Quote:
Originally Posted by copeab
One common myth of the battle of Midway was the invasion of the wester Aleutians was a pointless diversion. This was not the case. Although of arguably dubious value to the Japanese, possessing Attu and Kiska interfered with the US shipping route to Russia via the North Pacific. While Japan was not at war with Russia at the time, she remembered the beating Russia delivered to her in the late 1930's near Mongolia.
So unknown were these defeats of Japan that Hitler was enraged when Japan did not attack eastern Russia after Barbarossa and he had no idea why. Neither did the rest of the world. Russia had humiliated the IJA (twice!) and japan really didn't want any more of them.
Of course, the forces used on the Aleutians would have been better deployed at Midway (perhaps as a 'norther carrier force'), but it was not a pointless diversion.
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Ever since I read "Incredible Victory" as a young man, I was always puzzled by why the IJN went for the Attu/Kiska at the same time as Midway. Didn't the principle of mass mean that you hit the target with everything that you had?
By all accounts, the northern operation had the goals of establishing a presence far enough out to threaten any US/Canadian operation against northern Japan and to get weather stations for better forecasting; another purpose was to convince the US Pacific Fleet to send major units north. At the time, Japan did not want to threaten any shipping heading into the USSR and thus giving Russia a chance to join the the Pacific War. Good, logical thinking. But it was the timing of the operation that hurt the Japanese more than anything else.
Just think how Midway would have been changed with the addition of two Japanese carriers?