Out of Curiosity.

Yossarian

Yossarian

Forum Resistance Leader
I have been pondering a simple question concerning the battle of Midway recently.

Looking at Japan's deployed forces and their known capabilities at the time compared to the U.S.

It is not so alien a notion that both forces were roughly even in scale and scope.

However this is the simple question,

How would you act if you were the Supreme Japenese military commander in charge of the Midway Operation on the morning of June 4, 1942.

Your orders are simple, to if not destroy the American fleet, at least put them out of commission as well as take Midway, all the while minimizing Japanese losses.

Simple Question,

Yo.
 
Having thought about this a little I think (assuming I was the Japanese commander) I would have stuck with the original plan but made damn sure my defensive fighter screen was in place at all times and flight deck procedures were maintained.

Essentially I think as long as the Japanese carriers remained in action they would have completed the mission.
 
What could he do when the Americans were reading his signals, they knew what he was doing and they didn't have a clue what the Americans were doing, from that stand point it was game set and match to the Americans.
 
Despite the Americans reading his signals they still did not know where the Japanese fleet was just what its aims were and further to this the American aircraft (especially the bombers) were not up to the job of penetrating the defensive fighter screen even had they known precisely where it was you only have to look at the fate of the previous attack to see how they would have faired.

Further to this had the carriers managed to stay afloat the Americans were going to be down 1 carrier by the end of the day themselves.

The Japanese failure at Midway was a very brief moment where both returning bombers and defensive fighters were on deck refuelling and rearming and this was not a tribute to American airman-ship it was a failure of the Japanese command to follow procedure.

Basically at Midway the Yanks got lucky.
 
MontyB said:
Basically at Midway the Yanks got lucky.
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Valley Forge of the Second World War.

The same sense of sheer luck applied to the Attack that started the Pacific war for the U.S., imagine how long the war would have been extended had the American carriers been present during the attack on the 7th. And if Yamamoto had deployed his third wave.

I always was curious about this instance in the battle.
 
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yeah if the yanks aircraft carriers weren`t out at sea, the war would have gone on much longer in the pacific.
 
r.fox said:
yeah if the yanks aircraft carriers weren`t out at sea, the war would have gone on much longer in the pacific.
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Indeed, or if we lost Midway here is whay may have happened.

June 1942, Japanese Take Midway.

1946, Allied Powers rebuild a new vast carrier fleet and defeat Japan and manufacture then use more than two atomic weapons.

Soviets push Japan out of the entire greater Asia region.
 
or a land invasion of the japaneese mainland with the yanks in the south and soviets in the north. japan overrun and millions of japaneese die in suicide charges or actual suicide as the opposing forces move in. then japan effectivly destroyed and americans seen as the sorce of all evil. i think that the loss at the battle of midway was actualy a good thing for japan in the long run. but its just a theory...
 
r.fox said:
or a land invasion of the japaneese mainland with the yanks in the south and soviets in the north. japan overrun and millions of japaneese die in suicide charges or actual suicide as the opposing forces move in. then japan effectivly destroyed and americans seen as the sorce of all evil. i think that the loss at the battle of midway was actualy a good thing for japan in the long run. but its just a theory...
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Indeed, who knows what would had happened if Downfall was put into effect.

Imagine, a North And South Japan created as Soviet Forces met U.S. Forces in 1946.

Or if the U.S. had more atomic weapons, this remebering that Truman only used two because he only had two, he was bluffing until new weapons could be created...

That's why Midway is such a hinge point, and the American victory there very well have shortened the war saving countless lives.

Because you say the American forces in any invasion of the Japanese home islands would be seen as a force of evil, I don't even want to think what the Soviets would have been seen as if they co invaded from the north, especially with the image of what they did in the occupation of Germany.
 
yeah. but mayby the russians wouldnt have acted in that way because the japaneese didnt do the things that germany did to russia. but who knows
 
r.fox said:
yeah. but mayby the russians wouldnt have acted in that way because the japaneese didnt do the things that germany did to russia. but who knows
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The Russians would have acted the same because for them this was normal what they did to the enemy. Rape the women, kill the men and loot the houses.
In history this is what many armies did.
Now it's outrage but then it was normal.
 
true, true i forgot about that. make sure that the enemy cant hit you while you are in his country.
 
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