The Battle of Midway

Self | June 4, 2013 | Self

[skeeter]

Admiral Kusaka wrote afterwards about a mortally hit B26 that charged the bridge of the Akagi, missing it by feet & causing the admiral and staff to hit the deck. It crashed beyond the ship but Kusaka admitted he was shaken by the realization that the Americans were as committed as any Japanese.

[Flag_This]

"All your flat tops are belong to us."

[DManA]

Beyond that small starting place,

Small starting place? There would never have been a battle without it. The japs would have taken Midway without hardly a fight.

[Retain Mike]

I remember that very same narrative. What uncomparable courage.

[tophat9000]

Yea could not remember if 3 or 4...oddly they were attach to torpedo 8 the TBD squadron off the Hornet that was wiped out

[SaintsWillWin]

The Pacific War was decided on 12-7-41.

When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, there would only be one outcome; the only uncertainty was how long it would take.

Yamamoto knew before the ships even sailed that Japan would lose the war.

[US Navy Vet]

Check this book out(it will give you a whole NEW prospective on WW II): http://www.amazon.com/Operation-Snow-Soviet-Triggered-Harbor/dp/B00D9TE32A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384694908&sr=8-1&keywords=operation+snow

[SunkenCiv]

from 6/4/2013.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Thanks. :-)

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from 6/04/2013. Thanks Retain Mike.

[UMCRevMom@aol.com]

MIDWAY DOCUMENTARY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkiXHKeMC9k&index=37&list=PLJ8RjvesnvDMirffrNEsCKnSFlIMwJoei

Battle of Midway Island, June 4-5, 1942, when a perilously small United States Navy task force decisively defeated Admiral Yamamoto’s much larger Japanese fleet whose mission had been the invasion and occupation of Midway. It was the turning point of the war against the Japanese who lost four large carriers and never again seriously threatened American sea power in the central Pacific.

** Most interesting, I LEARNED ABOUT THIS FROM MY DAD, Following details from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Midway_(film)

“The Battle of Midway is a 1942 American DOCUMENTARY FILM SHORT directed by John Ford.When the United States Navy sent director John Ford to Midway Island in 1942, he believed that the military wanted him to make a documentary on life at a small, isolated military base, and filmed casual footage of the sailors and marines there working and having fun. Two days before the battle, he learned that the Japanese planned to attack the base and that it was preparing to defend itself.Ford ‘s handheld, 16mm FOOTAGE OF THE BATTLE WAS CAPTURED TOTALLY IMPROMTU.

He had been in transit on the island, roused from his bunk by the sounds of the battle, and started filming. Ford was wounded by enemy fire while filming the battle. Acclaimed as a hero when he returned home because of the footage and the minor wound, Ford decades later incorrectly claimed to Peter Bogdanovich that he was the only cameraman; however, Jack Mackenzie Jr. and Kenneth Pier assisted Ford in filming.

Ford was worried that military censors would prevent the footage from being shown in public. After returning to Los Angeles, he gave the footage to Robert Parrish, who had worked with him on How Green Was My Valley, to edit in secret. Ford spliced in footage of James Roosevelt, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s son and a Marine Corps officer; when the president saw the film in the White House, he told William Leahy: “I want every mother in America to see this film”, thus protecting Ford from censorship.

Parrish wrote an in-depth account of the making of The Battle of Midway in his autobiography, Growing Up in Hollywood (1976). The film runs for 18 minutes, was distributed by 20th Century Fox, and was one of four winners of the inaugural, 1942 Academy Award for Best Documentary.

Seeing men he had met and filmed die horrified Ford, who said, “I am really a coward” compared to those who fought. He had spent time with Torpedo Squadron 8, and 29 of 30 men of the unit died or were missing after the battle. Ford assembled the footage he had taken of the squadron into an eight-minute film, adding titles praising the squadron for having “written the most brilliant pages in the glowing history of our Naval Air Forces” and identifying each man as he appeared. He printed the result, Torpedo Squadron 8, to 8mm film suitable for home projectors and sent copies to the men’s families.”