Skip to main content
Help Center Community Shop

Battle of Midway: June 1942

76k20
78th Anniversary.  

Probably the most significant victory in WWII, IMO.  The vastly superior Imperial Japanese Navy (amount of ships, planes, sailors, experience, etc) set out to destroy the United States Navy Pacific Fleet in  complex operation that had been in the works for months.  A huge defeat for the IJN, loosing  their four  best aircraft carriers and flight crews.  Without a doubt the turning point in the Pacific.  

The defeat at Midway of the IJN started at Pearl Harbor.  The December 7, 1941 attack was quite destructive, but here a few mistakes would end up contributing to the loss at Midway.  First, the USN carriers were not sunk or damaged.  Secondly, the raid failed to destroy the USN submarines, which would go on and eventually destroy approximately half of all IJN transports and one third of all IJN warships.   Third, the series of air attacks did not destroy the fuel depots.  Had the fuel supply been destroyed, it is estimated that the USN would not have been able to operate in the first few months of 1942. 

The actions at Coral Sea also played a major role in the Midway battle.  Losing the Lexington, and heavy damage to Yorktown was bad news for the USN.  However, destroying/damaging the IJN carriers and air wings  at Coral Sea resulted in only four Japanese carriers being available at Midway, instead of the six that had been intended. 

Obviously, hindsight is 20/20.  No possible way at the time anyone could  have know how the details of previous encounters would influence the outcome.

Well, except for the fact the USN code breakers had cracked the IJN communications code, and were correctly able to verify the Midway strike before it occurred, giving the Pacific Fleet time to counter the enemy's move. 

Another factor that does not get a lot of attention was the use of radar.  After the attack at Pearl, the USN quickly moved to equip ships with radar, realizing the importance of early warning to air attacks.  A hard lesson learned.  The IJN was almost opposite; few ships had radar.  The result was nearly all USN ships having radar were able to better prepare for air attacks, while the IJN fleet was destroyed in part due to being  totally surprised by dive bomber attack. 

A few links to Youtube videos with more information: 

From the American perspective.

From the Japanese perspective.




3

Comments

4 comments

Date Votes
  • Horse Plains Drifter
    That was great, thanks for posting those links.
    0
  • bullshot
    My father was on the USS Hornet in the battle of Midway, my wife's father was on the USS Yorktown in the battle of Midway  ....................Kind of lucky we are both here .....................................
    0
  • arraflipper
    Great video then watched a few more, so very interesting, thanks.
    0
  • Don McManus
    So much of the activity of the USN prior to Coral Sea and Midway is forgotten by history.  The carriers raids on the Marshall Islands, Gibert Islands, Wake Island, etc. in February, 1942 provided valuable fleet training with carriers as the center of a strike group and more importantly pilot training under fire.
    Absent this OJT, the draw that was the Battle of the Coral Sea and the stunning victory that was Midway would probably not have occurred.  
    0

Please sign in to leave a comment.

Recent Activity