German Pilot. They found each other years later.
He also wrote Devotion about 2 pilots in the Korean War.
That should be FUBAR, not foobar.
That should be FUBAR, not foobar.
Time-traveled back to that shot-up B-17 escorted crossing, eh..? My word.
;)
I know
I Know
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