Posted on 12/07/2002 10:34:20 PM PST by Action-America
Good article.
Without question, one of the most important earthly reasons was Americas industrial might.
If the truth be known, even more than our industrial might, the code breakers in Washington and in Bletchley Park were largely responsible for our success in WWII, both in the Pacific and in Europe. In fact, it was their breaking the Japanese JN-25 code that ultimately led to the resounding victory at Midway, only six months after Pearl Harbor. At that time our industrial complex was still retooling for or just starting military production.
With only two and a half carriers (the Yorktown was not fully functioning after Coral Sea) US forces wreaked havoc on a far superior Japanese force at Midway, primarily because we had been reading their mail. In the end, we lost only one carrier at Midway (Yorktown) and that one was actually torpedoed some time after the battle had ended. After Midway, the Japanese, who had enjoyed a 2 to 1 advantage over the US in carriers going into that battle, were on a par with the US. That's where our industrial might came into play. Once we had them on a par with us, we were able to easily out produce them. But, the key that made our industrial might a factor, was that we were able to level the playing field at Midway, which bought us the time that we needed and that was largely thanks to a bunch of propeller-heads in a code room in Washington.
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