A Turning Point. 70 years ago.

[xl_target]

June 4th is the the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Midway. This was the turning point of the Pacific war initiated by the United States Navy. From here on it was a battle of attrition between the Allies and the Japanese, that the Japanese eventually lost forcing their final retreat back to the Japanese islands.



A painting by artist RG Smith depicting the Battle of Midway

Between 4 and 7 June 1942, only six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, the United States Navy decisively defeated an Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) attack against Midway Atoll, inflicting irreparable damage on the Japanese fleet.[8] Military historian John Keegan has called it "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare."[9]
The Japanese operation, like the earlier attack on Pearl Harbor, sought to eliminate the United States as a strategic power in the Pacific, thereby giving Japan a free hand in establishing its Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The Japanese hoped that another demoralizing defeat would force the U.S. to capitulate in the Pacific War.[10]
The Japanese plan was to lure the United States' aircraft carriers into a trap.[11] The Japanese also intended to occupy Midway Atoll as part of an overall plan to extend their defensive perimeter in response to the Doolittle Raid. This operation was also considered preparatory for further attacks against Fiji and Samoa.
The plan was handicapped by faulty Japanese assumptions of the American reaction and poor initial dispositions.[12] Most significantly, American codebreakers were able to determine the date and location of the attack, enabling the forewarned U.S. Navy to set up an ambush of its own. Four Japanese aircraft carriers and a heavy cruiser were sunk for a cost of one American aircraft carrier and a destroyer. After Midway, and the exhausting attrition of the Solomon Islands campaign, Japan's shipbuilding and pilot training programs were unable to keep pace in replacing their losses while the U.S. steadily increased its output in both areas.[13]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Midway

More detail here:
http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq81-1.htm



All fifteen of the doomed "Torpedo 8" (VT-8) squadron shown here as they depart to attack the Japanese carriers.
More reading and photos

This might be blocked in some areas, but here is some footage of the Battle of Midway:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/358507/battle ... une-2-1942

[essdee1972]

1942 was when the tide started turning. Apart from Midway, there were the Axis reverses at Stalingrad and El Alamein. As Churchill put it after El Alamein, "we cannot say that it is the beginning of the end, but we are certain that it is the end of the beginning".

[TC]

Great post XL... thanks

TC

[Priyan]

My dad turned 70 on 4th of June too. Nice to know that my dad was born in a historic day

[timmy]

XL, nice post! The first time I heard about Midway was in 1967. We were on vacation and visiting some people. The adults were all talking and I picked up a Life Magazine and started reading the lengthy article about Midway -- it was the 25th Anniversary.

The drama of the story has always been compelling to this day: The intricate Japanese battle plan and "Victory Disease," The American weakness and internal naval politics which tried to deny Rochefort's decoding of the Japanese code, but most of all, Lt Cdr John C Waldron of VT8, who led his obsolete Devastators on the futile torpedo mission against the Japanese carriers, which allowed the dive bombers a "free shot" on three carriers. The War in the Pacific literally turned on those five minutes! One could not write this sort of drama into the best fiction!

[xl_target]

What many people don't realize was the Midway had a direct bearing on India. The continual retreat of the Japanese after Midway and their preoccupation with the American's almost isolated the Japanese in Burma. Eventually, cutoff from supplies and more troops, it resulted in their retreat from Imphal back to Burma and their eventual defeat in the theater.
I have always had an interest in the CBI theater as I lost relatives in that area; some just disappeared and some were taken prisoner.

However, one must not forget that while it started out with both sides having roughly equal number of carriers, by the end of the war, the Japanese had none (or no aircrews to man anymore), while the Allies had a staggering 78 or 80 at Okinawa. So it was just a matter of time. If it had not been Midway, it would have been another battle later on that would have turned the tide. As it was Midway turned the tide a mere six months after Pearl Harbor.

[hamiclar01]

I would recommend Anthony Tully and Jonathan Parshall's seminal work "Shattered Sword" to anybody interested in this major battle. The book, being a culmination of years of research, is a detailed look at the events, particularly from the Japanese side. It debunks many old myths ( particularly the overtly simplistic versions we so often come across, specially in internet forums and coffee table books) and is a good read in itself

http://www.shatteredswordbook.com/index.htm

[xl_target]

Shattered Sword is the most definitive work on the subject.

[rraju2805]

I read this stroy from the book " ILLUSTRATED STORY OF WORLD WAR II "

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[rraju2805]

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