The Battle of Midway 1942: Told from the Japanese Perspective (1/3)

What people said

sillysaurusx · 2021-05 · Strong recommendation

It wasn't as lucky as it seems. The dive bombers were able to dive straight down, almost vertically, with no risk of being shot down by the enemy Zero fighters (since they were drawn away by a previous attack). It's more lucky that they didn't attack the same targets, than that they hit their targets. Also, not directly relevant, but I'll plug this video: [VIDEO] it's great.

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philistine · 2022-02 · Recommendation

> Even with overwhelming superiority during WW2, the US damn near lost their first attempt to invade Japan. > Ditto for Japan attacking Midway, and every other decisive battle. What you're missing here is the fog of war. When decisions are viewed through what information was available to the decision-makers, it paints a far more relatable picture. No one was stupid at Midway. Have a look at this long video going through the battle from the Japanese perspective: [VIDEO]

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kayodelycaon · 2021-12 · Recommendation

For midway, you might want to watch: [VIDEO] > Ineffective dive bombing at Midway? It was the only thing that was effective! Poorly executed would be a better term. They succeeded by almost pure luck. Two different squadrons managed to accidentally attack in different directions at the same time while the Japanese carriers had fully fueled and armed airplanes in their hangars waiting for an opening to launch an attack. Their hit ratio was terrible, but one bomb on a carrier was enough to destroy it given the conditions. > And, what was poor about the navigation at Midway? USS Hornet's Flight to Nowhere. The carrier completely screwed up launching their squadrons and then went in the wrong direction. Their torpedo bomber squadron mutinied and went in a different direction. The torpedo bombers found the Japanese but without any friendly fighters to protect them, all where shot down. All 10 Wildcat fighters ran out of fuel and ditched in the ocean. The other groups aborted to Midway after getting critically low on fuel and not finding any targets. At least four planes lost from the other groups. Blog post: [LINK]

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