Posted on 01/13/2015 6:39:39 PM PST by wizkid
My Father was at the Battle of Midway, but like your grandfather, he didn’t like talking about it. He passed 25 years ago.
I once read a brief biography of Yamamoto. There is no doubt that he was a brilliant man. I am not sure that intelligence made him a great Admiral tho.
He was certainly a good one however Pearl Harbor was his high water mark. I guess we thought he was pretty good as we went to a lot of trouble to get him.
I watched a show about the battle of Tarawa earlier tonight. Lots of new island assault methods came out of that one.
The American Heroes Channel has some great shows.
First thing this morning I watched a show about the Malmedy massacre and the German officer who managed to slip by without being convicted. He was killed in France in the 70s when his home was firebombed.
If my memory is still good, Yamamoto always finished at the top of his class going all the way back to early childhood. That is something he shared with Robert E. Lee.
Yamamoto had an advantage over most Japanese military officers in that he had toured the U.S. and was aware of our massive industrial might. Something we no longer have. That is one reason he opposed war.
He knew we would win unless he could bring it to a speedy conclusion, either by negotiations or military victories.
Later
Oops, I meant to say that the US carriers were out on maneuvers during the Pearl Harbor attack not the battleships.
If US carriers had been at Pearl Harbor there may have been no Midway. It could have taken us much longer to have that fight. I know things were primitive in 1941, but I just don’t understand why Japanese spies on Ohau (there were many) couldn’t find a way to tell their fleet that the carriers weren’t in Port.
Not necessary to correct it. We knew you meant the carriers.
Thanks for correcting that.
Old lady here and I thought maybe I was losing it.:-)
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The whole battle of Midway hinged on maybe 10 minutes. The Japanese fighters which were flown by some of the best pilots in the world, were drawn down to water level to dispense with the torpedo bombers. If the had known just how bad our torpedoes were at that time they may have just sent a few fighters after them.
Anyway just at that time the dive bombers free of Japanese fighters sank 3 fleet carrier or was it 4? We got the last one the next day.
It is amazing. After enlisting in the Army Air Corps (not corpse) my Dad arrived in Pearl Harbor a little over a month after the Japanese attack. He told me that the ships were still smoking from fires even then.
But how could he have known about the F-14s?
I think we sunk three carriers. Was it Midway where we lost the Lexington?
Let's keep this in some perspective. An attack on Pearl Harbor was not a novel idea. American war games had simulated this several times in the 1930 with attacks by carriers. There were also simulated raids on the Panama Canal.
There was a hope by the Japanese that the carriers would be in port on 12/7/41. They fortunately were not. But the battleships and the remainder of the fleet were in port that morning.
I don't think it's fair to say he focused on the battleships. At the time the battleship was still viewed by most naval experts as the "queen" of the sea. The carrier had not been fully proven to be the capital ship it later became. There were however, some believers in the carrier and Yamamato was one.
Recall that the main naval doctrine at the time, on both sides of the Pacific, was the Mahan doctrine. It called for a "decisive" battle that would settle the war. American plans at the time were to respond to a Japanese attack by sailing across the Pacific and then engage them.
Not launching a third strike to target the oil tanks and drydocks and other such installations, in hindsight does prove to be a strategic mistake. But this decision was made by Nagumo; not Yamamato.
Nagumo was concerned about the whereabouts of the American carriers which were still unknown during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The second raid also incurred more casualties than the first as American resistance become more organized. Would a third raid cost the Japanese more planes? Would the fleet be discovered?
Nagumo's primary mission was accomplished and that was the destruction of the primary battle fleet of the United States. Nagumo felt the mission was accomplished and it was his responsibility to return the fleet intact.
I believe that a third strike was planned, and the targets were the oil tank and docks. Nagumo did not want to push his luck, since he tended to play it conservative. If he had launched the third strike he may have run into the Enterprise just arriving at Pearl.
the oil tanks were left because Naguma called off the third wave.
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