“The Japs lost at Midway because, like at most of their other naval battles, they fled before finishing the job. I’m not sure cowardice is the right word to describe the senior Japanese naval commanders,”
There were seven aircraft carriers involved in the battle and all four of Japan’s large aircraft carriers—Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu, part of the six-carrier force that had attacked Pearl Harbor six months earlier—and a heavy cruiser were sunk, while the U.S. lost only the carrier Yorktown and a destroyer.
As `armchair admiral’ what would you have done? Stuck around with the Yamato swatting at American dive bombers, losing it and other ships?
I agree that the Japanese broke off their attack on Pearl Harbor too soon. But at Midway they got their clocks cleaned and lost their air cover, so withdrawal was prudent.
There was nothing tentative about it. Their casualties were isolated and the Japanese people didn’t learn of this terrible ass-kicking for a long time.
As the Japanese withdrew they left a couple of heavy cruisers back to in the hopes that they might catch the Enterprise & Hornet in a hasty pursuit. They were looking for a night surface action which they IJN excelled at. Spruance figured he’d done as much as could be expected and bagging another cruiser or 2 wasn’t worth risking his carriers, and so he withdrew. Even so US strike aircraft managed to nail one of those cruisers.
No, you need to go back and look at the order of battle. After the Battle of Midway, Japanese forces were largely intact except for the Carrier Strike force.
Main Force had Hosho, Chiyoda, and Nisshin.
Invasion Force had Zuiho;
Occupation force had Chitose and the freighter Kamikawa Maru (8 fighters and 4 scouts).
And the Northern Force, which was intended as a diversion anyway, could have been brought down to supply additional cover after the landings. Ryujo; and Jun’yo;
Since the Americans had only 8 cruisers against a far superior surface fleet and a slight advantage in available aircraft, the Japs should have been able to drive the Americans off (Guadalcanal and Wake should have told the Japs that the American navy wasn’t willing to risk carriers to save a few marines on on an island) and a determined drive would have won the day.