![]() ![]() In this work, an important theme is that the war was a contest to transform “economic resources into military capability.” Five categories of resources are considered: “raw materials,” “foodstuffs,” “national infrastructure,” “labor force,” and “political will.” Burning such a wide range of fuels meant that the machine of war had a totalizing effect: no one could escape the heat of “mass, industrialized warfare, culminating in the creation of nuclear weapons.” Concerning Midway, Murray and Millett write that the American victory was the result of several factors. “As the construction figures indicate,” says Weinberg, “there was no way the Japanese could defeat the United States.” Īnother account to consider is Williamson Murray and Allan Millett, A War to be Won (2000). ![]() The more relevant factor is the scale of American industrial power. All are moments when “the Allies had won a victory that the Axis could hardly reverse.” Yet, Midway ultimately decides or reveals very little. From Weinberg’s perspective, the German and Japanese advance is halted between “December 1941 to November 1942.” The Battle of Midway features as a signal event in this chapter, along with Stalin’s defense of Moscow and Montgomery’s victory at El Alamein. Consider Gerhard Weinberg’s, A World at Arms (first published in 1994, then republished in 2005, and reprinted in 2018). IĪccounts of the Second World War tend to describe its outcome as the result of what took place after Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939 or, in the case of the United States, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The pilots of the Dauntless, as I will show in this essay, were much the same they too were the product of a peacetime Navy. ![]() Designed by Ed Heinemann at Douglas Aircraft in El Segundo, California, from 1934 until 1938, the first Dauntless planes were delivered to the navy in 1940, well in advance of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the moment which is conventionally regarded as the US entry into the war. Brendan Simms and I examine the first part of this winning combination, the Douglas SBD Dauntless, in an upcoming book ( The Silver Waterfall, 2022). ![]() For it was the peacetime navy which developed the planes, pilots, ships, and ordinance which delivered the fatal blows against the Japanese at the Battle of Midway. However, an important if not sufficient explanation for the US victory is the pre-war preparation of the US Navy during peacetime. Another US advantage was radar, a technology that the Japanese lacked, and which allowed for a vastly improved defense against aerial attack. To begin with, it had intercepted and partially decoded Japanese radio communications which revealed the date and time of the Imperial Navy’s attack on Midway. Yet, it must also be said that the United States had major advantages. Finally, their damage control measures were not robust enough to handle the large fires that eventually caused the destruction of their aircraft carriers: Kaga, Akagi, Soryu, and Hiryu. Then, as the battle unfolded, their reconnaissance was also like their overall defensive posture: hasty and inadequate. For instance, prior to the battle, their rehearsals confirmed rather than challenged their tactical abilities. Mistakes made by the Japanese certainly factored in the outcome. There are many explanations for the victory of the United States against the Japanese at the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942. ![]()
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