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.

[Jacquerie]

From Parshall, I recall that a PBY served the ONLY successful torpedo attack over several days of battle.

It nailed a Jap oiler/supply ship far to the west of Midway.

Good on the PBY. Bad on USN torpedo squadron tactics.

[Bookshelf]

I am not sure that Japanese pilots that survived Midway went on to the South Pacific. Most naval officers and men were held at bases north of Hokkaido, in, as I recall, Kunishiri. As the Island of Japan began to suffer attacks the survivors were reinegrated. It was said that very few of the Japanese pilots involved in the Midway engagement survived WWII.

[Hot Tabasco]

Yamamoto Isoroku??? Encyclopedia Britannica isn't what it used to be.

Actually it is, you just didn't read enough.....

Yamamoto Isoroku, original name Takano Isoroku, (born April 4, 1884, Nagaoka, Japan—died April 18, 1943, Solomon Islands), Japanese naval officer who conceived of the surprise attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

Yamamoto graduated from the Japanese Naval Academy in 1904, and a year later he was wounded in action at the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War. In 1913 he enrolled in the Japanese Naval Staff College, and after graduating in 1916 he was adopted into the Yamamoto family and changed his name.

[Jacquerie]

That’s right.

IIRC, from Parshall, not only were the Jap media not informed of the disaster, the surviving sailors of the Kido Butai were kept in isolation for the remainder of the war.

Some time also passed before the Imperial Army and Emperor were informed.

[Night Hides Not]

My macro history teacher was a ball buster...lol. I first met him when I matriculated at Gonzaga in 1972, Dr. Erwin Graue was 77 at the time. His favorite saying was "there are no free lunches" with a heavy German accent.

His desert dry wit was the stuff of legend, though it would get him fired today. He taught until he was 90. A brilliant man, and excellent professor.

From Day One, he was on me to change my major to accounting, he was not a big fan of "business management majors." I finally took his advice the spring semester of my sophomore year.

My accounting professor for 30+ hours taught accounting theory: he never used numbers, and his tests were essay questions...no multiple choice questions. I learned accounting theory so well, I passed the CPA 15 years after graduation, thanks to other jobs before returning to accounting at 35...kids were coming and I needed a steadier source of income.

Even during my 8 years in the Army, my degree was put into use: every unit I was at, I was automatically assigned an extra duty, that of Income Tax Officer. The Spangdahlem Officer Wives Club hired me to audit their books during the two years I was at Battalion HQ. My last 18 months, I was the Battalion S-4, nobody from higher HQ messed with us on finance and budget matters. I was also the point man for the renewal of the Interservice Support Agreement with the Air Force. Great memories.

[Chainmail]

"I thought Tora, Tora, Tora was pretty realistic and I believe historically accurate."

Uhh - not all that much: even though they made all those erzatz Japanese planes out of T-6s and Vultee BT-13s, the ships were modern and the plot plodding -

That, and it was about Pearl Harbor, not Midway.

[dfwgator]

Yamamoto went to Harvard.

[Jacquerie]

Sorry, I did not read you post closely enough the first time. My bad.

Jap pilots from Midway were kept on the front lines, say Rabaul, where they could and did fight at Guadalcanal, but never returned to the Japanese mainland.

[Chainmail]

"I still want to see a sweeping movie made about the Battle of Leyte Gulf. I think that would be a great movie, now that they know how to leverage CGI in a meaningful way. Never happen, but...I can always hope.

Me too! October 25th 1944 will always be an astounding saga of over-the-top heroism and sacrifice by our naval men. Hornfischer's book and the Men of Gambier Bay would be solid starting points.

Two other stories I'd like to see made into quality movies, are the battle between the Stephen Hopkins and the HSK Steier and the Tannefels (the Liberty ship sank the German raider). and Wake Island (not the corny wartime propaganda version).

[umbagi]

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[umbagi]

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[skeeter]

Thanks. Its a poignant story.

[skeeter]

Neptune’s Inferno is also a great book.

[rlmorel]

Those two subjects would be great...I was always saddened by the accounts from Wake Island. Must have been tough realizing no relief was going to come, and then, the vicious treatment by the Japanese.

[rlmorel]

It sure is. I have always been somewhat of a student of the Guadalcanal Campaign, which was really the first air-land-sea campaign on a large scale, and that well written book really filled in not only the facts but the emotional aspects of it for me.

[skeeter]

There was color in that book totally lacking in other more sterile accounts. Excellent writing.

[Chainmail]

Wake was a really amazing battle and sadly, Major Devereaux surrendered before he knew that the Japanese had been mauled and that his marines still had plenty of fight left in them.

The tale of the Stephen Hopkins is another tale that should be in every history book - and would make a stunning movie: the Hopkins was on its way to South America from Africa, went through a rough storm - and when the fog bank it was in lifted, they saw two German ships very close by. Both sides were stunned and the Germans signaled them to heave to and surrender, but the captain of the Hopkins refused and pointed his stern at the Germans, which enabled his Naval Reserve gun crew on a 4 inch gun to open fire. One 4 inch against at least four 6-inch guns, four torpedo tubes, and 37mm and 20mm cannons on the Steier. The Americans hit very effectively but the entire navy gun crew was killed - and the ordinary merchant sailors of the Hopkins took over and kept hitting - all while the Germans kept hitting the Hopkins. The Hopkins sank, leaving 16 men left alive to make their way to Brazil, some 30 days in a lifeboat - but the Steier was mortally wounded and then scuttled by the Germans. It was only Liberty ship ever to sink an enemy combatant.

Like I said, a hell of a movie!

[SunkenCiv]

June 3, 2014 -- Jonathan Parshall, historian and co-author of the book "Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway," delivers a presentation about the Battle of Midway to students, staff and faculty at U.S. Naval War College (NWC) in Newport, Rhode Island. The Battle of Midway, which took place June 4-7, 1942, was considered the high water mark for the Japanese navy and the turning point of the war in the Pacific during World War II.

Naval Heritage | Jonathan Parshall: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway | 50:00
U.S. Naval War College | 21.3K subscribers | 354,456 views | June 24, 2014 Naval Heritage Lectures

[nicollo]

"Turning of the Tide" by Robert Taylor

[rlmorel]

Wow-that is an intense encounter! Can you recommend a book that renders an accurate account of that?