Midway;

[Ray Merrell]

We had lost Wake Island, Guam and
The Philippines and the Japanese were
beginning to seem unstoppable...

The Date
June 4-7-1942

THE PLACE
1,135 miles west-northwest of Pearl Harbor
- a tiny atoll,
barely six miles in diameter

THE EVENT
The Battle of Midway - the scene of
America's first real victory over the Japanese.

THE MEMORIES
The fight-to-the death slugfest
that saw our carrier, the Yorktown, and Japan's
Hiryu both so badly damaged they had to be abandoned.

.....Memories of WW II - Reader's Digest

[Mongoose]

Ray, I was thinking we broke the Jap code. As a result, was ready for them, and more or less destroyed their main fleet. After Midway, they were ineffective as a Naval force. I could be wrong.

[USNAviator]

Ray, I was thinking we broke the Jap code. As a result, was ready for them, and more or less destroyed their main fleet. After Midway, they were ineffective as a Naval force. I could be wrong.

No you are correct Billy. We did break their code which allowed us to know that they were heading for Midway and not the West coast. They lost 4 of their 6 fleet carriers, which pretty much derailed their expansion plans. After Midway the Japs went into a defensive mode

[advanced]

Good movie.

[advanced]

Ray, I was thinking we broke the Jap code. As a result, was ready for them, and more or less destroyed their main fleet. After Midway, they were ineffective as a Naval force. I could be wrong.

Show Off - You saw the movie to.

[USNAviator]

Show Off - You saw the movie to.

Russ he told me he read a book about it. Man that did sound a little fishy come to think about it

[Ray Merrell]

A massive Japanese fleet was streaming toward Midway: 8 carriers, 11 battleships, 22 cruisers, 65 destroyers and 21 submarines. Waiting to confront this powerful armada lay part of America's Pacific Fleet- three carriers with 233 planes but NO battleships.

But the Japanese admirals had miscalculated. They didn't know we'd broken the Japanese code and didn't think the U.S. fleet would even be at sea. And the Marines already stationed on Miway Island were ready, too. Their commanding officer had ordered so much barbed wire strung that one Marine complained:
"Barbed wire, barbed wire! Cripes, the old man thinks we can stop planes with barbed wire!"

But stop them they did. As the Japanese approached Midway, the Americans wreaked havoc on their fleet from the air. In two days, four Japanese carriers would be sunk, and the tides of war had begun to turn.

[Mongoose]

Show Off - You saw the movie to.

Russ, knowledge is a wonderful thing to have. Ill sit down with you and explain what its like to carry on a conversation with people in the know, one day.

[USNAviator]

Russ, Billy made up this chart and sent it to me. Said he didn't want to show off his vast knowledge on this subject so he asked me to post it. Russ you really should sit down and talk with him some day, he'll amaze you

Imperial Japanese Navy	Ship Type	United States Navy
Hiryu | Kaga | Soryu | Akagi	CV	Enterprise | Hornet | Yorktown
Zuiho	CVL	None
Kamikawa Maru | Chiyoda | Nisshin	CVS	None
Fuso | Haruna | Hiei | Hyuga | Ise | Kirishima | Kongo | Mutsu | Nagato | Yamashiro | Yamato	BB	None
Chikuma | Chokai | Haguro | Jintsu | Kitagami | Kumano | Mikuma | Mogami | Myoko | Nagara | Oi | Suyuza | Tone	CA	Minneapolis | New Orleans | Northampton | Pensacola | Portland | Vincennes Light Cruiser: Atlanta
Amagiri | Amatsukaze | Arare | Arashi | Arashio | Asagiri | Asashio | Asagumo | Ayanami | Fubuki | Hagikaze | Hamakaze | Harusame | Hatsukaze | Hatsuyuki | Hayashio | Isokaze | Isonami | Kagero | Kasumi | Kazagumo | Kuroshio | Maikaze | Makigumo | Minegumo | Marazuki | Murakumo Murasame | Natsugumo | Nowake | Oyashio | Samidare | Shikinami | Shiranuhi | Shirakumo | Shirayuki | Tanikaze | Tokitsukaze | Urakaze | Uranami | Yudachi | Yugiri | Yugumo | Yukaze | Yukikaze	DD	Anderson | Balch | Benham | Blue | Clark | Conyngham | Dewey | Ellet | Gwin| Hammann | Hughes | Maury | Monaghan | Monssen | Morris | Phelps | Russell | Ralph | Talbot | Worden
I-122 | I-123 | I-156 | I-157 | I-158 | I-159 | I-162 | I-164 | I-165 | I-166 | I-168 | I-169 | I-171 | I-174 | I-175 |	Submarine	Cuttlefish | Dolphin | Finback | Flying Fish | Gato | Grayling | Grenadier | Grouper | Growler | Grudgeon | Narwhal | Nautilus | Pike | Plunger | Tambor | Tarpon | Trigger | Trout
Genyo | Kenyo | Kukoyu | Kyokuto | Naruto | Nichiei | Nippon | San Clemente | Sata | Shnikoku | Toa | Toei | Tohu | Tsurumi	AO	Guadalupe | Platt
No. 2 | No. 34 | No. 35	PT	PT-21 | PT-22 | PT-24 | PT-25 | PT-26 | PT-27 | PT-28 | PT-29 | PT-30
Meiyo | Yamafuku	AE	None
Tama Maru No. 5 | Showa Maru No. 7 | Showa Maru No. 8	AMS	None
No. 17 | No. 18	SC	None
Akashi	RS	None
97 x Aichi D3A "Val" | 101 x Nakajima B5N "Kate"	A/C	129 x Douglas SBD-3 "Dauntless" | 42 x Douglas TBD-1 "Devastator" | 32 x PBY-5/A "Catalina" | 6 x Grumman TBF "Avenger" | 4 x Martin B-26 "Marauder" | 19 x Boeing B-17 "Flying Fortress"

[Hawk7051]

I lived on Midway for 3 1/2 years January 2004 to June 2005 and from Feb 2006- May 2008. I was a airport firefighter/emt/airport operations officer and airport manager out there.

The first Medal of Honor was won by a Marine in WWII was on Midway December 7th 1941 by 1st Lt. George Cannon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._Cannon

It is on my bucket list to fly an airplane, (co-pilot is fine) land, finish some unfinished business get on my airplane and leave.