The Roundtable
Forum
Official Newsletter of the Battle of Midway Roundtable
17 April 2011
Issue Number: 2011-09
Our 14th Year
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AROUND THE TABLE ~
MEMBERS’
TOPICS IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Midway: Japan’s “Bridge Too Far?”
2. Why Didn’t Nagumo “Get It?”
3. USS Hammann Survivors
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1. MIDWAY: JAPAN’S “BRIDGE TOO FAR?” ( see issues #6 )
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5 April 2011
From: Chuck Wohlrab
Afghanistan
Had Admiral Nimitz not
responded to the Japanese plan to take Midway, the Japanese would have been
presented with a truly no-win situation.
I have prepared a list of reasons below:
1. Aircraft range:
The range issue applies not only to the A6M fighters that the carriers
of the Kido Butai were ferrying, but
to the land-based bombers that were earmarked to fly into Midway after it had
been seized. The distance from Midway
to Pearl was over 1400 miles, and even the B-24, the longest ranged bomber in
the U.S. arsenal at the time could not reach Midway with any significant bomb
load. Land based IJN aircraft from
Midway could not have significantly affected U.S. operations on Oahu or its
surrounding area.
2. Midway as a base:
Midway, as it existed in early 1942 was not much of an operating
base. While it had its airbase and
seaplane base, it had little else to offer.
With its anchorage being dredged and shore facilities expanded, by 1943
it was used as a forward operating base for submarines operating in Japanese
home waters. However, most of that work
was accomplished by an engineering capability that was beyond the capabilities
of the IJN. What was easy for the USN would
have been much harder for the IJN to accomplish, and by the time it was usable,
the island would have been passed by.
3. Supplying Midway:
Midway would have been another one of those bases that offered nothing,
but would have been a sinkhole for supplies.
Virtually all commodities of supplies would have to be imported. I saw but don’t recall the number of hulls
per month it would have taken to supply even a modest force, and the Japanese
would have had to face a close blockade by U.S. submarines, not to mention
frequent drive-bys from U.S. carrier task forces getting in some target
practice. I doubt it would be long
before the Japanese would have written off the garrison, and withdrawn it or
left it to wither on the vine.
In the end, Midway would have
been a self-inflicted sucking chest wound; at best a nuisance for the U.S., but
always a drain the IJN could not afford.
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2. WHY DIDN’T NAGUMO “GET IT?”
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8 April 2011
From: Scott Kair
Illinois
The central question is why Nagumo turned toward the American ships
rather than staying outside the assumed reach of the American strike forces.
Blunders generally become apparent only in retrospect. Nagumo’s course of action was at least
understandable in light of the dual priorities of his mission which came into
conflict—reducing Midway and destroying American carriers—as well as the
Japanese intelligence failure that enabled the surprise appearance of three
American carriers. Certainly the fog of
battle inhibited his clarity of thought, but closing on the American task forces
was practical, if not doctrinally correct.
Closing on our carrier when he knew of only one meant increasing
the distance from Midway and any further attacks from our land-based
aircraft. At that point, our land-based
attacks had been more a nuisance than a genuine threat, and his CAP had
inflicted horrendous losses. Tone
4’s report of 10 inbound unescorted American attack aircraft would not have
drastically increased his estimation of American capabilities.
At that point, closing made conventional sense. One squadron of the American carrier air
group known to be present was accounted for, the other attack group (presumably
dive bombers) could be presumed to be airborne and subject to detection and
eradication in short order. That still
left him with four carriers and two strike groups in order to deal with one
American carrier. By closing on the
Americans, his aircraft could attack the carrier, and his escorts would be
positioned to eliminate the American escorts once the carrier was down.
It almost worked, too. VT-8
began its attack beyond the point of having sufficient fuel to return to Hornet. The rest of the HAG missed him
entirely. McClusky’s element of the EAG
nearly missed him, and even then lost a number of aircraft to fuel exhaustion. Had the YAG been the only dive bomber
element to find Kido Butai, the outcome would have been different indeed.
Still, there remains that lingering question of why, by the time VT-3
appeared, Nagumo did not apprehend that things were not as they seemed, and
adjust his plan accordingly.
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3. USS HAMMANN SURVIVORS
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15 April 2011
From: Martin P. Bunch
California
I have a Facebook site
dedicated to the USS Hammann (DD-412) and another site for our scale
modelers specializing in R/C 1/96 scale model boats. I’m building a 1/96
scale R/C model kit of the Hammann in her 1942 colors. Where can I
find the roster of surviving crew from the day she was sunk?
I actually have two living crew
members on my Facebook site that are seeking information on crew from the Hammann
the day she was sunk. Please help
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Ed. note: if anyone can help Marty with Hammann
crew or survivor info, please contact him as shown in your “new issue”
e-mail.
~ NOW
HEAR THIS! ~
NEWS
& INFO IN THIS ISSUE:
- New Roundtable Resource: On-Line Book Reviews
- Featured Link
- Editor’s Notes
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NEW ROUNDTABLE
RESOURCE: ON-LINE BOOK REVIEWS
In response to a member
suggestion, I did a search through our newsletter archives (seven years’ worth)
and pulled out all of the Midway-related book reviews that we’ve ever
published. It turns out there were
quite a lot of them, and they are now all conveniently listed and linked in one
place. You can get there easily by
clicking the new “Book Reviews “ link on our home
page (under References), or for an advance look, click here.
Twenty-seven reviews
are posted so far, and others could follow.
While most were written by me, a good number of them were penned by
other members, including Robert Armstrong, Randall Bedore, Terry Higham, Scott
Kair, and Admiral Mac Showers. The
reviews range from our most familiar BOM works such as Shattered Sword and
Blackshoe Carrier Admiral, to obscure books from decades ago that still
inspire interest. There are also
reviews of specialty books, such as Daniel Hernandez’ remarkable volume on the
SBD, plus a few on novels with BOM themes.
In connection with all
that, I’ve also revised our Midway
Library page, with numerous improvements in readability. The file is now considerably more concise,
due to removing the lengthy descriptions under many of the books and replacing
them with links to the new Book Reviews section.
Members are welcome and
encouraged to compose and contribute additional reviews. Any book that has the BOM as a fundamental
element, or is otherwise related to the BOM in some fashion is a likely
candidate for a review. For guidance in
composing your article, check our FAQs
page as well as the existing reviews.
Please check out the
new Book Reviews pages and the revised Library page (links above). Your comments, pro and con, will be very helpful. I’d especially like to hear from anyone who
finds a faulty link or any other type of problem on a page. —RR
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FEATURED LINK
Here’s another set of those terrific Life Magazine photos
from the first year of the war. This
set shows many scenes aboard a Yorktown-class carrier, all taken either
pre-war or before the BOM. To browse
the various photos, use the left-right arrows at the edges of each image.
Who can identify the ship and some of the key personalities
shown in the photos?
Many thanks to Johan Lupander in Sweden for this reference.
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EDITOR’S NOTES
~ The Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey,
California, will hold its annual BOM banquet on 4 June 2011. This was announced in the last issue, but
their web site was not yet ready. It is
now: click
here.
~ Changing your e-mail address? Please see Note #1 at the bottom of your
“new issue” e-mail message (any of them—the same note is repeated in each
message). Or, see our FAQs page, item #12. Your attention to this little detail will
save me some unwelcome extra work when you change your address. Thanks in advance.