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Battle Of Midway Research Paper

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The battle of Midway (1942) was fought between Japan and America during WWII. The Americans, following many defeats delivered by the elite if not legendary Japanese fleet managed to break the Japanese code and score an upset victory at Midway.

The battle of Midway destroyed the Japanese Combined fleet. Japan lost Four aircraft carries, that was around half of all carriers Japan had in operation at the time. Also the pilots and aircraft Japan lost was tremendous: 248 aircraft were destroyed. The pilots of these planes were well trained after years of training and countless victories under their belts. So while yes, more planes could be built, they wouldn't have the same caliber of the elite flyers from before.

Effectively it ended Japanese offensive power in the Pacific. The war turned from Japan on the offense to Japan on the defense. With their carriers sunk and their best pilots gone, the war was effectively decided. While the war dragged on for three more years in Island fighting, everyone knew Japan no longer even had a shadow of a hope for victory. Up until Midway, Japan knew only victory: Pearl Harbor, Philippines, Malaya, Burma, Ceylon, …show more content…

Their only chance was if their fleet commander, Yamamoto, was able to destroy the American fleet and win a quick victory. He almost managed to do that at Pearl Harbor, and tried to finish the job at Midway, but in the end he just came too short. The United States had suffered continuous set backs since the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. We had lost Wake Island, and Guam early in the war, and finally Corregidor was forced to surrender in May 1942. Only the Doolittle bombing raid on Japan in April 1942 had produced any positive action for Americans and this was largely A token raid to boost American morale, which it did. However Admiral Nimitz, victor at Midway, had also been victorious at the battle of the Coral Sea, and this was also a boost to

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For the United States to have a chance to win the battle they had to take risks. During the fighting of the battle, the Japanese were only able to sink 1 United States Cruiser which was hit by a torpedo. The United States was able to sink all 12 Japanese Cruisers. For this to happen the United States took many risks during the battle. They sent out a full air squadron to attack a Japanese ship and only a handful came back.

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Fuchida brought up the question of “what should we have done that we did not and why did we fail?” Ironically as it may have been, it was said that the Midway Islands would post the greatest threat to American naval power in the Pacific.” Yet, somehow the American naval power won the battle in the pacific. Fuchida blamed that the plans for the operation were studied and drawn up by the Combined Fleet Headquarters and the Naval General Staff in Tokyo. Fuchida said that Admiral Yamamoto did not want his fleet commanders, whose energies were fully occupied with the conduct of the first-phase operations in so many far-flung theaters, to be bothered by other

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There wasn 't much of a battle considering the fact that it was very unexpected and Franklin D. Roosevelt had just spoke to the Japanese and they seemed to be on good terms. The event only lasted around two hours and in that short amount of time 20 American naval vessels were destroyed, 8 battleships, and 200 airplanes. There were around 2,000 American casualties while 1,000 others were only wounded. The day after this attack the president of the United States declared war on

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That is why the battle is known as the Battle of Iwo Jima. There were strong commanders that were involved in the Battle of Iwo Jima. The United States Commander was Commander Clifford B. Gates. He was the Commander of the Marine Corps from 1948 to 1951. The Japanese leader was General Commander Tadamichi Kuribayashi.

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Political leadership, military strategy, organizational capacity, fighting skills and effectiveness, technology, mass production, resources, ideology, and morale, all were essential factors that influenced the war victory. The war at sea saw mainly the US and Japan competing in the Pacific and the US and Great Britain competing against Germany in the Atlantic. The offensiveness of the Japanese Empire could be contained and defeated by the US only after the fortunate victory of Midway in 1942 and the following buildup of an overwhelming superiority of the American forces. In the Atlantic, the German U-boats inflicted embarrassing losses to the British and American Navies. Only technological improvements and effective adaptation of the tactics (naval convoy tactics and dedicated anti-submarine airplane) allowed the Allies to recover the situation, regaining control of the sea.

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Many historians consider the Battle of Midway as one of the most decisive battles that effectively shaped the overall outcome of World War II. Military intelligence played an integral role in determining the outcome of the Battle of Midway between the United States and Japanese Naval Forces. As the Japanese sought to gain control over the Pacific, American intelligence assets gained knowledge of the Japanese intent, planned courses of action, and means of execution. The events that took place on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor were a pre-cursor to the planned attack on the Battle of Midway. In fact, Japanese naval forces engaged American forces at Midway two hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor in an attempt to decrease the American military

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The next day, President Roosevelt assembled congress to ask them to declare war on the empire of Japan. He was overwhelmed by support and so the us was now in the chaos. The Pacific Fleet was lost losing over 2500 men and ten aircraft carriers and ammunition. The Japanese destroyed 188 aircraft and damaged 158. They also killed 68 civilians and 2403 military personnel.

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These code breakers sent the information, from all the time consuming, hard work to the heads of the war department in Hawaii and it was then that battle for Midway had been forced on them and they had to defend it at all costs. As the Japanese were planning their attack on Midway, they were under the assumption that it would not be guarded with aircraft carriers and battleships. The American Pacific Fleet, utilizing the information gleaned from their cryptographers, planned a monumental defense. Admiral Nimitz and Commander Fletcher were in command of the defense of Midway carrying out their orders they placed carriers, destroyers, their many other viable ships and resources strategically around the island; waiting for the advancing Japanese Navy. The battle took four long days with the losses to the Americans in ships and personnel was minimal, but the Japanese were hit with a tremendous blow of four carriers, numerous other ships, over two

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Craig L. Symonds, in The Battle of Midway, recounts the events leading up to and during the June 4, 1942, Battle of Midway. The battle was a decisive American victory and effectively destroyed the Japanese navy for the duration of the war in the Pacific. Symond uses the people who played a part in the battle to retell the battle, its decisive moments, and its aftermath. Symonds argues that Midway “is best explained and understood by focusing on the people involved.” (pg5).

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The Battle of Midway was fought almost entirely with aircrafts. The battle began on June 3, 1942, when U.S. bombers from Midway Island struck at the Japanese invasion force about 220 miles southwest of the U.S. fleet. The U.S. planes quickly sank three of the heavy Japanese carriers and one heavy cruiser. Analysts often point to Japanese aircraft losses at Midway as eliminating the power of the Imperial Navy’s air arm, but in fact about two-thirds of air crews survived. The Battle of Midway brought the Pacific naval forces of Japan and the United States to approximate parity and marked a turning point of the military struggle between the two

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The Japanese people lost approximately four carriers 4,800 men a cruiser, and hundreds of aircraft, while the US lost approximately one carrier 307 men and

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Although the attack was intended to calm down the Pacific Fleet, it gave the Americans the feeling that they wanted to go to war with them. In response to the attack, the U.S. came back with antiaircraft guns, ships, and submarines. The war took place for two hours. At the end of the war, Japan ended up losing 29 planes and 64 men. On the other hand, the United States lost 188 planes, 21 ships, 2,390 servicemen.

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“From December of 1941 to the spring of 1942, Japanese forces advanced virtually unimpeded throughout the Pacific and southeastern Asia while handing the Allies a string of humiliating defeats, first at Pearl Harbor, then at Guam, Wake Island, Singapore, and in the Philippines. By the spring of 1942, the outcome of the war was very much in doubt as Americans began to think that the Japanese military was invincible. "The Pacific situation is now very grave," cabled President Roosevelt to Winston Churchill in March of 1942, after the Japanese conquest of Java.”

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The U.S. Navy's victory at Midway was a turning point in the Pacific War, as it weakened Japan's naval power and allowed the U.S. to take the offensive. Espionage played a significant role in the U.S. victory at Midway, particularly in terms of providing critical intelligence that informed the strategy and tactics used by the U.S. Navy. One key example of espionage in the Battle of Midway was the work of U.S. code-breakers to decrypt the Japanese naval code, JN-25. JN-25 was the primary code used by the Japanese Navy to communicate operational orders, and its decryption was a top priority for the U.S. Navy. Through the work of the U.S. Navy's code-breaking unit, Station Hypo, JN-25 was eventually deciphered, allowing the U.S. to gain access to Japanese naval communications.

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Cmdr. Joseph Rochefort and the U.S.’s overall superior strategies of Nimitz and Fletcher was the true reason for why the U.S.’s seemingly impossible victory became possible. The two key themes that I will focus analysis on is the failures in the Japanese strategic planning and execution at Midway and U.S. determination and resilience to keep pushing on even after things, especially with USS carriers leading up to and during the actual war was falling apart. Symonds begins to argue his case by dissecting Japan’s plans for conquest and domination in the Pacific. He starts with looking at the Japanese failure by several of their military philosophies.

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