Posted on 06/03/2012 3:50:59 PM PDT by smokingfrog
Spanning hundreds of leagues and four days, June 4-7, 1942, the Battle of Midway pitted an overmatched American fleet against a Japanese armada in a desperate struggle for command of the Pacific. What unfolded more than 1,000 miles northwest of Hawaii was, British historian John Keegan maintains, “the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare.”
Saturday in San Diego, the U.S. Navy celebrated this triumph’s 70th anniversary. Aboard the retired aircraft carrier named for the battle, 1,000 guests were to hear videotaped comments from a handful of survivors.
They included aviators, Marines and one plucky steward.
“The Japanese had the most ships,” that steward, 97-year-old Andy Mills, said during an earlier interview in his San Diego home. “But we knew they were coming — we had cracked their codes. We had the upper hand.”
The U.S. Navy may have had another advantage — it was stocked with flexible, creative officers and sailors. Mills, a black man in the then-segregated Navy, began the Battle of Midway as a steward aboard the carrier Yorktown, making meals and cleaning rooms. Before the battle’s end, he would crack a safe, struggle to save a doomed vessel and abandon ship — twice.
Midway turned the tide of World War II in the Pacific, snapping a string of Japanese victories that had begun six months earlier at Pearl Harbor.
(Excerpt) Read more at utsandiego.com ...
It is kind of amazing, when you think of it. The Japs had years to prepare, train their forces, and plan their initial and follow on attacks. The US was basically caught unaware and not really on a war footing.
Yet, within a few months, the US had organized itself to build the mobile strike forces (carriers), the air forces (B-29's and long range fighters) and the ultimate atomic weapons that would win the war. The training, tactics and logistics involved were figured out and implemented. Meanwhile the Japs were spreading their forces thinly all across the Pacific. Training, logistics, and a strategy to actually defeat the US were sorely lacking.
VDH writes about the "western way of war" and how western nations, from ancient Greece to now, are better able to organize their societies to destroy their enemies. I don't think anything has changed.
Too bad that Laser Guidance timing lagged so much.
The attack of the SBDs was 15 minutes that changed the world. I’ve sailed over the spot where the Yorktown sank in RIMPAC 1994 Very moving to sail those same seas.
The Japanese thought we(and all their opposition) would just fall over dead or run away. There is not much need to create a long term plan for victory if you are racially superior.
The Japanese plan had been to strike as close as possible to “out of the blue” (only translation difficulties in the Japanese embassy in D.C. prevented a “formal” declaration of war being announced before the start of the Pearl Harbor attack), overrun and grab as much territory as possible while the Western colonial powers were still reeling, establish themselves in their new lands, then step forward with a peace offering before the Americans and British could recover and mount a counteroffensive.
How little the Japanese understood their foes....
Do you think that if things had gone very badly at Midway that there may have started a “peace with Japan” movement in late 1942?
"In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success."
A disputed quote, but it sounds good:
"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass."
He said he lost track of the number of times the Aussies thanked him for the Battle of the Coral Sea.
Japan never had a chance in a war with the United States. In 1939 the USA produced 51.3 million tons of steel. Japan produced 5.8 million tons of steel.
One thing I recall from Saburo Sakai’s book is he considered the American Pilots early in the war to be of really high quality but their planes were very inferior.
I also remember him saying the best pilot he ever faced was a Dutchman very early in the war. He was flying an old obsolete fighter but every time Sakai was ready to shoot, he would evade. He eventually did shoot him down but Sakai clearly thought he would have lost to him if the Dutchman had a good plane.
Sakai also said the reason the Americans eventually prevailed was the quality of their planes fairly soon became better than the Japanese. He said they did develop some fighters which were just as good as the mustang but they were too few and too late.
It doesn't really matter. Liberals would point out the "divinity" of the Japanese emperor and blame the war on religion...
Otherwise known as the speedy three.
No. The American people did not forget about Pearl Harbor. They wanted victory and a defeat at Midway would make them even more motivated, not less.
Wow..... You were certainly privileged and you have my envy.
One of the things I’m amazed with is how quickly they could get things done, developed, invented, repaired, etc. All the new weapons, ship repairs, The Bomb, conversion of factories to wartime use....training of personnel . . .what an incredible effort home and abroad.
Fortune was in our favor on this day.
Good fortune, and untold bravery.
But they went in anyway.
I think the great depression had something to do with it. It toughened us and also our enemies.
Also our morality and sense of national patriotism was far far stronger than now. I can recall my Father mentioning that all their officers were fine men.
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