BATTLE OF MIDWAY: WWII Pacific Turning Point

Contributed by Jim Huff BATTLE OF MIDWAY: WWII Pacific Turning Point Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States defeated Japan in one of the most decisive naval battles of World War II. Thanks in part to major advances in code breaking, the United States was able to preempt and counter Japan’s planned ambush of its few remaining aircraft carriers, inflicting permanent damage on the Japanese Navy. An important turning point in the Pacific campaign, the victory allowed the United States and its allies to move into an offensive position. On 4 JUN 1942, the Battle of Midway began. During the four-day sea-and-air battle, the outnumbered U.S. Pacific Fleet succeeded in destroying four Japanese aircraft carriers while losing only one of its own, the Yorktown, to the previously invincible Japanese navy. In six months of offensives prior to Midway, the Japanese had triumphed in lands throughout the Pacific, including Malaysia, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines and numerous island groups. The United States, however, was a growing threat, and Japanese Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto sought to destroy the U.S. Pacific Fleet before it was large enough to outmatch his own. A thousand miles northwest of Honolulu, the strategic island of Midway became the focus of his scheme to smash U.S. Resistance to Japan’s imperial designs. Yamamoto’s plan consisted of a feint toward Alaska followed by an invasion of Midway by a Japanese strike force. When the U.S. Pacific Fleet arrived at Midway to respond to the invasion, it would be destroyed by the superior Japanese fleet waiting unseen to the west. If successful, the plan would eliminate the U.S. Pacific Fleet and provide a forward outpost from which the Japanese could eliminate any future American threat in the Central Pacific. U.S. Intelligence broke the Japanese naval code, however, and the Americans anticipated the surprise attack. In the meantime, 200 miles to the northeast, two U.S. Attack fleets caught the Japanese force entirely by surprise and destroyed three heavy Japanese carriers and one heavy cruiser. The only Japanese carrier that initially escaped destruction, the Hiryu, loosed all its aircraft against the American task force and managed to seriously damage the U.S. Carrier Yorktown, forcing its abandonment. At about 5:00 p.m., dive-bombers from the U.S. Carrier Enterprise returned the favor, mortally damaging the Hiryu. It was scuttled the next morning. When the Battle of Midway ended, Japan had lost four carriers, a cruiser and 292 aircraft, and suffered an estimated 2,500 casualties. The U.S. Lost the Yorktown, the destroyer USS Hammann, 145 aircraft and suffered approximately 300 casualties. Japan’s losses hobbled its naval might–bringing Japanese and American sea power to approximate parity–and marked the turning point in the Pacific theater of World War II. In August 1942, the great U.S. Counteroffensive began at Guadalcanal and did not cease until Japan’s surrender three years later. (Source: http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-midway, June 4, 2017) ***********************  BATTLE OF MIDWAY UPDATE: LCdr C. Wade McClusky Jr Involvement C. Wade McClusky Jr. Faced a tough decision on June 4, 1942: turn his low-on-fuel U.S. Navy air squadron around or keep searching for the Japanese fleet headed for Midway. He decided to go on and wound up changing history. The dive bombers McClusky led that day in the Battle of Midway helped to gut the Imperial Japanese Navy and turned the tide of the war in the Pacific in the Allies' favor after a string of defeats following the attack on Pearl Harbor. On 4 JUN, 75 years to the day of his heroics, a clay model of a planned bronze statue of McClusky is being unveiled in his hometown of Buffalo, New York, as part of a new public memorial dedicated to local war heroes. McClusky, who died in 1976, is depicted as he looked after returning from the June 4, 1942, attack, still wearing his flight suit, flying helmet and goggles. "Wade McClusky finally will be getting his due recognition," said Lee Simonson, one of the organizers behind the event and the fundraising effort for the new memorial. "He's one of the greatest heroes in American history."  McClusky, born in Buffalo in 1902, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1926 and earned his pilot's wings a few years later. When the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor drew America into the war, he was a lieutenant commander in charge of the air squadron aboard the USS Enterprise, which escaped harm on Dec. 7, 1941, because it was at sea with the other U.S. Carriers. In late May 1942, a large Japanese fleet was steaming toward the U.S. Sea and air bases on Midway atoll, located about 1,300 miles (2,092 kilometers) northwest of Honolulu. Midway could provide the Japanese with a jumping-off point for more assaults on Hawaii, and possibly the West Coast.  The U.S. Navy, tipped off to the Japanese plans thanks to its breaking of the enemy's naval codes, ordered its only three aircraft carriers in the Pacific -- Yorktown, Hornet and Enterprise -- to head off the attack. McClusky's air squadron was tasked with finding the Japanese warships and sinking them. Despite the inside information, the planes initially were sent in the wrong direction after they took off on the morning of 4 JUN. More time -- and fuel -- was wasted as McClusky's group circled while waiting for other carrier-based planes that didn't show up. About two hours into the search and running low on gas, McClusky was faced with a choice: return to the Enterprise or keep searching, with the realization that most of his planes would have to ditch in the ocean. He kept going.  According to the U.S. Navy's official account of the battle, McClusky soon spotted a Japanese destroyer and correctly surmised it was headed toward the main Japanese fleet. Around 10:20 a.m., he led 30 other Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers into the attack against the Japanese aircraft carriers. When the day was over, the fliers from the Enterprise and Yorktown had sunk three carriers and mortally damaged a fourth. McClusky, wounded in the initial attack, made it back to his carrier with less than five gallons of fuel in his tank. Some of the other surviving two-man planes had even less. Ten planes in his squadron had to ditch in the sea and their crews were never found.  "This small group of people who did such a dynamite job at Midway should be lofted up as icons in American history, but for the most part their names go mostly forgotten," said Timothy Orr, who along with his wife Laura co-authored a recently published autobiography by N. Jack "Dusty" Kleiss, a member of McClusky's squadron who helped sink three Japanese warships at Midway. Kleiss was the last surviving Midway dive bomber pilot when he died last year at 100. For his actions at Midway, McClusky was awarded the Navy Cross, one of the U.S. military's highest decorations. He retired as a rear admiral in 1956. McClusky never lived in Buffalo after entering the Navy and has no family living there. According to his son, Phil, the Buffalo tribute is something the Navy hero would've never sought for himself. "He was a quiet guy. He was not a big talker," said the son, 63, who lives outside Baltimore and plans to attend Sunday's ceremony. "He was a professional naval officer." (Source: The Associated Press, Chris Carola, June 3, 2017) ---------------------------------