The Battle of Midway: Conversations with Our Greatest Generation (Episode One)

LTC Greg Henning An Amazing Battle and One of the Most Significant Uses of SIGINT, COMINT.

Living history.

I have a difficult time remembering the sequence of events of this Naval Battle. I do remember that our fighter/bombers were ineffective early in the battle against the Japanese ships because we were flying too high. A Japanese admiral sent out a large number of fighters for offensive operations. This was fortuitous as their aircraft carriers could not support both offensive and defensive operations, doing so would entail ditching many fighters into the sea. Thus he did not have much of aviation defense of his fleet as he kept the fighters for the defense at bay.

The penultimate goal of the US Navy was to protect Australia and her shipping lanes. After this battle I believe a US fleet steamed to the Coral Sea which is North of Australia to duke it out with a Japanese fleet. It was a tactical draw but a strategic victory as the US Navy was able rule the seas and facilitated attacking the Japanese Army on various islands. We started to win land battles but they came to us by heavy cost. Often when Marines and Soldiers were replaced by new units, they were often afflicted with the thousand yard stares and would spend the rest of their lives to forget what they saw and felt. Many remained haunted for the rest of their lives.

I have often wondered about Banzai Charges because I have never heard of a successful one. I would imagine ground commanders were told of the Banzai Charges and our units covered the likely avenues of approach with crew served weapons and our Marines and Soldiers were positioned to cover engagement areas to maximize the amount of steel we put into the enemy.