The Battle of Midway was fought almost entirely with aircrafts. The battle began on June 3, 1942, when U.S. bombers from Midway Island struck at the Japanese invasion force about 220 miles southwest of the U.S. fleet. The U.S. planes quickly sank three of the heavy Japanese carriers and one heavy cruiser. Analysts often point to Japanese aircraft losses at Midway as eliminating the power of the Imperial Navy’s air arm, but in fact about two-thirds of air crews survived.The Battle of Midway brought the Pacific naval forces of Japan and the United States to approximate parity and marked a turning point of the military struggle between the two
The Actions along the Matanikau—sometimes referred to as the Second and Third Battles of the Matanikau—were two separate but related engagements, which took place in the months of September and October 1942, among a series of engagements between the United States and Imperial Japanese naval and ground forces around the Matanikau River on Guadalcanal (island in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia) during the Guadalcanal Campaign. These particular engagements—the first taking place between 23 and 27 September, and the second between 6 and 9 October—were two of the largest and most significant of the Matanikau actions. The Matanikau River area on Guadalcanal included a peninsula called Point Cruz, the village of Kokumbona, and a series of ridges and ravines stretching inland from the coast. Japanese forces used the area to regroup from attacks against U.S. forces on the island, to launch further attacks on the U.S. defenses that guarded the Allied airfield (called Henderson Field) located at Lunga Point on Guadalcanal, as a base to defend against Allied attacks directed at Japanese troop and supply encampments between Point Cruz and Cape
The Japanese lost more than a bunch of ships and a bunch of airplanes, and a bunch of men. Experience is what wins’ wars. You can have the biggest guns and the best planes, but if you lack the men with enough training and experience to be an effective combatant, then there no sense in having those guns and those airplanes because the experienced fighters on the other side will just make quick and easy work of them, which was often the case through the Pacific after the Battle of Midway. After Midway, the Japanese just lacked the highly-experienced commanders, pilots, tacticians, and shipman to fight the Americans and win. Midway was the punch that turned the Americans in favor of winning the war, and Guadalcanal was the knockout punch that would strip the Japanese of any chance of winning the war.
America’s involvement in the bombing was a crucial moment in military history. It was the American Kittyhawk planes which were used to combat the Japanese air force, and the assistance given helped to prove America’s worth and reliability to the people of
Japanese fighter planes struck the base, and the fight lasted two hours. The battle was devastating. Most of the battleships in the harbor were destroyed, and about 300 other airplanes were destroyed. There were as many as 3,000 American soldiers and sailors who were killed in the attacked or wounded. Afterwards, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on the entire country of Japan.
The target was US escort carriers, and this resulted in about 5000 kamikaze pilots died while only destroying 34 escort carriers. An estimated 1321 Kamikaze planes had dived into Allied naval forces. Even though about 3,000 Americans and Brits had died, the attacks did not damage the naval forces enough to stop the Allied capturing the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and
D-Day changed everything and it was a major turning point in the war. The attack significantly shortened the war and allowed Paris to be liberated by August 25th D-Day also allowed the non-Russian Allies to be in the end of the war which was making significant progress in capturing territory farther and farther west. The presence of American, Canadian, and British troops helped stop Germany and keep Russia from gaining any more land in Europe. D-day was not only significant because of these reasons but it also added to America 's national pride. The victory boosted American boldness.
Guerilla warfare was a highly used and effective tactic all throughout history in cases like the Vietnam War. Guerilla warfare is a military tactic used in conflict; many people believe it to be a type of psychological combat. Former US Secretary Henry Kissinger once said “One of the cardinal maxims of guerrilla war: the guerrilla wins if he does not lose. The conventional army loses if it does not win.” (Kissinger).
Aircraft was also later used in Battle of the coral sea, Battle of Midway, and Battle of Guadalcanal. The final attack was also by aircraft when the US dropped the atomic bomb in Japan on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There were three main uses for planes. They were used for fighters, bombers, and transportation. Fighter planes were used in air to air fights.
Cmdr. Joseph Rochefort and the U.S.’s overall superior strategies of Nimitz and Fletcher was the true reason for why the U.S.’s seemingly impossible victory became possible. The two key themes that I will focus analysis on is the failures in the Japanese strategic planning and execution at Midway and U.S. determination and resilience to keep pushing on even after things, especially with USS carriers leading up to and during the actual war was falling apart. Symonds begins to argue his case by dissecting Japan’s plans for conquest and domination in the Pacific. He starts with looking at the Japanese failure by several of their military philosophies.
For the attack, Japan split their attack into two waves, each of which would have different targets. (World War II in Europe) Japan had also modified their torpedo bombs so that they could still work in shallow waters. (Van Der Vat, pg. 86) The attack would include a total of four hundred twenty-three planes, and would last approximately two hours.
Craig L. Symonds, in The Battle of Midway, recounts the events leading up to and during the June 4, 1942, Battle of Midway. The battle was a decisive American victory and effectively destroyed the Japanese navy for the duration of the war in the Pacific. Symond uses the people who played a part in the battle to retell the battle, its decisive moments, and its aftermath. Symonds argues that Midway “is best explained and understood by focusing on the people involved.” (pg5).
Prior to the attack US forces sunk multiple Japanese subs and US planes eliminated land-based bombers on Mariana bases. Toyoda also lacked when it came to ships and his negligence of the coms allowed for the US to listen into the Japanese squadron commander guiding pilots into battle. As the battle began the US had all air fighter strength available. Neither did the Americans need to worry about land based bombers. Upon the second wave of attackers the Americans decimated the incoming flyers and the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot was completed.
Then came the attack of Pearl Harbor which was in 1941 December 7. The Japanese had taken 423 planes that then had arrived at Perl Harbor. There was
Their opponents such as America, Britain, and France all had vastly superior planes compare to the Japanese. This was further noted in the movie The Wind Also Rises and told by Sakai in Japan at War: An Oral History. Sakai compared aerial combat tactic to the samurai combat tactic. You needed to be tactical and precise. Furthermore, you carefully inch towards your opponent.
During the initial phases of the air campaign in world war 2 many allied planes were no match for the axis aircraft. However mismatches on paper do not gurantee victoy in reality. Allied pilots superior expertise were able to maximize their aircrafts abiliites and overcome the deficienes that existed to defeat the more advanced