Battle of Midway

Britannica ^ | May 27th 2023 | Michael Ray

[Jacquerie]

Battle of Midway, (June 3–6, 1942), World War II naval battle, fought almost entirely with aircraft.

The Midway Islands were claimed for the United States on July 5, 1859, by Capt. N.C. Brooks. The coral atoll—consisting of Eastern Island and the larger Sand Island to the west—has a total land area of just 2.4 square miles (6.2 square km). Midway was formally annexed by the U.S. in 1867. A coal depot was established for transpacific steamers, but it was never used.

It was World War II which conclusively demonstrated the strategic importance of Midway. In 1940 the U.S. Navy began work on a major air and submarine base there. By the following year Eastern Island would boast three runways, while on Sand Island a seaplane hangar was built for a squadron of PBY Catalina flying boats.

So prominent was Midway in Japanese war planning that it was included in the opening offensive of the Pacific War on December 7–8, 1941. Roughly 12 hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese destroyers Sazanami and Ushio bombarded the power plant and seaplane hangar on Sand Island.

Despite a strategic setback at the Battle of the Coral Sea (May 4–8, 1942), the Japanese had continued with plans to seize the Midway Islands and bases in the Aleutians. Seeking a naval showdown with the numerically inferior U.S. Pacific Fleet, Adm. Yamamoto Isoroku sent out the bulk of the Kidō Butai (“Mobile Force”), a massive carrier battle group under the command of Vice Adm. Nagumo Chuichi. The 4 heavy aircraft carriers Akagi, Hiryu, Kaga, and Soryu were supplemented by 2 light aircraft carriers, 2 seaplane carriers, 7 battleships, 15 cruisers, 42 destroyers, 10 submarines, and various support and escort vessels.

Their orders were to destroy the American fleet and invade Midway.

[Gunslingr3]

None of your links work. I’m getting this reply.

Something goofy with the URL when I tried to do it from my phone. Check post #36.

[skeeter]

I had always heard the Japanese objective at Midway was to lure the remaining American carriers out to battle and destroy them. Which would’ve prevented another Doolittle raid, of course, but also render the US helpless until the huge fleet currently being built would be ready to oppose them sometime in ‘43.

[skeeter]

The Marblehead’s story was epic, as well. She (and your father) were very lucky to have gotten out of Indonesia when they did.

[17th Miss Regt]

Parshall disagrees. He accessed Jap casualty lists. Amazingly few of their veteran pilots died at Midway.

Hmm. Loss of four fleet carriers. Only two older, smaller carriers (CVLs Zuiho, Hosho) left in the area as landing places. Three fleet carriers were lost while rearming for a strike against the US fleet. Hiryu was sunk a bit later. When the carriers sank, the pilots went into the water. But there are escorting destroyers and cruisers that would try to rescue them once the American strike was over. So the pilot losses might not have been as horrendous as if the losses occurred while attacking the American CV groups (no friendly ships nearby).

But losing four fleet carriers is not something you want to do everyday!

[skeeter]

BTW thats Houston’s no 3 turret in the picture, which had recently been disbled by a bomb hit, killing 40 of her crew and hobbling her for the upcoming Java Sea battle. Houston would have to fight one arm tied behind her back untill she was lost.

[LS]

For those of you interested, I wrote a counterfactual novel, “Halsey’s Bluff,” where the U.S. fleet, then under “Bull” Halsey (not Spruance) was defeated at Midway by a daring Yamamoto plan in which he brought all his carriers.

Most of the novel is how Halsey can escape the trap, if he can, and how to turn the tables. It has been reviewed and approved by the vets at the Battle of Midway Roundtable.

https://www.amazon.com/Halseys-Bluff-Larry-Schwweikart/dp/0996365737/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1AS1BKK2SO7YZ&keywords=Halsey%27s+Bluff&qid=1685892890&sprefix=halsey%27s+bluff+%2Caps%2C119&sr=8-1

[pfflier]

I never liked the original Midway movie shot a few decades ago, because I have a thing about visuals REALLY not matching, such as using the Texans as Japanese planes, or modern day ships as WWII era ships.

They also reused a lot of footage from Tora Tora Tora. Cheapskates...

For me the wort part of the first movie was the stupid japanese girlfriend morality play included in the story line. Absolutely irrelevant and just a bunch of PC tripe.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Thank you! (L.P., I recollect you had a relative that was involved with Midway?)

First contact....a PBY Catalina sights the Japanese Midway invasion fleet.

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/08/31/cat-tales-the-story-of-world-war-iis-pby-flying-boat/

PBYs acted as advance patrols and picked up downed pilots and seamen. Excerpt:

"Particularly in the Pacific theater, air-sea rescue PBYs (called “Dumbos”) retrieved thousands of ditched pilots and shipwrecked seamen, often under fire and usually in seas that would have trashed a lesser boat.

One Dumbo landed three times to pick up downed bomber crews and eventually took off with 25 extra men aboard; for that mission, Navy Lt. Nathan Gordon became the only PBY pilot to be awarded a Medal of Honor.

Another Cat needed a three-mile takeoff run to lift a total of 63, including its own crew, and the pounding probably popped half the rivets in the hull. But the record goes to the Australian Catalina that carried 87 Dutch sailors — standing room only, thank you — after Japanese bombers mauled their freighter. With 15,000 pounds of passengers alone, to say nothing of the airplane’s fuel and crew weight, that put the RAAF PBY well over gross, but the Cat’s basic weight-and-balance rule was that if the payload hadn’t yet sunk the boat, it would somehow take off."

My father enlisted and served on a Navy PBY and happily (for me!), avoided by 2 weeks his squadron's redeployment from S.F. to a forward base in Okinawa. They were demobilized following the Japanese surrendered. I think he regretted having missed redeployment to S.Pacific, in having some part in the large events of history and the adventure of being in the Navy and flying around over the ocean in a far away place. (Not so much the loitering over the water in a slow moving under armored plane and being shot at part.)

[Jacquerie]

Parshall ruins the old theory that the Aleutians campaign was designed to lure the USN north.

[ByteMercenary]

Of all the significant people in Japan at that time Yamamoto was probably the only one who knew that a protracted war with the USA would not end well for Japan. He lived in the USA for a while taking some of his advanced education. He recognized the economic and manufacturing potential that could be brought to bear in a crisis.

[ansel12]

Here is the article with the photo.

The Story Behind the Photo
Despite the loss of her Number 3 turret in the Java Sea on 4 February, the heavy cruiser Houston and her men fought on. Within a month of this photo, she was sunk at the Battle of Sunda Strait, and most of the men shown were either dead or prisoners of war.
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2021/december/story-behind-photo

[Reily]

In general, the Japanese Navy was opposed to adventures that would bring war with the US. Many naval officers were well traveled and better educated like Yamamoto then their Imperial Army counterparts. They knew what the US could bring to the table of war if war was provoked.

[Captain Walker]

Wouldn’t you have loved to have watched Yamamoto’s response when he was told that four main carriers (comprising the core of the Kido Butai) had been ambushed by American carriers and destroyed? More than anyone else in the world, Yamamoto would have realized that in those minutes when the planes from the American carriers got through the defenses of the Japanese carriers to deliver lethal blows that the Japanese war efforts were ultimately doomed.

Yamamoto, who was sailing on a battleship that was in a force detached from the carriers would have gotten word after the first three flattops were struck within minutes of each other.

The fourth carrier was pursued and sunk much later than the first three.

[Captain Walker]

I recommend Gordon Prange’s work as well (Miracle at Midway).

[Captain Walker]

Of all the significant people in Japan at that time Yamamoto was probably the only one who knew that a protracted war with the USA would not end well for Japan. He lived in the USA for a while taking some of his advanced education. He recognized the economic and manufacturing potential that could be brought to bear in a crisis.

There were actually quite a few high-ranking military personnel who were arguing that an attack on Pearl Harbor would be idiocy, although Yamamoto was certainly the most prominent figure.

Before the war, Yamamoto was prescient enough to foresee the US firebombing campaign against Japan, correctly predicting the firebombing of Tokyo itself.

[rlmorel]

Yes… I just recently finished reading the book “Ship of Ghosts”, another work by the now departed James Horne Fisher, someone I have come to regard as a preeminent naval historian.

[BlueLancer]

...but it is a problem that people blindly accept movies as historical documents.

Ah, yes ... historical documents ...

[chrisinoc]

Exceptionally detailed, animated recounts of the battle, told from both perspectives with the information they had to help see how they reached their decisions.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

---

Yes, I’ve viewed all three parts several times and they exceptionally well done.

He’s also done ones on Pearl Harbor, Coral Sea, Savo Island, and Eastern Solomons. Once again, very well done.

[rlmorel]

Lol, that is one of my favorite movies!

“Those poor people!“

[rlmorel]

I view Hornfischer‘s book “Neptunes inferno“ as one of the most compelling accounts of naval gun warfare.