Midway

"Der Krieg ist eine bloße Fortsetzung der Politik mit anderen Mitteln" - Carl von Clausewitz

translated: War is just a continuation of politics by other means....

..except in this case, people pay the price with their lives.

Bought a book from Borders by von Clausewitz titled 'On War' to elucidate and gain insight to the essence of human conflict and also in an attempt to become more sophisticated(I admit).. the book is enthralling and captivating- a classic written in a dialectic argument, the Western parallel to Sun Tzu's Art of War.. Thus In the spirit of that, I was inspired to look into epic battles of a more modern era- just short of the typical Low intensity conflicts.

I've decided to read once again on WWII history and go back to one of my favourite epic battles- the Battle for Midway. Its a brilliant story of how a numerically inferior American force was able, thru valiant action, intelligence and brilliant tactical maneuvers, crush a significantly larger Japanese carrier strike force and turn the tide of the war in the Pacific.

Midway, an island atoll in the middle of the Pacific ocean was the main focus of the battle. The Japanese at the height of their power, after conquering Philipines, Malaya and Singapore, aimed at eliminating the US as a major power in the Pacific. As could be seen from Pearl harbour, the main concern of the Japanese was American naval power and Pearl Harbour was a major crippling blow to the Americans. Midway being strategically close to Hawaii would enable the Japanese to establish a foothold for further action in the Pacific.

However, American intelligence got the whiff of it and found it a good opportunity to retaliate and cripple the Japanese fleet. Well given these statistics:

American

3 carriers,

~50 support ships,

233 carrier aircraft,

127 land-based aircraft

Japanese

4 carriers,

7 battleships,

~150 support ships,

248 carrier aircraft,

16 floatplanes

It would hardly be called a fair fight. However the essence of this story revolves around superior tactic, good intelligence and bravery to overcome superior numbers. The brief overview of the battle is as follows:

And at the end of the battle, the net result:

American Losses:

1 carrier sunk,1 destroyer sunk,98 aircraft destroyed,307 killed

Japanese Losses:

4 carriers sunk,1 cruiser sunk,228 aircraft destroyed,3,057 killed

And this battle turned the tide of war in the Pacific. The Japanese were significantly weakened after that despite having started off with a superior number of surface vessels. With the loss of 4 fleet carriers, the Japanese fleet only had 2 fleet carriers left (Zuikaku and Shokaku) with a few smaller escort/light carriers with airwings too small for effective offense. The Battle for Midway gave the Americans significant initiative and inflicted serious damage to the Japanese fleet with the loss of the major fleet carriers.. In the later parts of the war, American fleet airpower was to play a very crucial role especially with the sinking of the Japanese Battleship Yamato- it was taken down solely by carrier based aircraft.

Well like they say, the rest is history.. :) I'll write about Leyte Gulf when I have the time.