[dragoon500ly]

The Battle of Midway is called the most decisive naval battle of WWII, the turning point of the naval war, and a host of other platitudes. Its the classis David-vs-Goliath battle. The heavily outnumber USN ambushes the superior IJN and nails four carriers and a heavy cruiser and losing only one carrier and a destroyer. The so-called incredible victory.

Or was it?

Certainly when you sit down and flip over the orders of battle, the IJN put committed almost its entire fleet against a handful of USN warships. But when it comes right down to it, just how badly outnumbered was the USN.

The primary strike force for the IJN was the "Kido Butai", the First Carrier Striking Force .

The Kido Butai consisted of the following:
Carrier Division One
CV Akagi: with an air group of 18 A6M2 Zero fighters, 18 D3A1 Val dive bombers and 19 B5N2 Kate torpedo bombers. Also carrying 6 Zero fighters for the Midway Garrision and available for CAP.
CV Kaga: with an air group of 18 A6M2 Zero fighters, 18 D3A1 Val dive bombers and 27 B5N2 Kate torpedo bombers as well as 9 Zero fighters intended for the Midway Garrison and available for CAP.
Carrier Division Two
CV Hiryu: her air group consisted of 18 A6M2 Zeros, 18 D3A1 Vals and 18
B5N2 Kates as well as 3 additional Zeros intended for Midway.
CV Soryu: her air group consisted of 18 A6M2 Zeros, 19 D3A1 Vals, 18 B5N2 Kates and 2 D4Y1 Judy recon bombers as well as an additional 3 Zeros intended for Midway.
Escorting the carriers were the battleships Haruna and Kirishima, the heavy cruisers Tone and Chikuma, the light cruiser Nagara and 11 destroyers.

The combined air groups totaled 93 A6M2 Zero fighters; 73 D3A1 Val dive bombers; 2 D4Y1 Judy recon bombers; 82 B5N2 Kate torpedo bombers.

The US committed:
Task Force 17:
USS Yorktown: with an air group of 27 F4F-4 Wildcat fighters, 37 SBD-3 Dauntless dive bombers and 15 TBD-1 Devastator torpedo bombers.
She was escorted by 2 heavy cruisers and 6 destroyers.

Task Force 16:
USS Enterprise: her air group comprised 27 F4F-4 Wildcats, 37 SBD-3 Dauntless and 14 TBD-1 Devastators.
USS Hornet: her air group comprised 27 F4F-4 Wildcats, 35 SBD-3 Dauntless and 15 TBD-1 Devastators.
Their escorts consisted of 5 heavy and 1 light cruisers and 9 destroyers.

The fleet deployed 81 F4F-4 Wildcat fighters; 109 SBD-3 dive bombers and 44 TBD-1 Devastator torpedo bombers.

An often under appricated member of the fight is the US Garrision on Midway. Their air group consisted of 25 PBY-5 Catalinas in a search role; 5 PBY-5A Catalinas in a strike role; 6 TBF-1 Avengers; 21 F2A-3 Buffalo fighters; 7 F4F-3 Wildcat fighters; 19 SBD-2 Dauntless dive bombers; 21
SB2U-3 Vindicator dive bombers; 1 B-17D photo recon; 15 B-17E heavy bombers; and 4 B-26 medium bombers (carrying torpedoes).

In the course of the battle, the Japanese Invasion Force was attacked by a single Catalina carrying torpedoes as well as B-17 bombers, that damaged one tanker, slightly (by a US torpedo that actually exploded!).

The Kido Butai launched a single air strike on Midway, that damaged many of the installations, but did not damage her AA or coastal defense guns. In the course of the air strike, almost all of the defending fighters were shot down (this would be the last combat action for the Buffalo in US service). The real impact of Midway was in the multiple air strikes that were launched against the Kido Butai that kept the Japanese occuiped with dodging ordnance and disrupted the Japanese CAP. The need to land, refuel and rearm their CAP fighters played a major part in delaying a follow-up strike on Midway.

Due to the relative rawness of the US air groups the three squadrons of torpedo bombers attacked individually and unsupported. This continued the disruption of the Japanese CAP and helped open a window in which the Yorktown and Enterprise dive bombers were able to hit three of the carriers and damage them so severely that they later sank. The final IJN carrier Hiryu was able to launch two separate attacks that first damaged Yorktown and then later so crippled her that she had to be abanded and later sunk by a IJN submarine. Hiryu later fell victim to Enterprise and Yorktown dive bombers.

With the loss of the fleet carriers of the Kido Butai, the Japanese were forced to withdraw. In the process of withdraw, two Japanese heavy cruisers collided and one was later sunk by US dive bombers.

The simple version, I know.

But Midway was not the Incredible Victory that many western authors paint it to be. It was a notable victory for the USN and certainly hurt the IJN, badly. But was it a decisive victory? Was it the turning point of the war?

The IJN still enjoyed numerical superiority over the USN. They were still protected by a ring of island bases that allowed them to control the seas around their islands and still were capable of offensive actions. While they had lost all of the carrier aircraft, a large number of their veteran pilots were rescued and were available for latter operations.

IMHO, the decisive battle of the Pacific War was the Battle for Guadalcanal. Here the cream of Japanese Naval Avation died fighting. Here the US took its first major offensive step forward on the long road that would end off an little known island called Okinawa.