June 4, 1942 - Battle of Midway

“By any ordinary standard they were hopelessly outclassed. “They had no battleships, the enemy eleven. They had eight cruisers, the enemy twenty-three. They had three carriers (one of them crippled); the enemy had eight. Their shore defenses included guns from the turn of the century. “They knew little of war. None of the Navy pilots on one of their carriers had ever been in combat. Nor had any of the Army fliers. Of the Marines, 17 of 21 new pilots were just out of flight school - some with less than four hours’ flight time since then. Their enemy was brilliant, experienced and all-conquering. “They were tired, dead tired. The patrol plane crews, for instance, had been flying 15 hours a day, servicing their own planes, getting perhaps three hours’ sleep at night. “They had equipment problems. Some of their dive bombers couldn’t dive - the fabric came off the wings. Their torpedoes were slow and unreliable; the torpedo planes even worse. Yet they were up against the finest fighting plane in the world. “They took crushing losses - 15 out of 15 in one torpedo squadron … 21 out of 27 in a group of fighters … many, many more. “They had no right to win. Yet they did, and in doing so they changed the course of a war. More than that, they added a new name - Midway - to that small list that inspires men by shining example. Like Marathon, the Armada, the Marne, a few others, Midway showed that every once in a while ‘what must be’ need not be at all. 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."

From Walter Lord's book Incredible Victory.

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MLS Veteran has left a new comment on your post "June 4, 1942 - Battle of Midway":

I read once that at the United States Naval War College they have tried to "war game" the Battle of Midway numerous times, using the same statistics as the actual battle, and the Japanese consistently win the battle.

Direct intervention on the part of God?

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GJ - I was going to mention more details. The battle was a miracle. Everything went wrong for the Japanese. All the wrong decisions were made. One commentator said, "The Japanese seemed bewitched."

I think it was divinely guided, as all events are, but more obviously than most.

Another factor was this genius named Hector Bywater, a naval expert. He predicted that the confrontation between Japan and the West would take place at Midway. Bywater was murdered just before the war started, perhaps by Japanese agents.

Japanese naval strategy was dominated by British thinking because of previous associations, including the development of the new Dreadnought battleship after the Brits witnessed the Japanese whipping the Ruskies.

Bywater was still a battleship man, so that influenced the Japanese, even though they proved how carrier groups could project power much more effectively. Thus the Japanese were enchanted by Bywater theory when reality should have told them after Pearl Harbor that carriers were the primo and battlewagons secondo in war.

The Japanese used the carriers to protect the prized battleships, including their mega-disaster Yamato (beautiful but designed by the insane). Therefore, the carriers were vulnerable.

The innocent still think we were surprised by Pearl Harbor. We had already broken several codes and knew all about the attack. According to one book, we even knew each ship in the task force and followed the progress of the ships across the Pacific. Ships and their radios are quite noisy. The agent Tricycle (can't reveal why he was named that way) also warned the US. So did embassies of various sorts. FDR did nothing, so Pearl Harbor united the country against Japan. Germany declared war as well.

The American code-breaker who knew about Pearl also figured out Midway. Then they busted him and made him a pariah. We got the carriers to Midway without the Japanese knowing it.

Our men were incredibly brave at Midway. The movie is a classic, showing the scope of the battle in good detail.

Our soldiers are still the greatest in the world. I just had a Navy SEAL in class (three different classes). No one, except a few of his friends, knew he was one. He causally mentioned being in the Navy. The first time I taught him, he said he was a sniper in the Navy. I thought about that a while. No one shoots a rifle from a ship, unless it's a 16 inch battleship rifle. I got him to admit he was a SEAL. Another student was the first one to parachute into Afghanistan. He was a Ranger, but like the other student, just said he was "in the Army." Real heroes are modest.