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Battle Of Midway Research Paper

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The Battle of Midway takes place on the island of Midway in the Pacific Ocean. It gets it name “Midway”, from being right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the midway point from Japan to the United States. Though a relatively small island, it held fuel resources for the entire American navy, and extra for American allies. This island, in the middle of nowhere, was the turning point of World War II is the Pacific War. Over a two day period, Japanese naval and airforce battled it out with American naval, air forces, and ground forces. American goals were too protect the valuable fuel resources on the island. The Japanese goals were too either capture or destroy American fuel reserves and aircraft carriers. Rarely in world history had one …show more content…

The U.S. Navy and Marines also began planning for an operation on Guadalcanal against the Japanese. As Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance, one of the Navy’s carrier task force commanders at Midway, put it after the battle of Midway, “We had not been defeated by these superior Japanese forces. Midway to us at the time meant that here is where we start from, here is where we really jump off in a hard, bitter war against the Japanese.” These keywords emphasized the true meaning to the Battle of Midway, “… here is where we start from…” Midway, then, was a turning point in the ally war effort, but the leaders of Japan and Germany ready to just give in to the ally forces. Moreover, the real nature of the Battle of Midway was poorly understood for some months after the Japanese defeat. On 9 June 1942, The New York Times noted that, “So far as we can now learn, the main damage to the Japanese fleet off Midway was inflicted by our land-based airplanes. The battle shows what land-based air power can do to naval and air power attacking from the open sea when that land-based air power is alert, well-trained, courageous, and exists in sufficient quantity…” But this statement was dead wrong. The Army Air Force B-17s and B-26s did not land a single hit on the Japanese carriers. The really only effective attacks were made by the carrier dive bombers. The proof of this came on 19- 20 June 1944, in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Which is considered to be the second coming of the Battle of Midway. Fought near the island of Saipan in the Marianas group, the Battle of the Philippine Sea set the rebuilt Japanese carrier force, led by Vice Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa, against Admiral Spruance’s Fifth Fleet. Both Admirals had studied the Battle of Midway, and both had learned

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