soc.history.war.world-war-ii

On Mar 13, 12:57 am, Bill Shatzer wrote:
> Dave Anderer wrote:
>
> -snip-
>
> > Fourth, at best the Japanese had a 1-to-1 ratio with the defenders.
>
> That would be inaccurate as best I can determine.
>
> The Japanese invasion forces numbered about 5,000. While some were
> sevice and construction troops, the actual "fighters" numbered about
> 3,500 troops - 1,500 in the 5th Special Naval Landing Force and some
> 2,000 in the Army Ichiki Detachment.
>
> Marine ground strength on Midway totalled about 1,800 - the 6th Marine
> Defense Battalion reinforced by an anti-aircraft company and two
> companies from the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion.
>
> There were some addition US forces on the island - mostly ground crews
> for the aircraft and support and administrative personnel - but their
> fighting value would have been modest and certainly not appreciably
> better than the additional 1,500 construction and service troops in the
> Japanese invasion force.
>
> Near as I can figure, the Japanese outnumbered the defenders by
> something like 2:1 in actual combat troops and closer to 2.5:1 in total
> troop strength.
>
> Coupled with naval gunfire support and (presumably) complete air
> superiority, that should have been sufficient to successfully invade and
> capture the island - albeit at some cost.
>
> > I don't see how the invasion could have succeeded.
>
> The Japanese were notorious for snatching defeat from the jaws of
> victory but assuming the US carriers were sunk and the remainder of the
> Pacific Fleet chased back to Hawaii, I'd think the invasion would be
> quite likely to succeed, absent a Japanese blunder.
>
> Whether the Japanese could hold the island would be a completely
> different question. I doubt they could have done so for more than a few
> months - for many reasons.
>
> Cheers,

The weak point of the Japanese plan was that they did not have an
Amtrac equivalent. The Japanese were most worried about getting their
landing craft over a reef. Captain Toyama of the IJN said: "We were
going to approach the south side (of Midway), sending out landing
boats as far as the reef. We had many different kinds of landing boats
but did not think that many would be able to pass over the reefs. If
they got stuck the personnel were supposed to transfer to rubber
landing boats. We had plenty of equipment for a three months'
occupation without help, but were not sure of our boats."

http://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/Midway/USMC-M-Midway-3.html

Joe