Midway 75

[kham]

Oh, not quite done killin' the enemy just yet

Although it does feel to most narratives , that the battle pretty much ended with the destruction of Kaga, Soryu , and Akagi. But Hiryu, and her vaunted admiral were still there. She too, proves how not-ready they were; she launched a one-dimensional strike at 1100, meaning she hadn't even started spotting aircraft when the SBDs attacked. It also showed, the lack of attention to mission that japanese fighters displayed; the strike escorts, a fair number of them, were drawn off by retreating american planes. Not only was this a waste of time and ammunition, but they quickly learned what their CAP fellows had discovered, that SBDs in tight formation were not easy marks, splashing 2 zeros and sending 3 more limping for home. One crashed short, and the others were basically written off from damage. The remaining escort managed to barely catch up with the D3A's, as they ran into a swarm of F4Fs, who outnumbered them, AND were more than happy to wade into their opposite numbers in dogfights. The superiority of the A6M was dying a hard death today. When it was over, between flak and fighters, out of 18 D3A and 6 A6M, only 5 D3A and 3 A6M survived. A literal 66% loss rate. The attackers did prove they were exceptionally good, of 7 attacking, they managed 3 direct hits and 2 near misses on Yorktown, holing her flight deck, and damaging her uptakes, putting her dead in the water and on fire. Superior damage control however, quickly put the fires out used steel planking to patch the holes, and began work on repairing the boilers. Hiryu managed to launch the 2nd wave, of 10 B5Ns and 6 more A6Ms, scoring 2 torpedo hits on what they thought was another carrier, Yorktown having managed to work back up to 19 knots. This time, she came to a halt for good. And again, losses were heavy, with 5 B5Ns and 2 A6Ms shot down.
They planned to launch another strike with the remaining aircraft, but declining readiness as well as sheer exhaustion was having an effect. The pilots, had been up since around 0300; the crews even longer. No one had even had lunch, and combined with frayed nerves, postponing the strike to feed everyone and get some rest for only prudent. Even so, Hiryu's fate was sealed; Nagumo, about this same time suddenly realized that it might be time to get out of dodge , ordering a change in course from NE to NW. This, was about 4 hours too late. Their position had already been made, and a mixed strike from Enterprise was on the way; Hornet again, was caught unprepared, poor communications and coordination, meant they barely got some planes up, and they were destined to come up empty again. The mixed strike of 24 SBDs came in just after 1700, and like Kaga, Hiryu was hammered by 4 direct hits on the flight deck forward by 1000lb bombs, blasting it open and turning her into an inferno. This was likely compounded by her continuing to flee NW at full speed.. Any firefighting, even if it was competent, would be useless with that degree of relative wind fanning the blaze. She finally ground to a halt around 2200.

All that remained now, was the final act, one which is ridiculous to this day in the attempts to cover it up

[kham]

In latter days, he'd be called "that's waaaaycist!"
Yeah, fuck that DEAD....
Frank Knox, had a quote one time about how the Japanese were incapable mentally or physically , of fighting a modern war.
He wasn't that far off, really

One of the identified reasons as to why Midway, was such a calamity , aside from victory disease and institutional arrogance going back 35 years, was cultural arrogance. Believing you are the divine race, is not far from believing you are the master race, and just as evil.
At 1020 on June 04, japan was winning the war, and they were supremely confident; 10 minutes later , 3/4 of Kido Butai was shattered, flaming wrecks, and screaming suicidal panic was the new order of the day. And 12 hours later, their collapse would be complete. You had the general urge for mass suicide, to 'atone for their failures' from the Commanding Admiral, most of his staff, the command of CarDiv2, and half the surviving captains of the carriers. To say this behavior would be considered irrational in any other Navy on the planet, would be a gross understatement. The only captain to survive was Akagi's, and that was only because the senior escort captain was SENIOR to him, and ORDERED him to abandon ship. This impulse for suicide, is something that can not be easily explained; certainly it could be considered traditional, in MEDIEVAL JAPAN, but not in a modern navy. Not to mention, the literal Kabuki-Theatre indulged in by Yamaguchi, who had Hiryu's survivors mustered on the flight deck, WHILE SHE WAS ABLAZE, and spend half an hour indulging in melodrama and speeches before releasing them to abandon ship while he and the captain went off to await their doom. It is difficult (fucking impossible...) to imagine any western admiral acting as such. And if you thought that was bad, at around 1800, with Hiryu a torch, and the other carriers still blazing to molten wrecks, Yamamoto's staff continued to try and remote control the battle from 200 miles off, asking such brilliant questions, about if Kaga had any planes, perhaps it could be possible to transfer them... Kaga , at this point didn't HAVE a flight deck, and had been burned to a crisp of such degree from the bridge aft to the pillars that used to support the deck, had nothing to identify down to her main deck (eg - about 40 feet x 400 feet of hull was missing....) Nagumo and the staff on Yamato, were still trying to persist in forcing a night engagement, so this is where it gets dodgy. They would therefore need all the destroyers available. Meaning, the 6 DDs standing by the carriers had to be freed up, immediately. Signal logs are unclear, since they ERASED them. But sufficient witnesses were there, in spite of "suddenly at 1900, both Kaga and Soryu, began to sink" Yeah . That tends to happen when a brace of Type 93s hit them. They were both scuttled, and so was Akagi, although the argument over that persisted until the next morning. So was Hiryu, but they botched that, and it took hours for her to sink.
The degree of coverup, from the actual losses, to results, to even telling the government and the Army began almost immediately. Including Hirohito, for those these days that like to think he had nothing to do with the war. So far, the press had not actually LIED to their own people about the war, but from this point on? Forget it. The degree of deception extended to isolating the wounded and survivors, and not allowing them to contact their families. Most ended up shipped back as replacements for the fleet in the SW Pacific area, where most were killed in the Solomons meatgrinder. Aside from the callous disregard for their men, it was also retarded in the extreme - experienced personnel could have been used to train new men, instead were just expended to no end.
And lets not forget the continuing deception into the 50s and through the 70s , before that account was debunked, but You should buy the book and read that yourself.

but the couple videos on -topic are worth a look
Jonathan Parshall | "Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway"

Mason Lecture | Jonathan Parshall: The 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway