Posted on 06/04/2013 11:18:48 AM PDT by Retain Mike
A miracle helped along by the fact that we could read all their coded messages.
Yep, and some TBF pilots with more guts than I’ll ever know.
I read the Japanese were amazed at their bravery.
WW II in the Pacific was decided w/in the space of 1/2 hour @ the Battle of Midway.
That's two of us.
5.56mm
Reality contradicted the propaganda they had been feed about Americans.
Good article! Thanks. We owe those guys a LOT.
Have you read “Shattered Sword”? I highly recommend it for insight into the battle from the Japanese angle.
http://www.shatteredswordbook.com/
What did Ayn Rand say? Paraphrasing: You can avoid reality, but you can't avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.
Kinda like democRATs/socialists/marxists/progressives (sorry for the redundancy) today.
5.56mm
BTTT
Yep, anyone that hasn’t read “Shattered Sword” doesn’t really know anything about Midway.
In sum, Midway was no miracle. We won Midway because we were better across the board. Better ships, better aircraft, better damage control, etc.
And we weren’t really outnumbered in the key things that matter (total aircraft,etc.) They had one more CV but we had three CVs and an additional unsinkable CV (Midway.)
The really interesting thing is that even if we’d lost the Naval battle, it’s overwhelmingly likely the huge numbers of well-trained, heavily-armed, and dug-in Marines on Midway would have annihilated the Japanese invasion force and they could not have captured the island.
Midway and Battle of the Bulge are probably the two greatest American victories under trying circumstances in both World Wars. Both Germany and Japan made the mistake of thinking our troops were weak and couldn’t handle adversity.
Walter Lord’s book is probably the best account of Midway I have read. Battle: The Story of the Bulge is the best on that battle. Both are amazing accounts of bravery, skill and luck (both good and bad) that were part of these amazing victories.
I get your point, but had the US lost its entire Pacific fleet at Midway, we would still have won the war.
Would have taken longer, but would have made no difference in the outcome.
On December 8, 1941 Churchill celebrated the defeat of the Axis. On that day it was all over but the shouting.
Which is not to say that the eventual victory was not due to the valor and sacrifice of a great many good men. Only that Allied victory was certain unless the US were to abandon the war.
Who wrote that, would be interested to read.
http://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Sword-Untold-Battle-Midway/dp/1574889249
Written by Parshall and Tully.
Relies heavily on a lot of recently-translated Japanese material.
Other thing of note is that there were no aircraft on the decks of any of the Japanese carriers when they were bombed and sunk.
NO If we had lost our ENTIRE Fleet @ Midway then Pearl Harbor would have been UNTENABLE and we would have been FORCED to conduct ALL of WW II in the Pacific from either San Diego or San Pedro and WW II in the Pacific would have taken WELL into 1946, 1947 or Early 1948.
“but would have made no difference in the outcome” OK JUST HOW MANY more US and Allied(UK, NZ, Aust) Troops, Sailors Airman and Marines would have died because of the extension of the War?
I did not know B-17s were involved at Midway.
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