These 2 carriers could of helped the Japs in Midway but they were sent to the Aleutians. Combined they carried over 100+ planes and could have tipped the scale in favor of the Japs at midway.
These 2 carriers could of helped the Japs in Midway but they were sent to the Aleutians. Combined they carried over 100+ planes and could have tipped the scale in favor of the Japs at midway.
“helped” is a relative term.
Even had the Japanese sunk every US ship at Midway, we were still going to come back with a fleet twice as large in two years time.
Also, the Japanese Midway occupation force was actually smaller than the Marine garrison on Midway. Had the Japanese invaded, it would have been a slaughter. They had only scheduled a short cruiser bombardment, the battleships carried little or no high explosive ammunition, and did not have enough fuel to stay near Midway for long anyway.
Without reducing the island, the Japanese assault would have been futile.
Japan could never “win” at Midway, it was only a question of what kind of loss they would have. It was a poorly planned operation that had no hope of real success.