samneanderthal
Active member
Before Midway Yamamoto had sent a carrier to the Aleutian Islands and 3 to the Coral sea, both missions achieving nothing and costing a lot. Yet for the invasion of Midway Yamamoto still had a formidable fleet including 4 fleet carriers, 2 light carriers, 7 Battleships, 56 support ships (including many cruisers, destroyers, tankers, etc,).
However, Yamamoto made the huge mistake of sending only 4 fleet carriers, 2 battleships and 15 support ships several hundred km ahead of the rest of the fleet. The Japanese fleet carriers had to use their planes to attack Midway, scout for the American fleet and defend the carriers simultaneously.
The Americans spotted the Japanese first and attacked the carriers at the most vulnerable time, when their decks were full of bombs, torpedoes, fuel, planes, etc, sinking all 4 carriers and causing an irreparable loss for the Japanese Navy.
The huge fleet in the rear did not contribute to the battle, but simply sailed back after consuming a lot of the extremely scarce fuel.
Had Yamamoto kept his huge fleet together, all the scouting planes from his battleships and cruisers and especially from the light carriers would have helped to detect the Americans earlier and then the light carrier planes would have helped to attack the American carriers and to defend the Japanese fleet better. The large number of ships with AA would have made it more difficult for the planes to attack the carriers and would have drawn some bombs away from the invaluable carrriers into the less valuable ships.
Had the Japanese carriers survived and the American carriers and support ships been sunk and Midway invaded the situation would have been quite different.
However, Yamamoto made the huge mistake of sending only 4 fleet carriers, 2 battleships and 15 support ships several hundred km ahead of the rest of the fleet. The Japanese fleet carriers had to use their planes to attack Midway, scout for the American fleet and defend the carriers simultaneously.
The Americans spotted the Japanese first and attacked the carriers at the most vulnerable time, when their decks were full of bombs, torpedoes, fuel, planes, etc, sinking all 4 carriers and causing an irreparable loss for the Japanese Navy.
The huge fleet in the rear did not contribute to the battle, but simply sailed back after consuming a lot of the extremely scarce fuel.
Had Yamamoto kept his huge fleet together, all the scouting planes from his battleships and cruisers and especially from the light carriers would have helped to detect the Americans earlier and then the light carrier planes would have helped to attack the American carriers and to defend the Japanese fleet better. The large number of ships with AA would have made it more difficult for the planes to attack the carriers and would have drawn some bombs away from the invaluable carrriers into the less valuable ships.
Had the Japanese carriers survived and the American carriers and support ships been sunk and Midway invaded the situation would have been quite different.