My annual Dauntless art print post.
RIP Torpedo Squadron 8.
The Japanese never replaced the carriers they lost at Midway. Meanwhile we in the US built over thirty fast carriers - carriers so fast the old battle wagons couldn’t keep up with them - and a host of carrier escorts. I.e. jeep carriers.
We will never forget the courage of those pilots and seamen. I think we had providential assistance. The battle turned on our planes locating the Japanese carriers before they found ours. Had the reverse happened it would have been a disaster for us.
Some results from a search. The USA had 5 aircraft carriers just prior to the war.
151 aircraft carriers were built in the U.S. during World War II.
122 of them were Escort Carriers
US Navy had 6768 active ships by 1945
Between Dec 7th, 1941 and Sep 2nd, 1945 the US lost
2 Battleships
5 Carriers
6 Escort Carriers
7 Heavy Cruisers
3 Light Cruisers
88 Destroyers
14 Destroyer Escorts
54 Submarines
3 Minelayers
Hundreds of other ships and craft
How many people died in the Second World War?
Over 60 million people were killed, which was about 3% of the 1940 world population (est. 2.3 billion).
World War II fatality statistics vary, with estimates of total deaths ranging from 50 million to more than 80 million.
The higher figure of over 80 million includes deaths from war-related disease and famine. Civilians killed totaled 50 to 55 million, including 19 to 28 million from war-related disease and famine. Military deaths from all causes totaled 21 to 25 million, including deaths in captivity of about 5 million prisoners of war.
For emphasis - this video describes the battle from the Japanese perspective, including the decisions the commanders had to make when and the information that was available to them at the time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd8_vO5zrjo
I’ve seen several different youtube videos about Midway. All good!
Interesting to note that Admiral Halsey would have been in command of Midway had he not come down with a severe case of psoriasis, which caused him to be sidelined. This opened the door for Admiral Spruance and the rest is history.
Later in the war, Admiral Halsey would constantly try to make up for that resulting in questionable decisions in the Leyte Gulf and for keeping his fleet moving forward in a typhoon where it would have been more prudent to take the fleet to shelter.
And now, instead of sane people teaching our children about these men fighting totalitarian regimes, the drag queens are teaching the children how to become insane.
My annual Dauntless art print post.
Wow. Thank you for sharing this.