June 4-6 1942: Battle of Midway

[Midnight Marauder]

Interesting the differences between then and now. The assassination of Yamamoto would issue forth wails of protest from the ACLU and the far-left today, cries of us being "war criminals" and all of that rot. And the press today would NEVER have gone along with any of this:

To cover up the fact that the Allies were reading Japanese code, American news agencies were told that civilian coast-watchers in the Solomon Islands saw Yamamoto boarding a bomber in the area. They did not publicize the names of most of the pilots that attacked Yamamoto's plane because one of them had a brother who was a prisoner of the Japanese, and U.S. military officials feared for his safety.

 

[Oddball]

The deadly Nakajima B5N 'Kate' torpedo bomber

[knee-jerk]Nuh---Uuuuhhhh!![/knee-jerk]

Oh yeah...That's right...The Val had the fixed undercarriage.

 

[editec]

A truly historic sea battle.

The balance of power in the Pacific tilted toward the Americans because of it.

Had we lost that battle this world would be a very different place.

 

[Oddball]

A great print, by Stan Stokes

 

[Midnight Marauder]

USS Yorktown, at the bottom of the pacific. (Artist's rendering.)

 

[Oddball]

The NatGeo site on the Yorktown:

Midway @ nationalgeographic.com

 

[Xenophon]

Aichi D3A 'Val'

This type sank more allied ships then any other type in the pacific war.

 

[Xenophon]

The Mitsubishi A6M 'Zero' fighter that caused so many problems for the allies early in the war.

 

[Midnight Marauder]

The Mitsubishi A6M 'Zero' fighter that caused so many problems for the allies early in the war.

Until pappy Boyington showed us how to shoot 'em down!

Fatal flaw? No armor for the fuel tanks which would explode if shot, or really even sneezed at!

 

[Xenophon]

It didn't hlep that Japanese pilots routinely flew it without parachutes or radios (Saburo Sakai talks about this is 'Samurai!' his book about his war in the pacific. Sakai had 60+ kills during teh war and was the highest surviving Japanese ace, he passed away a few years ago).

 

[amiam*]

Interesting the differences between then and now. The assassination of Yamamoto would issue forth wails of protest from the ACLU and the far-left today, cries of us being "war criminals" and all of that rot. And the press today would NEVER have gone along with any of this:

To cover up the fact that the Allies were reading Japanese code, American news agencies were told that civilian coast-watchers in the Solomon Islands saw Yamamoto boarding a bomber in the area. They did not publicize the names of most of the pilots that attacked Yamamoto's plane because one of them had a brother who was a prisoner of the Japanese, and U.S. military officials feared for his safety.

I often wonder if the assassination of Admiral Yamamoto was set up by Yamamoto himself. Before he took that flight he had the navel code changed. After Pearl Harbor and Midway he must have suspected his codes were not secure. A honorable death was better than to face the defeat of japan which he expected from the very start.

As to the codebreaker Cmdr Joseph Rochefort, he made the ambush at Midway possible.

Captain Joseph John Rochefort (1898–1976) was an American Naval officer and cryptanalyst. His contributions and those of his team were pivotal to victory in the Pacific War.

Rochefort was a major figure in the United States Navy's cryptographic and intelligence operations from 1925 to 1946, particularly in the Battle of Midway, which his skills and effort helped win. Fluent in Japanese, he headed the Navy's fledgling cryptanalytic organization in the 1920s and provided cryptographic support to the U.S. Fleet. At the end of his naval career (1942–1946), Rochefort successfully headed the Pacific Strategic Intelligence Group in Washington.

 

[Midnight Marauder]

I often wonder if the assassination of Admiral Yamamoto was set up by Yamamoto himself. Before he took that flight he had the navel code changed. After Pearl Harbor and Midway he must have suspected his codes were not secure. A honorable death was better than to face the defeat of japan which he expected from the very start.

He also insisted on going, over the objections of local commanders, not even letting them talk him into changing the flight plans.

Good point.

 

[amiam*]

If my image does not appear try this link. It did not appear in my previous post tho I tried.
File:Joseph rochefort.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Captain Joseph John Rochefort (1898–1976) was an American Naval officer and cryptanalyst. His contributions and those of his team were pivotal to victory in the Pacific War.

Rochefort was a major figure in the United States Navy's cryptographic and intelligence operations from 1925 to 1946, particularly in the Battle of Midway, which his skills and effort helped win. Fluent in Japanese, he headed the Navy's fledgling cryptanalytic organization in the 1920s and provided cryptographic support to the U.S. Fleet. At the end of his naval career (1942–1946), Rochefort successfully headed the Pacific Strategic Intelligence Group in Washington.

 

[Xenophon]

Did you add the image tags correctly?

 

[amiam*]

Did you add the image tags correctly?

What image tags? I thought that was done automatically after I entered the URL.

 

[Xenophon]

Did you add the image tags correctly?

What image tags? I thought that was done automatically after I entered the URL.

No, you have to manually enter the tags around the picture's url:

UPLOAD PICTURE LINK[/-img]

The end tag should NOT have the dash (-) but I have to add it or you would see a red X.