Battle of Midway 68 Years ago

[Parche]

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




:patriot:

[Captain Hilts]

1. Adm. Spruance's Big Day. Halsey stays home and scratches what itches.

GREAT to see you, Buddy!

[donco6]

2. It all could have gone terribly wrong.

We had good plans, capable people, and a lot of GUTS. This story is one of the most interesting and amazing in the entire Pacific war.

[damntexdem]

10. And a turning point in naval warfare, not just in the war in the Pacific.

Two fleets that never caught sight of each other (from any ship) battling it out in a decisive battle.

[donco6]

18. So many levels.

And the use of the decoded messages - classic! Brilliant!

[fishbulb703]

3. Love Pacific naval history! Go AAF!

[Octafish]

39. USN

Many U.S. Naval Aviators -- and Marine aviators -- gave their lives for our coutnry that day, as did many sailors on the USS Yorktown and other U.S. ships, including the USS Hammann. The Japanese also suffered heavy loss of life.

PS: Not trying to be a smart aleck -- my father-in-law is an AAF veteran. My great uncles are USN.

EDIT: Added info on Marines. Please forgive me for also failing to mention the role the AAF played in the Battle of Midway. B-17s flew against the Japanese fleet and soldiers were an important part of the island's defenses.

[fishbulb703]

47. Good call.

Every member of the military should be honored. My reaction was my default one when I hear of planes in WWII, my grandpa strafed trains in Italy and was a POW. My other grandpa also served but I don't know what he did.

Anyways, one of America's finest moments. :patriot:

[rockymountaindem]

4. I've been a WWII buff for years but I've never seen that pic. of the Hiryu

Man, that ship got busted up. Here's to the USN :toast:

[Captain Hilts]

5. Catch these photographs of FRANKLIN

GREAT photo series:

http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/13t.htm

[Parche]

9. Capt Gehres

one of the most 'disliked' captains in the navy.....:hi: :patriot:

[Captain Hilts]

27. I think it's easier to avoid the old man on a carrier than on a sub! nt

[neverforget]

6. I read "Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway" last

year. It was a very interesting read. The Japanese aircraft carrier designs were not good and their fire fighting/damage control techniques were inadequate.

http://www.shatteredswordbook.com/

[Parche]

11. plus they had bombs and torpedoes on the deck

that were not stored properly........:hi::patriot:

[RamboLiberal]

12. Thanks - Definitely a book I'd like to read

I've always been fascinated by the Battle of Midway.

What a sacrifice our torpedo bomber pilots and crews made that day in their obsolete plane. And how the one sufficient aircraft in the Navy arsenal the dive bombers arrived at the target more by luck and sent those Japanese carriers to the bottom.

[neverforget]

14. I definitely recommend it. It's one of my favorite books.

[Parche]

15. torpedo 8

thank gawd for Wade Mccluskey, and his insight and luck.....

[RamboLiberal]

35. Amazing too how few Carriers we had at that point in the war

If the situation had been reversed the US would've been in deep doo-doo rest of 42. And amazing how they patched up the Yorktown in Pearl Harbor from Coral Sea battle to send her out to Midway. Sadly she was lost there.

Been reading the book The Pacific till I can get my hands on the DVD's when they come out.

Just read US was down to just the Enterprise when the Hornet was sunk in late October 42.

Amazing how US industry ramped up to build the carriers that won the Pacific ocean war.

Good thing it wasn't today when we couldn't even ramp up to produce up-armored Humvees in the first few years of the Iraq occupation.

[Parche]

59. october 42

yes, the Wasp had just been torpedoed and sunk by a submarine in late Sep, the Saratoga also was torpedoed, but was in dock for repairs
The Enterprise was in my opinion the best ship in the navy
and sadly it was scrapped later, as they didnt get enough funds to make it into a museum, even Admiral Halsey helped out, it is a national tragedy that it was not saved....
:hi:

[old mark]

7. Great heroism and poor equipment-obsolete aircraft-on our side and

the turning point of the naval war in the Pacific. Entire squadrons of US aircraft wiped out without their having any effect on the Japanese fleet, yet the attacks continued till their carriers were sunk and the back of the Japanese Imperial Navy was broken.

mark

[Confusious]

49. Brewster buffalo!

I don't think I would have much confidence in anything called a "buffalo"

[old mark]

52. The Brewster Buffalo squadron and the Douglas Devastator squadron ( bombers)

were both wiped out. I think there was one survivor from the Devastator group and 3 of 15 Brewster aircraft survived the initial attack. When the Buffalo was determined to be underarmed, too slow and generally old and inferior, they gave them to the Marines.


mark

[old mark]

53. The Brewster Buffalo squadron and the Douglas Devastator squadron ( bombers)

were both wiped out. I think there was one survivor from the Devastator group and 3 of 15 Brewster aircraft survived the initial attack. When the Buffalo was determined to be underarmed, too slow and generally old and inferior, they gave them to the Marines.


mark

[old mark]

54. The Brewster Buffalo squadron and the Douglas Devastator squadron ( bombers)

were both wiped out. I think there was one survivor from the Devastator group and 3 of 15 Brewster aircraft survived the initial attack. When the Buffalo was determined to be underarmed, too slow and generally old and inferior, they gave them to the Marines.


mark

[old mark]

55. The Brewster Buffalo squadron and the Douglas Devastator squadron ( bombers)

were both wiped out. I think there was one survivor from the Devastator group and 3 of 15 Brewster aircraft survived the initial attack. When the Buffalo was determined to be underarmed, too slow and generally old and inferior, they gave them to the Marines.


mark

[TheMightyFavog]

57. I made the mistake of disparageing that aircraft online once...

I got hassled by several Finns who set me straight on how the Buffalo helped save thier ass against the Soviets.

[NeedleCast]

8. Great Picture...the turning point of the war in the pacific

Midway would have been the jumping off point for an invasion of Hawaii. I don't think the Japanese would have been able to pull it off unless they had sunk the US carriers at Midway but it would have been a lot more plausible.

[neverforget]

13. The Japanese didn't have the sealift capacity to actually invade, occupy and supply

the troops needed for Hawaii plus feed the residents of Hawaii.

http://www.combinedfleet.com/pearlops.htm

[NeedleCast]

16. I know, but that might not have stopped Yamamoto

And the psychological loss of Midway would have been a blow as well. It also would have extended the Japanese line of naval defense and cost the US what would become a large sub refuel-resupply station that extended the operational range of US subs by about 1,000 miles.

Luckily our intelligence was great and Yamamoto's desire for haste cost the Japanese the war (or at least the ability to sue for peace on their terms).

[Parche]

23. also a refit station on Midway

saved time and fuel for the subs :hi: :patriot:

[Confusious]

50. That wasn't the point of Midway

It was to destroy the American Carriers in a trap.

But they got the tables turned on them.

[neverforget]

56. I know. I was responding to post 8 about it being a jumping off point for an

invasion of Hawaii when all the Japanese were trying to do is destroy our carriers and expand their defensive perimeter.

[Whisp]

17. there is more film hours than real war hours...

pardon me but I am soooo sick of glorifying fucking war every fucking day.

[Codeine]

19. Yay for threadcrapping! nt

[Parche]

21. its not glorifying it, This is a tribute to the US Navy in their victory

:hi: :patriot:

[Captain Hilts]

29. Anyone who has read the memoirs wouldn't think it glorifies it at all. nt

[taterguy]

22. We only celebrate the anniversary of the Battle of Midway once a year

We'll make it for it in a couple months when we wring our hands over Hiroshima.

No one here is glorifying war.

It's simply one of the most interesting military battles.

One of the few times Americans were underdogs and they managed to triumph with skill and luck.

[proteus_lives]

26. Celebrating the Allies victory over the Axis is hardly a bad thing.

Grow-up a little, huh?

[Captain Hilts]

28. Too bad Hirohito and Hitler didn't win!

[Whisp]

37. thats right, so glad I'm not saluting and eating rice

but instead choking on chemicals and getting fed propaganda the Soviets are envious of.

pick any day of the year and there will be a fucking war day to celebrate.

[WolverineDG]

48. Oh crap, is it that time of year already?

:eyes:

Honoring those who sacrificed themselves for us at Midway is not glorifying war.


dg

[TexasObserver]

20. Midway is one of my favorite sea battles of all time.

It was the U.S. way of saying "we're coming and we're pissed!"

[HereSince1628]

24. I'm just wondering...

68 years after Gettysburg was the 1930's. Do you think that the way Midway is remembered now, and the way Gettysburg was remembered in the 1930's are similar?

Midway seems very long ago, but it wasn't long before I was born...Gettysburg somehow seems far away and ready to merge with Ceasar's crossing the Rubicon.

[RamboLiberal]

32. Gettyburg doesn't seem so far away to me

But then maybe it was growing up hearing a bit from my grandfather about his father who fought there (and many other battles on union side from PA, MD, TN to GA). And living in PA. I had a fascinating time for a few days one summer touring Gettysburg & Antietam back in the 90's. Hope to get there again for several days.

Growing up in the 50's & 60's with my dad and many of my relatives who were soldiers & sailors in WWII plus all the movies & TV series made that war seem incredibly close. Not to mention the uncle I never met who died training as a B-24 crewmember in a crash.

[HereSince1628]

38. It seems we are much like Ronald Reagan

Unable to separate the movies we have seen from the history that they spun into clever plots.

Walther Cronkite gave me a memory of THE BIG PICTURE that very likely gave me a memory of a time before I was born that equaled or exceeded the memory of my father, who actually served in WWII.

Memories of Gettysburg are now more like "takes" from a movie shoot than representative of the pain that happened.I know that somehow that is very dangerous for our nation.

I'm not blaming anyone. When my grandson asks why I have a dent in my jaw I really can't remember enough of the details to make sense of the thing that went "bump" during a beautiful South Vietnamese sunset.

[proteus_lives]

25. The turn of the tide.

RIP and Godspeed to every man who stood there.

:patriot:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

30. Let's here it for the codebreakers.

The unsung heroes of Midway, who brought the war to an end a couple of years earlier than it would have without them.

[11 Bravo]

31. To his dying day, my Dad regretted missing Midway. He was an Naval Aviation Cadet at the time ...

and later engaged in aerial combat at Leyte Gulf and the Second Battle of the Phillipine Sea, but he always knew that Midway had been something special. (As an aside, one of Dad's best friends was the brother of Major Floyd B. (Red) Parks, a marine aviator who was the first to die at Midway.)

[Captain Hilts]

46. Leyte G was the biggest naval battle of the war. I'm glad he survived. nt

[Dont TS Me Brah]

33. amazing battle...

just a FEW small strokes of luck and the USN could have lost ALL THEIR carriers instead of the Japanese Navy...

definition: turning point

[Omaha Steve]

34. My friend Hollywood liberal David Macklin played the part of Lt. Jack Reid (uncredited)

Off the top of my head he was the pilot for a PBY, Strawberry Five I think. His best scene was cut out. There is a work print of Midway. Now that Blu-ray has taken off, Midway has been mentioned as a film that might get RESTORED to it's original glory. BTW, TBS runs a version of Midway with the Coral Sea battle that is not on DVD. That would be included in the restored Midway on Blu-ray IF it gets green lighted.

Midway was the turning point in the Pacific Theater. Pearl Harbor left us with very little striking power.

K&R!

OS

[RamboLiberal]

36. Except for a few inaccuracies I thought that a decent film

Of course using stock footage shot during the war those who know how to identify ships and aircraft can pick out a ton of errors.

I'd like to see a fully remastered with added scenes DVD.

I've seen some lousy renditions of it on TV where the sound is horrible.

[Confusious]

51. Like aircraft lifts on the outside of of the carrier.

All the carriers of the time had them in the middle of the deck.

[TheMightyFavog]

58. And the (jet powered!) F2H2 Banshee crashing on the carrier deck

:rofl:

[conscious evolution]

40. Ensign George Gay was my nieghbor growing up.

He had a ringside seat for the destruction of the Japanese carriers.

Unfortunately,I did not know what happened to him that day till well after my family moved away so I never had the chance to hear his story firsthand.

[pokerfan]

41. Shout-out to Joseph Rochefort

Joseph John Rochefort was an American Naval officer and cryptanalyst. His contributions and those of his team were pivotal to victory in the Pacific War. Rochefort was a major figure in the United States Navy's cryptographic and intelligence operations from 1925 to 1946, particularly in the Battle of Midway.

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

[tabasco]

42. Good work Navy!

From a former grunt.

[Poiuyt]

43. By coincidence, I was watching Tora, Tora, Tora last night

Maybe I'll watch Midway tonight

[Mudoria]

44. Amazing battle

considering the fleets never actually saw each other. A BIG thank you and remembrance to those who fought and died in turning the tide in the Pacific.

:patriot:

[knitter4democracy]

45. My great-uncle helped sink the Akagi.

He was the gunner on the plane that helped sink it on the first day. His pilot is the guy Midway Airport was named after, a guy from Chicago, so when they put a thing on Midway and the pilot in the airport, our family contingent showed up, too, to honor the gunner who kept his pilot alive on the first day (according to the Navy documents), though they both died on the second day.

Rest in peace, Uncle Ernie.