soc.history.war.world-war-ii

On Mar 30, 2:09 pm, "a425couple" wrote:
> "WaltBJ" wrote
>
> > Y'all are looking through the wrong end of the telescope. Japs
> > occupying Midway meant that the IJN would have to defend it. --
> > -- Remember the Japs did invade the Aleutians - and then started to
> > wonder why
>
> Comments noted.
> Uhhh, are you saying you think the Battle of Midway's
> results, did not make any real difference?

SNIP: However did you reach that conclusion? Hell, yes, it made a
difference. It cost Japan 4 of their best carriers, a heavy cruiser, a
raft of experienced aircrews, a host of experienced maintainers and
delivered a stern psychological shock to the Japanese Naval people who
knew of the debacle. From then on Japan was on the defensive. Up until
then the US had been on the defensive.
To expand the point I made earlier - imagine you are sitting
on Kiska and Attu. just exactly what do you do next? You sure aren't
going to go up the chain to Alaska and down the coastline to the USA.
What a march that would be. Had the War Department thought further
about that, they would rejected the idea of invasion and just used
Attu and Kiska for practice bombing targets and sought out every IJN
supply convoy.
One reason the Japs occupied those islands was to prevent the
US from launching bombing attacks against the Home Islands. Those Jap
planners sure gave the US a lot of credit there. Lousy weather lousy
forecasts, very long range - lose an engine and you're looking at
landing in Russia and getting interned - if you're lucky. It was tough
enough when the US was bombing Paramushiro. Very tough missions for
very little military return.
I've also been on Midway. The place comprises two very small
islands. Midway itself is about a quarter mile shorter than Central
Park in New York City and at the widest about twice as wide. East
island is about one-quarter the size of Central Park. Both islands are
sand dunes and you can't dig very far down without hitting salt water.
Operating search planes out of there would be tough indeed under
frequent night raids using lots of frag and incendiaries.
Walt BJ