Like most Jap plans Midway was over-complicated, but they easily had what they needed @ Midway to win. Their fear of the American carriers and the fact they thought they outnumbered the US 2-1 in that category caused them to make critical mistakes. The three Jap carriers sunk in short order was partly due to some of the terrible aircraft that the US had at the outbreak of war. Had it not been for the dogged determination of the outclassed Devastator torpedo bombers to press their attack and suffer close to annihilation for their effort, the US would have lost that battle.
May God bless all who’ve served. We have been watching Masters of the Air and enjoying it. Also helped me understand my dad’s prison camp experience a bit more.
The Japanese loved using decoy forces and diversions to draw the US Navy into traps, but their biggest mistake was assuming the US Navy would always do exactly what they expected. No plan survives first contact with the enemy, but the Midway operation didn’t even get that far because of US code breakers, the dock workers at Pearl Harbor, and a skin rash. The quick repair work on Yorktown was related to another failure in the Pearl Harbor attack, which was not knocking out the repair facilities.