soc.history.war.world-war-ii

Mark Sieving wrote:

>> Sail some in range at night, illuminate, and shell the
>> begebers, incapacitate airfield and any hope to use
>> the few USA and USN planes there.
>
>Naval bombardments never incapacitated Henderson Field on
>Guadalcanal.

Yabbut Henderson Field was much larger
facility, well inland and out of sight
of any bombardment force.

The Midway airstrip and facilities were
in a small area, completely exposed.

The Japanese probably could not break
up the airstrip significantly, but I
suspect that they would have been
firing directly on any grounded
aircraft.

>The bombardment that the Japanese planned wouldn't have
>disabled the airfield at Midway, and would have done little to reduce
>the fortifications and firepower of the Marines.

Probably not, and IMO the Japanese
had little chance of capturing Midway.

>If you want to argue that the aircraft from the Japanese carriers
>would put Midway out of action, remember that the Japanese airstrike
>against Midway lost nearly a quarter of its total aircraft

The strike was 36 DB, 36 TB, 36 FF. 1/4 of
that would be 27. The Japanese lost 11 planes.

>and a third of the bombers...

See above.

However... even if the Japanese had won
the carrier battle, their air groups would
have taken further more serious attrition,
and probably one or two carriers sunk or
disabled.

So they would not have the muscle for a
sustained air bombardment of Midway.
--
| People say "There's a Stradivarius for sale for a |
| million," and you say "Oh, really? What's wrong |
| with it?" - Yitzhak Perlman |