hey guy
Just wondering if anyone has any info on the Battle of Midway in terms of chronology and importance of the battle for WWII. I'd appreciate it.
THANKS!

Hey, weren't you overseas a while?

Welcome home!

Google is your friend: www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-pac/midway/midway.htm

Mike

Yes, actually I do have some data.  I did an undergrad history paper on it many years ago.

Look on the web.  Go to the library...print isn't dead yet.  DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!

As you develop your paper, try to focus not just on the "battle" but on the entire Midway campaign from the view of both Japan and the United States.

Why did the Japanese decide to attack and occupy Midway in the first place?  Hint:  It was largely because of what occurred over Tokyo on 18 April 1942 and ADM Yamamoto's obscession with the Emperor's safety.

What were the orders of battle for each side?

How is it that Yorktown was able to get into the battle when her repairs were supposed to take over three months?

What was the first carrier on carrier battle?  How did the outcome effect the Battle of Midway?

Could the Japanese have successfully invaded Midway IF they had won the battle?

Why were the Americans ready and were able to "ambush" the Japanese?

Why did the Japanese carriers burn so easily?

Why were the Americans so grossly unsuccessful in most of their air attacks on the Japanese carriers?

What Admiral was left in hospital in Pearl and why was that very furtuitous for the Americans?

Was Midway REALLY the "turning point" in the Pacific War?  Hint:  Read Richard Frank's book on Guadalcanal before deciding.

Read Midway - The Battle that Doomed Japan, by Masatake Okumiya and Mitsuo Fuchida.  Both well respected Japanese Naval Aviators.  Fuchida led the attack on Pearl Harbor and was on INS akagi when it was sunk.  Okumiya was a Zero Squadron Leader and Staff Operations officer.  Vice Admiral Kondo wrote one of the prefaces.

Then read the books by Walter Lord and Gordon Prange.

IMHO the Japanese lost that battle several times.  Poor planning/decentralization of forces and overly complicated Operations Plan,  assuming that the US would react and behave on the Japanese schedule and assumptions, failure to press the attack even after the carriers were hit, failure to abandon radio silence, once the battle was on and the units were under attack, there's no real need to keep radio silence anymore is there?, and maybe the worse their  failure to adapt to changing circumstances.

It was all a staged stunt so that the Japanese could take Attu and Kiska!

DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!

BINGO!!!