[mainepatsfan]

Of course the Americans obtained knowledge of the Japanese plans by illegally listening to their military coversations without a warrant. /s

[Bear_Slayer]

IIRC the attacks in the Aleutians preceded the Midway battle. It was a feight to draw the US north so that Japan could more easily attack and win at Midway.

In my opinion the aleutians were a more valuable target and they would have been wiser to concentrate their attack there.

[FDNYRHEROES]

The damaged carrier Yorktown had to be repaired in a mere three days, to be used along with the Enterprise and Hornet, all that was left in the way of aircraft carriers after the bombing at Pearl Harbor.

The previous sentence would lead one to conclude that one or more crriers were lost during the Pearl Harbor attack. No carriers were lost in the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The USS Lexington was lost in the Battle of the Coral Sea. The USS Saratoga was in drydock in San Diego.

[wita]

There is an apparent misconception in the narrative that leads one to believe that our carriers were somehow damaged at the Pearl Harbor raid. In fact none of the US aircraft carriers were at Pearl during the day of infamy. Had they been, the Battle of Midway might have had a different conclusion, instead, the Battle of Midway was perhaps the decisisve battle of the war when all of the Japanese carriers involved were sunk.

[The Iguana]

As historian Gordon Prange noted, Nimitz called Midway "a miracle." And after finishing his study of the battle, he tended to think Nimitz understated matters.

Cracking the Japanese code and Nimitz daring to act on it was a providential turn even greater than the discovery of Lee's Special Orders 191. The stakes were greater and the number of things that had to go right were greater as well.

Hats off to the brave men who gave their all 64 years ago.

[Young Werther]

A study of Midway shows that the ability to read the Japanese coded military communications was the key to winning at Midway. A fake message was broadcast from Midway back to Hawaii that their water treatment plant was inoperative. When the Japanese forwarded this bit of information to their fleet which was enroute the US tactics were completed and the feint to the Aleutians was ignored.

A historical argument continues, to this day, as to whether FDR knew of the Pearl Harbor attack. Cordell Hull, Secy of State, had seen the translation of the 14 part message which was to be Japan's official declaration of war and was to preceed the Pearl Harbor attack. In the movie Tora Tora it is accurately portrayed that the Japanese were "late" in delivering the message and the declaration was moot since the bombs had already fallen!!!

[VOA]

bump

[SunkenCiv]

Of course the Americans obtained knowledge of the Japanese plans by illegally listening to their military coversations without a warrant.

LOL!

Midway was one of the crucial battles of the Pacific War, and was a victory by an nth. Had the Japanese used all the force available (instead of launching a strange diversionary attack with two carriers etc on Aleutian targets), it could easily have gone the other way. The Japanese defeat was so complete and so devastating that the Japanese public didn't learn all the details until 1955.

[Dilbert56]

For fun, here's an article first posted on FR that's been picked up elsewhere: If Today's Media Reported the Battle of Midway

When I wrote it, my intent was to show how a completely factual account can distort the essence of an event. Just as today's media hide behind the "factual"-ness of their one-sided reporting on Iraq.