Time Ghost released Part 1 of their Midway special today.
Being that this is the decsive point of the Pacific War, it's extensively documented and the recent movie named for the battle is a US/Japan co-production akin to Tora! Tora! Tora! (itself a film worth watching), and as such it's astounding how much of a clusterfuck this battle was.
It's not out of line to call this battle an American zerg rush, in terms of its air attacks, hoping to catch the enemy during a weak moment. That's exactly what happened, as the critical moment was to decide to changeover his strike craft and the American dive bombers lucked into the Japanese carriers right as they were changing over and air patrols were out of position.
If this were a Starcraft 2 match, this would be the result of skilled micro-management. In reality, it was sheer fucking luck that gave the Americans the win that day. The American planes were inferior in quality, and the pilots were about as deficient, compared to their Japanese counterparts at this point; the real American strength--its massive industrial capacity and policy of rotating out winning pilots to train the next cohort--was not yet able to make itself felt. If they didn't have all that capacity on hand to toss at the Japanese, it could not have turned out as it did.
That said, it wouldn't have turned the war for Japan. It would only delay the inevitable for, at most, a year before a much bigger force with far superior material and pilots would have returned to crush the Japanese presence in the Pacific. The shift to a wartime footing had occured, like it or not, and there was no way for Imperial Japan to absorb the losses that they could inflict on others. The hopes of the Imperial regime to ward away the American Navy in the manner they desired were a fantasy; once they poked the bear, they were going to get the claws sooner or later.
And on that, look to Empire on Sunday.
I've done some reading on this one and luck certainly played a large part in the result. This despite the fact that we knew what the plan was and had time to set up a trap. The term "miracle at Midway" isn't an exaggeration.
ReplyDeleteAs to the Japanese ever winning, that really wasn't in the cards. Yamamoto himself understood this going in. He knew Japan could rule the Pacific for anywhere from 6 months to a year. After that, the industrial might of the US would be too much for Japan to overcome. His (their) only hope was that a decisive battle where the US fleet was destroyed (at Pearl Harbor, and when that failed, Midway) and the US sues for peace. Pearl should have showed them that was never going to happen.
Interesting that many in the Japanese high command put the turning point of the war at the Guadacanal campaign rather than Midway. I think that would have turned out a bit different if they hadn't lost those 4 carriers and all those irreplaceable pilots and crews.
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