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 ...
And now we have a Muslim traitor in the White House. Who doesn't understand the Muslim foe? Americans today do not have a clue what is going on.
I read his book, and sometime after that I saw a sit-down interview of him on the History Channel, probably made in the 70’s ( It seems like there’s a lot these WWII interviews from around the same time. )
You could hear him speaking in japanese, but they had an english voice-over. He described his near shoot down and said what was going through his mind. As I recall, “Now I was to meet the fate I had dealt to so many others. I could only say to myself, ‘Killed in action! Killed in action!’ “
I think the real edge we had was getting the Yorktown back in action just 48 hours after it was very nearly destroyed. The Japanese were certain it had been as they left if dead in the water burning furiously.
It was very nearly a miracle that those shipyard workers (just another example of the capability of WWII Americans I have mentioned before) could get it back into fighting trim in such a short time.
If not for the Yorktown they would have had 4 against 2.
This was always the army's preference, but before the Battles of Khalkin Gol, when they were roundly humiliated by Soviet armor & tactics.
They lost so much prestige on account of these skirmishes that when the decision was made on overall war strategy war the Navy's preferred move south was selected, which of course culminated in the Pacific War.
Its funny to think that an obscure mongolian calvary unit seeking a place to graze their horses could have such a significant and far reaching result.
My father worked on the Brewster Buffaloes. The workers were encouraged to improve production speed and some of them made innovations that moved things along more quickly.
The planes were designed for maneuverability but as the war demanded were weighed down with more stuff than the designers envisioned. They were not a match for the Zeros, nor for the later planes, and Midway was just about their last hurrah.
Louis Bamberger, owner of the Newark department store that later became part of Macy’s, was a big plane buff and after the war displayed a Buffalo on the top floor of the store. I was just a bit of a thing but I clearly remember by father gazing on this plane with awe for quite a while. Two other things struck me: (1) the very fact of an airplane in a department store, and (2) how tiny it was.
Actually I think the whole idea of capturing Midway was to lure the American carriers into battle and destroy them. They actually succeeded in doing that.
But like the old saying goes, “sometimes you are the windshield and sometimes the bug”. this time they ended up being the bug.
People like your father and other workers who came up with ideas and increased production beyond anything believed possible, actually won our war for us.
Don't think so. They staged an attack on the Aleutians and tried to draw us up there so they could take Midway. They did not want out Carriers to show up and didn't expect them to. They knew if we found out they were in trouble but they went ahead anyway. Our intelligence pretty much proved they were trying to decoy us away from Midway.
They expected to ensconce themselves on the island first and then take on our carriers when they came out to dislodge them.
As it was our guys slipped past their pickets and we all know the rest.
The attack on the Aleutians was indeed supposed to draw some American forces to that area. I don’t think they thought we would send one of our remaining two, as they thought fleet carriers to the Aleutians tho.
I also think they intended to occupy the Aleutians if they could, not just as a feint.
They did, Attu & Kiska - but the carrier assault on Unalaska was only a diversion.
sounds great!
Which I don't understand
Along with the carrier attack, why didn't the army launch a full scale B-17 and B-24 assault from Midway and carpet bomb the Jap fleet?
I am not sure how many planes were in the attack but I think they did attempt something like that but I would guess the Japanese kept their ships far enough apart so any attack would have been against only one ship.
I am not sure how many planes were in the attack but I think they did attempt something like that but I would guess the Japanese kept their ships far enough apart so any attack would have been against only one ship.
I just remembered I have seen film of German Condor four engined bombers attacking armed convoys. They were literally flying at mast level. They had probably figured out that was the way to attack shipping.
On the other hand the B-17s had to worry about Japanese fighters so they may have stayed so high that the fighters would have a hard time reaching them. also made it harder for AA to hit them.
Still it was not an effective way to attack ships.
This was always the army’s preference, but before the Battles of Khalkin Gol, when they were roundly humiliated by Soviet armor & tactics.
also known as NOMONHAN by the japanese. reading a new book on it now and there a chapter on it in the what if book RISING SUN VICTORIOUS.
If Midway would have “turned” out “differently”(Japs TAKE Midway) then Pearl Harbor would have been FINISHED as a forward base and the US Navy would have had to return and fight the war from the US West Coast. The War in the Pacifice would have EASILY gone into 1947 or 1948.
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