A Memorial in Naval History

American Thinker ^ | May 25, 2009 | Jan LaRue

[neverdem]

"They had no right to win. Yet they did, and in doing so they changed the course of a war ...even against the greatest of odds, there is something in the human spirit -- a magic blend of skill, faith and valor -- that can lift men from certain defeat to incredible victory."

Dedication Stone Inscription by Walter Lord
National WWII Memorial, Washington, DC
Battle of Midway
June 4-7, 1942

National Geographic produced a DVD, "Battle for Midway," which includes actual combat footage of the historic WWII naval battle and Dr. Robert Ballard's search and discovery of the aircraft carrier, USS Yorktown, at more than 17,000 feet below the surface on May 19, 1998. Two survivors from the Yorktown crew were on board Ballard's ship. The photography is extraordinary, as was our Navy's victory at Midway.

As a result of the attack on Pearl Harbor, much of the U.S. Navy's Pacific fleet was eliminated. We had only four aircraft carriers that stood between our Pacific coast and the Japanese.

One of our carriers, the USS Lexington, sank in the Battle of the Coral Sea on May 8, 1942. Within days, our Navy Intelligence intercepted and decoded plans for the Japanese attack on Midway Island in June.

Midway lies between Japan and Hawaii. As a result of the interception, our Navy was prepared and set a trap for the Japanese fleet. Details of the Japanese plan, our interception, and the battle are available online by the Department of the Navy.

The Yorktown was badly damaged in the Coral Sea battle. Even so, her planes attacked two Japanese aircraft carriers, helping to sink the Shoho and damaging the Shokaku. The Yorktown steamed slowly back to Pearl Harbor for repairs that were estimated to take three months. Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet told the repair crews, "You've got three days." Hundreds of men went to work around the clock and completed the repairs as Nimitz ordered.

The Yorktown steamed toward Midway, along with our other two remaining carriers, the USS Enterprise and the USS Hornet. It would be the largest naval battle in recorded history.

The heroism of our Navy cannot be overstated. The average age of our men was 17-23 years. Young, inexperienced pilots left the decks of our carriers and willingly flew beyond the point of no return of their fuel. Many ditched in the sea. Some survived.

Our fleet was overwhelmingly outnumbered. We had no battleships -- the Japanese had 11. We had three carriers -- the Japanese had six. In the four-day battle of June 4-7, American losses included the Yorktown, a destroyer, about 145 planes and 307 men. Thankfully, before she rolled over and sank, destroyers rescued many of the crew from the Yorktown.

The Japanese lost four carriers, a heavy cruiser, three destroyers, about 291 planes, at least 4,800 men, and suffered heavy damage among the remaining vessels of their fleet. One of Japanese carriers, the Soryu, was the flagship of Admiral Yamamoto, who had conceived and led the attack on Pearl Harbor. He had been awakened and defeated by the "sleeping giant."

Japanese hubris contributed to the loss of their carriers. Their decks, painted bright yellow with the infamous red dot, were perfect targets for our bomber pilots. The decks of our carriers were painted blue, like the sea.

The losses inflicted on Japan at both Coral Sea and Midway turned the tide of war in the Pacific. Consider. "What if we had lost at Midway?"

One veteran from USS Yorktown recalls hearing the answer to that question just an hour or two before the battle began ... the Captain got on the 1MC ... the ship's announcing system ...and said, "If we don't stop this enemy fleet today, there is nothing between here and San Francisco to keep them from going all the way." The Japanese believed that if they could destroy the Pacific fleet then the United States would be forced to negotiate for peace.

Gordon England Secretary of the Navy spoke at a dinner on the evening before June 4, 2004, the day he laid the stone commemorating the Battle of Midway at the WW II Memorial in Washington, DC. England called attention to similarities with the current war against terrorism:

The Japanese had a rigidly enforced state religion ... the Shinto religion ...which was used to justify Japanese aggression against its Asian neighbors and then against the United States. Members of the Japanese military were inspired to believe that they were going to heaven if they took our lives and were willing to literally become suicide bombers ... in their kamikaze ‘divine wind' airplanes.

Although the military draft was begun as a result of Pearl Harbor, it was virtually unnecessary. The day after the attack, tens of thousands of American men stood in line to enlist in defense of America.

England also gave us a sobering reminder in 2004 of the unconscionable and unrelenting enemy we face:

Last year, in an article published on an Al Qaeda website, a terrorist spokesman said, "We have the right to kill four million Americans -- two million of them children -- and to exile twice as many and wound and cripple hundreds of thousands. Furthermore, it is our right to fight them with chemical and biological weapons."

This Memorial Day, let's remember to thank God for our volunteer military -- our truly audacious hope for the future.

Jan LaRue is an attorney and frequent contributor to American Thinker.

[Vroomfondel]

ping

[metalurgist]

Thanks to all that served and are now gone.
Just wondering. Would we be better off today if the Japanese had managed to shell San Francisco?

[NavyCanDo]

Below is part of a Memorial salute I begain to write for my Dad while he was in hospice care waiting to die. I finished it in time to be read at his funeral. I sure miss him.

When Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941, 15 year old Clarence was eager to join the military as soon as he was old enough to do so. Clarence joined the Navy in 1944 and served on the battleship USS Mississippi (BB 41) with 2,000 other men. With her twelve 14 inch guns Mississippi supported the Marine landings on the Island of Peleliu. She then assisted in the liberations of the Philippines, shelling the east coast of Leyte supporting the landings of General Macarthur’s troops.

On the night of October 24th the Army on Leyte passed the word that a powerful Japanese naval task force was approaching from the south, and with The U.S. main battle fleet and the carriers away in the opposite direction chasing a decoy, the soldiers knew the Japanese were about to spring a trap. They would be doomed if the Japanese ships opened up on them. They waited in the dark in stunned silence and quite desperation. But lying in wait for the Japanese were six of America’s oldest battleships including the Mississippi that waited at the mouth of the Surigao Strait. This line of old battleships accompanied by 7th Fleet destroyers and cruisers, opened fire with an enormous coordinated salvo at the approaching line of Japanese warships, immediately sinking the first of the two Japanese battleships they would sink that night, along with three destroyers and a heavy cruiser. Naval historians would later call this “The greatest Naval Battle in History”, but for the Army ashore who could see the ships burning in the night sky, they had no words to explain what they saw, for they knew their worst nightmare was stopped dead in it’s tracks by Admiral Oldendorf’s old battleships. The men ashore have eternal gratitude to those Sailors and to the 1,100 of them that died out there that night.
The Mississippi supported the landing forces in the Philippines until February, despite receiving heavy damage near her waterline from a kamikaze during the bombardment of Lingayen Gulf Luzon.

One of the more memorable moments for Clarence came while supporting landing forces on Okinawa. Clarence would often tell the story of how the Japanese stalled our offensive from their position in Shuri Castle, which the enemy claimed was indestructible, and our Marines were beginning to have doubts it could be taken. Clarence said. “We opened up with our 14 inch guns and with 56 direct hits destroyed the castle.” The Marines were finally able to capture the castle but only after the Navy laid waste of it.

Clarence recalls the ship remained off Okinawa for two months never shutting down it’s engines so they would always be ready for a fight and for the constant threat from the kamikazes. Even after being hit by a kamikaze once again, this time on her starboard 5 inch gun mounts, which caused heavy damage and many casualties the Mississippi refused to leave. The soldiers ashore were grateful that Ole Miss stayed on post even with her heavy damage. Her steadfast presence saved many lives on Okinawa.

After the announced surrender of Japan, the USS Mississippi anchored in Tokyo Bay while Clarence and his shipmates witnessed the signing of the surrender documents aboard the USS Missouri on September 2nd 1945.

The ship was sold for scrap in 1956, but the men to which she was so good haven’t forgotten her. It is recalled by his children that the first word he taught them to spell was M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i., and there is no doubt why.

[neverdem]

Thanks for your post.

USS Mississippi (BB-41, later AG-128), 1917-1956

New Mexico Class (BB-40 through BB-42), 1915 Building Program

[BIGLOOK]

God grant me the courage not to give up what I think is right even though I think it is hopeless.

Chester W. Nimitz

[BigCinBigD]

“Before we’re through with ‘em, the Japanese language will only be spoken in hell.”
Bill Halsey.

[donmeaker]

No. Look up the Mare Island explosion which did more damage than the entire basic load of a battleship.

The current bums moved there after WWII was over. Shelling SF would have missed them.

[AlaskaErik]

"Kill Japs, kill Japs, kill more Japs!"

Adm Bull Halsey.

[Vanders9]

One of the truly decisive battles of world history, and one of only two, possibly three, in World War II.

[lentulusgracchus]

Correcting the original narrative, the Japanese had four carriers present, or about half the striking force they had available in the six-carrier Kido Butai that struck Pearl Harbor. Two large carriers, Shokaku and Zuikaku, were in home waters under repair. Another small carrier, the Junyo, was far to the north supporting the Alaskan diversionary landings.

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was present, flying his flag in the superbattleship Yamato with the surface forces following behind the carrier divisions commanded by Adm. Chuichi Nagumo. Nagumo was flying his flag, as he had done at Pearl Harbor, in the carrier Akagi. During the battle, after Akagi was fatally damaged, Adm. Nagumo transferred his flag and the Emperor's portrait, as was the Japanese custom, to the light cruiser Nagara.

The U.S. Navy had battleships available (a few), but the new, fast battleships North Carolina and Washington were in Atlantic waters delivering on President Roosevelt's commitment to Winston Churchill to help defend North Atlantic convoys against the threat of the German battleship Tirpitz and other powerful surface elements forward deployed in Norwegian waters and at Brest. The USS Massachusetts was brand-new and still shaking down on the East Coast. The other battleships were left on the West Coast out of harm's way, since they were not fast enough to keep up with the carriers.

[BuffaloJack]

WW2 was fought at a time when most Americans loved their country. It was fought by men who did not have to be more afraid of lawyers than the enemy. It was fought by men who had studied Sun Tzu and had a keen understanding that you fight to win and you do not offer appeasement instead of the point of a sword. It was fought through the will of the commanders in the field and not the politicians sitting in the safety of a debating hall.

[oldsalt]

Although the military draft was begun as a result of Pearl Harbor, it was virtually unnecessary...

Just a little nitpicking...the draft was instituted in 1940 and was well underway prior to Pearl Harbor.

I had an uncle who entered the Army via the draft in January 1941 and landed in North Africa in 1942,the first of four amphibious landings he made and received the first of his three Purple Hearts when he was injured as his troopship was torpedoed and a destroyer had to tow his landing craft many miles to the beach.

Uncle Lud also landed in Sicily,Italy and the south of France.He was a forward artillery observer and soldiered on until he couldn't anymore somewhere into Germany.

He told me many of his experiences while he would visit with us during the holidays when he would be allowed to take a leave from the VA Hospital where he spent the last 23 years of his life. Mom would tell me not to slam doors,make any sudden noises or movements and above all not to ask him about the war whenever we had him at Christmas or Thanksgiving.

I took him for a walk in the park one time when I was about 15,and a Cessna flew over at low altitude.Uncle Lud dove under a picnic bench,and apologized profusely saying he didn't like low flying airplanes.I broke the rules and asked him about the war.

He wanted to talk about it and I spent the next hour and a half talking with him about his experiences.

My uncle endured almost two and a half years of combat,was wounded three times.The wounds were relatively minor so he was never pulled much further back than a battalion aid ststion. He was the only survivor of a forward spotting team on two occasions and was a T-5 Corporal with a Bronze Star and his three Purple Hearts.

As far as I'm concerned he was a casualty of WW2 because he never came home to stay...he married and had a child after the war but couldn't shake the bad dreams and his nerves were shot...so in 1947 he entered a VA hospital for treatment where he remained after his wife divorced him,reluctantly,but he wanted her to get on with her life.He died in 1970,having never recovered a normal life.

I think of him often,but particularly on Memorial Day.He,and the others like him gave all they could and I treasure his memory.

[Enterprise]

"Would we be better off today if the Japanese had managed to shell San Francisco?"

Probably not. But let's let them do it now so that we can be sure.

[magslinger]

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[dcwusmc]

That would be the Port Chicago disaster where a whole shipload of ammo blew up. It was 20 miles from Mare Island. Closer to the Concord Naval Weapons Station.

[ken5050]

FYI..here's a fascinating tidbit I just read, from the excellent book "Pacific Alamo: The Battle for Wake Island"..by John Wukovits

Lt. Woodrow Kessler was one of the Marines captured on Wake Island, and who spent the rest of the war in Japanese POW camps....here's the relevant paragraph from the book..

"Lt. Kessler instituted a plan he established with his wife before leaving for Wake. He told her that in a crfisis, if he could get a letter toher, he would include a secret message using the first letter of the second word in each line. In February 1942, Kessler noticed that the Japanese interrogated and Marine who had ever been stationed on Midway. Correctly figuring the Japanese planned an offensive at that location - the June naval battle of Midway proved to be a decisive action of the war - Kessler arranged his next note to spell out "WATCH MIDWAY." He never knew if this information helped anyone, but at the time he felt that he had contributed to te war in some way..."

[neodad]

Also somewhat forgotten is the fact that the Battle of Coral Sea was a draw, the fact that Zuikaku and Shokaku were damaged and not able to participate at Midway was huge. We also gained some badly needed confidence leading up to Midway. I’ve sailed over the exact spot that Yorktown was sunk during RIMPAC in 1994.

[neverdem]

Thank you.

[neverdem]

Thank you for sharing your uncle’s story.