From Proceedings, June 2007 issue

 

Midway: The Story that Never Ends

By Thomas B. Allen

 

On the 65th anniversary, we are still finding out what happened at Midway in the sky and sea in late spring 1942 ...

 

You can read the remainder of the article at the link above.

From Proceedings, June 2007 issue

 

Where is my June 2007 issue!

From Navy Times

 

Midway remembered, 65 years later

By Audrey McAvoy - The Associated Press

Posted : Wednesday May 30, 2007 7:39:26 EDT

 

HONOLULU — Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, a weakened and outnumbered U.S. fleet limped north to confront a flotilla of Japanese ships advancing on the remote Pacific atoll of Midway.

 

A U.S. defeat would have enhanced Japan’s naval superiority in the Pacific. Instead, the U.S. sank four Japanese aircraft carriers and snatched the military advantage from Tokyo.

 

Next week marks the 65th anniversary of the three-day battle that changed the course of the World War II. Three Midway veterans in their 80s and 90s and the current Pacific Fleet commander will visit the island 1,300 miles northwest of Honolulu on June 4 for a ceremony hosted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which now runs a nature reserve on the atoll.

 

“Americans like underdogs, and here we are underdogs,” said Donald Goldstein, a University of Pittsburgh history professor. “I think that’s what made it so good — that we shouldn’t have won and we did.”

 

The victory came after a string of U.S. setbacks in the Pacific.

 

Japanese forces ousted the U.S. from Wake Island, Guam and the Philippines in rapid succession in the months after Pearl Harbor. Japan also drove the British from Singapore.

 

By targeting Midway, the Japanese navy aimed to take control of the U.S. patrol plane base there and destroy what was left of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Conquering the island was a way to protect the Japanese homeland from U.S. air raids and prevent the U.S. from interfering with Tokyo’s plans to dominate the Asia-Pacific.

 

The U.S. thwarted Japan’s intentions with a mixture of codebreaking, smart decisions and luck.

 

The Navy’s intelligence experts deciphered encrypted Japanese communications, giving Adm. Chester Nimitz, the U.S. Pacific Fleet commander, the precise time of the planned assault and what route Japan’s ships would travel to Midway. He was also given notice of what vessels Japan would bring to the battle.

 

Both nations lost dozens of fighter planes, dive bombers and torpedo planes as each sought to sink the other’s aircraft carriers.

 

But the Americans had the benefit of knowing roughly where at sea their Japanese opponents were and how many ships their enemies had. Japan’s commanders were forced to guess about their foes.

 

The U.S. lost one carrier, 145 planes and 307 men.

 

Japan lost four aircraft carriers, a heavy cruiser, three destroyers, 291 planes and 4,800 men. The defeat was so overwhelming that the Japanese navy kept the details a closely guarded secret, preventing the story of the battle from coming to light in Japan until after the war.

 

Goldstein, the co-author of “Miracle at Midway,” said Japan’s military never recovered from the loss because its industrial sector was unable to manufacture replacement aircraft carriers quickly enough to retake the advantage.

 

Over the next three years, U.S. forces moved increasingly westward after hard-fought battles to deny Japan access to Guadalcanal and to retake Guam. The island-hopping led the U.S. to Iwo Jima and Okinawa before Japan surrendered after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

 

“Midway made it possible for us to take the offense. Before that it had been all defense,” Goldstein said.

 

The Navy handed the two islets that make up Midway — Sand and Eastern islands — over to the Fish and Wildlife Service in 1996. The agency has held commemorative ceremonies every year since, though the last major observation was for the 60th anniversary in 2002.

 

Midway enjoys quieter days today. Its primary residents are the hundreds of thousands of Laysan albatross, or “gooney birds” that have long nested there. Only a few dozen humans live on site to run the wildlife refuge.

 

The atoll is on the upper northwest end of the national marine monument President Bush created last June around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

 

The nature reserve, known as the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, is home to endangered species like the Hawaiian monk seal and is the largest marine conservation area in the world.

From Marine Corps Times

 

Vets mark 65th anniversary of Battle of Midway

By Audrey McAvoy - The Associated Press

Posted : Tuesday Jun 5, 2007 8:04:47 EDT

 

MIDWAY ATOLL — Holding their hands over their hearts, six elderly Battle of Midway veterans on Monday stood gingerly as a Navy band played the “Star-Spangled Banner” in honor of those who served with them in the fight that turned the tide of World War II 65 years ago.

 

Some 1,800 people ventured to the remote atoll 1,300 miles northwest of Honolulu to remember those who perished and those who survived, and to mark the day that put Japan on the defensive for the first time the start of the war at Pearl Harbor six months earlier.

 

“We salute the fallen warriors of the Battle of Midway. We remember their great victory and tremendous sacrifice,” said Adm. Robert F. Willard, the U.S. Pacific Fleet commander. “We honor them with our eternal vigilance and combat readiness.”

 

William Tunstall, 87, an aviation machinist mate 2nd class on the aircraft carrier Hornet on June 4, 1942, said he felt lonesome as he sat remembering those who died.

 

Tunstall recalled helping the pilot and gunner of the torpedo plane he maintained climb aboard for their mission to bomb Japanese carriers that were approaching Midway.

 

But neither the pilot, Bill Abercrombie, nor the gunner, Bernie Phelps, ever returned to the Hornet. Of the 30 men in Torpedo Squadron 8 who took off June 4, only one survived.

 

“From the time they left the carrier to today, I have no way of knowing what happened to them,” said Tunstall, of Portland, Ore. “I lost a lot of good friends.”

 

Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle thanked the veterans because, she said, her state likely would have been the next place invaded had Japan succeeded.

 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which now runs the atoll as a nature reserve, presented a wreath in honor the Midway veterans.

 

A Navy rifle squad fired their weapons in salute and a trumpeter played “Taps” as several of Midway’s signature bird, the Laysan albatross, or gooney, flew overhead.

 

Most of those who attended the ceremony arrived on a cruise ship from Los Angeles chartered for the occasion. Most of those on board were World War II veterans, military history buffs and relatives of those who died at Midway. Others arrived on a chartered plane from Honolulu.

 

The U.S. entered the battle the underdog. It was weakened by the attack on Pearl Harbor, which destroyed most of its battleships. The Americans took eight cruisers to the battle versus 23 for Japan.

 

Japan’s pilots were battle-hardened from campaigns in China and elsewhere in the Pacific. The U.S. pilots were still green — for example 17 of the 21 Marine pilots in the battle were straight out of flight school.

 

But Navy intelligence got word of the attack weeks in advance by deciphering coded Japanese radio communications. In late May, the decoders intercepted messages outlining the day and time of the planned attack and the route Japan’s ships would travel to Midway.

 

The U.S. Pacific Fleet’s commander, Adm. Chester Nimitz, had his ships ambush the Japanese fleet before it could carry out its plan. U.S. dive bombers and torpedoes sank all four aircraft carriers, mostly within the first 24 hours of battle. The U.S. achieved such a decisive victory the Americans were able to go on the offensive in the Pacific for much of the rest of the war against Japan.

 

“After that, they didn’t have enough aircraft or pilots to effectively continue the war effort,” said Douglas Smith, a professor of strategy and policy at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., of Japan. “After that they were not in a position to recover.”

 

Both sides suffered large losses. The U.S. saw 307 men perish and one aircraft carrier sink. It lost 145 planes.

 

Japan’s casualties were even higher, with 4,800 men dying. All four of the aircraft carriers Tokyo sent to Midway sank, along with a heavy cruiser and three destroyers. Japan also suffered the loss of 291 planes.

 

“I’m very conscious of the significance if this victory at Midway. And I say that as someone who had not been born yet,” Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, 55, said after the ceremony. “Today I live in freedom, my children live in freedom because of these young soldiers, sailors, Marines that gave their lives.”

 

Japan’s navy wanted to take over the strategically important atoll to protect its homeland from U.S. air raids and to prevent the U.S. from interfering in its campaign to dominate the Asia-Pacific. Victory would have given Japan control over the patrol plane base there and possibly cleared the way for an invasion of the main Hawaiian Islands and attacks on the West Coast.

 

Japanese Imperial Navy Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto’s plan called for sending aircraft carrier planes to bomb U.S. Marines and soldiers defending the island. Then, he would send in his amphibious invasion force to overrun the atoll.

 

Today, Midway is part of a wildlife reserve run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

 

Hundreds of thousands of gooney birds nest there while endangered Hawaiian monk seals and threatened green sea turtles frequent the clear blue waters of its lagoon.

 

The atoll, whose two main islets have a land area of only a few square miles, also sits on the northern end of the marine national monument President Bush created last year for the waters surrounding the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

 

The cruise ship bringing veterans from Los Angeles and the chartered plane both had to obtain special permits to visit Midway because of the atoll’s location in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.