On this day in 1942 the Imperial Japanese Navy lost four of its six fleet aircraft carriers along with their entire air groups. The
Battle of Midway is considered one of the most decisive battles in world history. The sinking of the
Akagi,
Kaga,
Soryu and
Hiryu made the counter-offensive at
Guadalcanal possible. The Marine landings on Guadalcanal caused the Japanese to shift their priorities to that island away from the New Guinea theater. That decision, in turn, enabled MacArthur to launch his offensive in
Papua.
At Midway the US Navy lost the carrier
Yorktown. The other two American carriers
Enterprise and
Hornet were not even scratched. The
Hornet was sunk during the Guadalcanal campaign at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on October, 26 1942. The
Enterprise, which didn't seem to miss any battle in the Pacific, survived the war.
Sadly, The Big E did not
survive the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. If you can believe it, she was
scrapped in July 1958.
Crossposted at
The Dougout
3 comments:
I know, but wouldn't it be too cool if CV6 was berthed alongside the Missouri as a floating museum?
Scrapping her was a huge mistake.
HUGE.
That design was probably the most robust of the war.
The Yorktown was severely damaged in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May (where the Lexington was sunk) and they sailed her at full speed without zigzagging back to Pearl for repairs (May 27th) that were so extensive that despite 24 hour repair crews they put to sea for the Battle of MIdway with the civilian workers still on board, and despite the damage she sustained AGAIN at Midway via bomb and torpedo hits, despite the fact her first damage was not fixed (they just made her seaworthy), she would have been towable back to Pearl had the crew acted switflym, but as it was at Midway she took 3 bomb hits, and 7 torpedo hits before going down after 2 days and night afloat and virutally abandoned. Hornet took similar damage and WAS taken in tow later that year, but was sunk by US destroyers because they weer afriad she would get captured.
The BIG E was torpedoed, bombed, and kamikaze'd multiple times and survived all.
She should be at Pearl today beside the MIssouri, battle flags flying.
Epaminondas,
Amen to that, brother.
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