May 7, 2014

On Course to Midway: The Battle of Coral Sea

Japanese Aircraft Carrier Shokaku 1941 Courtesy Government of Japan...

Nov. 26, 2013

Battle of Midway lecture offers fascinating detail into US Navy victory

SBD "Dauntless" dive bombers from USS Hornet (CV-8) approaching the burning Japanese heavy cruiser Mikuma to make the third set of attacks on her, during the early afternoon of 6 June 1942. Mikuma had been hit earlier by strikes from Hornet and USS E...

June 7, 2013

Midway Operational Lesson

MIDWAY'S OPERATIONAL LESSON: THE NEED FOR MORE CARRIERSThe Japanese employing six aircraft carriers at one time, as they did in the attack on Oahu on December 7, 1941, proved a radical undertaking. The U.S. Navy's carriers, by contrast, had never numbered more than two or three during infrequent maneuvers, and the war's coming in 1941 found only

June 7, 2013

Midway Tactical Lessons

Tactical Lesson of Midway: The Thach WeaveWhen the U.S. Navy entered the war in the Pacific, fighting squadron aircraft strength stood at 18 planes. Operational experience, showed that more fighters were needed, to (1) protect the carrier herself and (2) to protect the attack groups composed of dive/scout bombers and torpedo bombers. Even when

June 7, 2013

Midway Strategic Lessons

Midway's Strategic Lessons"We are actively preparing to greet our expected visitors with the kind of reception they deserve," Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet, wrote to Admiral Ernest J. King, the Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations, on May 29, 1942, "and we will do the best we can with what

June 5, 2013

A Vivid Memory of Midway

A Vivid Memory of MidwayCommander Clayton E. Fisher, USN-Retby Ronald Russell(The following post is from the Battle of Midway Roundtable and originally appeared in Veterans Biographies, distributed during the annual Battle of Midway commemoration in San Francisco, June 2006)  In September 1941, upon completion of pilot training advanced carrier

June 4, 2013

Navy Cryptology and the Battle of Midway: Our Finest Hour

Navy Cryptology and the Battle of Midway: Our Finest HourA special feature of the BATTLE OF MIDWAY ROUNDTABLEby LCDR Philip H. Jacobsen, USN-Ret(Editor's note: the following is the text of an address given by LCDR Jacobsen to a gathering of Naval Security Group personnel at San Diego in 2000. It has been edited slightly for clarity and to better

June 3, 2013

Synopsis of the Battle of Midway (June 3-7, 1942)

Those who have only a casual knowledge of the Second World War might know little more about the Battle of Midway than the fact that it was an important American victory in the Pacific Theater. After all, the war had countless major battles, and a great many of them involved far more men and arms than fought at Midway. A tally of the forces engaged