Nineteen Kilo
Senior Member
Just finished up Walter Lord's "Incredible Victory" on Midway. According to Lord, Yamamoto considered pushing on to Midway even after his carriers were smashed on June 4th, and that night ordered 4 heavy cruisers to race into Midway and shell the two islands, as a prelude to carrying out the planned invasion. However when (again according to Lord) the sun was setting a scout plane erroneously reported 4 more American aircraft carriers still north of Midway, he threw in the towel and ordered the withdrawal.
This left me pondering, "What if the Japanese had carried out the invasion despite the daytime losses?"
Not such a far fetched question when you factor in that the American air strength was just about exhausted after the very heavy losses of June 4th. (The Enterprise and Hornet could probably only scrape up 40 SBD's between them, and Midway was down to the B-17s and a handful of Vindicators - and let's assume the airfield would have been target #1 of the night time shore bombardment by the cruisers.)
However I'm of the opinion that even had the Japanese pushed on the American Marines likely would have stopped them on the beaches (if Wake can be used as a precedent), and if not, the Japanese would have become the proud owners of an outpost they couldn't resupply and was within B-17 range of Hawaii. So in the end I believe Yamamoto made the right decision to withdraw both tactically and strategically.
Anyone care to be Devil's Advocate on this one?
This left me pondering, "What if the Japanese had carried out the invasion despite the daytime losses?"
Not such a far fetched question when you factor in that the American air strength was just about exhausted after the very heavy losses of June 4th. (The Enterprise and Hornet could probably only scrape up 40 SBD's between them, and Midway was down to the B-17s and a handful of Vindicators - and let's assume the airfield would have been target #1 of the night time shore bombardment by the cruisers.)
However I'm of the opinion that even had the Japanese pushed on the American Marines likely would have stopped them on the beaches (if Wake can be used as a precedent), and if not, the Japanese would have become the proud owners of an outpost they couldn't resupply and was within B-17 range of Hawaii. So in the end I believe Yamamoto made the right decision to withdraw both tactically and strategically.
Anyone care to be Devil's Advocate on this one?