The new "Midway" movie:

I saw Midway, yesterday, with my wife and kids. We all thought it was great! I think the filmmakers did a respectable job with the facts and made a good effort to honor the men involved. It certainly has the expected Hollywood aspects and some errors, but none that take away from the true events. It will definitely make you feel proud!

 

You cannot really understand the Battle of Midway if you do not also include what happened at Coral Sea. The two events are connected.

 

Yes... closely connected...

The 'old' Midway movie had about 5 sentences discussing TBO Coral Sea... "it was a draw", they said.
It happened almost exactly 1 month before TBO Midway... less than 5 months after Pearl Harbor.
Midway was less than 6 months after Pearl and ended Japan's offence... they were on defense afterward.

 

Not many today can realized the cold resolve and desperation that gripped this country in 1942. Enlistment stations were flooded with young men who were determined to fight back, some as young as 15. In 1941 we were laid back and maybe thinking about helping in Europe. After Dec. 7th, 1941 this country turned on every type of our and potential power that lay dormant and in 7 months we had war machine that shocked the axis powers and started to knock them on their butts. We were not the soft pushover that the Japanese and Germans had envisioned but force with which to be reckoned. The war production machine was totally underestimated by the enemy as well as some tough fighting men who were some times trained on the field of conflict. I was 15 when all that started and turned 16 when the Battle of the Coral Sea and Midway took place. A lot of upper class high school mates were gobbled up by the conflict, many in Naval Aviation as well as the USAF. After a shaky start in some fights we began to bloody the noses of a well trained enemy. I enlisted at in the USAF reserve at 17 and went active at 18 but by that time I was too late to do much.

 

As Admiral Yamamoto said, at least in Tora Tora Tora... I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.

 

My portrait of Dick Cole and my verse. Jimmy Doolittle's copilot who died last at age 104.
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Dolittle and Cole's take off on the Japan Raid.
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Thanks for that story Bob!

 

So I saw it today. I'm not going to give any spoilers other than "we win".

Full disclosure here: I met Roland Emmerick working on Godzilla, which is probably the worst Godzilla ever made (making Godzilla a woman in NYC????) And a lot of his movies (like Independence Day) I find are really over the top CGI thingy's with cliched dialogue on top of another cliche'. So, my expectations were really low going in.

Coming out, overall its a pretty good movie. The writing is pretty bad and the characters probably a bit unemotional but the action scenes quite good. Yes, there's a bit of typical Roland Emmerich Independence Day in it and you can tell its all CGI - but you really forget that after a while and just enjoy it. Its exaggerated but its not a cartoon. And some of the shots of the ships are just plain impressive.

What surprised me was two things.

Its not just about Midway. It starts at Pearl Harbor and works through the next 7 months. I wasn't expecting it to tell the entire story.

The second thing is its actually quite historically accurate. I thought they would squeeze the events altogether into a composite but the timeline is all pretty much there. Why you need this information is that the end result of the battle was a combination of events that led to one another. Yes, there's a bit of luck and hunches and best guesses involved (and its honest about that) but its also a lot of really good hard work on many levels.

IMO, worth seeing. And if it introduces a new generation to this historical event, that's a good thing.

 

I should have said " the USAAC ( when I enlisted) , and when I went active it was the USAAF. After the war it became the USAF. Anyway, I will never forget the immediate change in our demeanor as the entire country went on full blast "War Mode" to kick some ass.

 

Bob- Most people, even those who served in WW-II, did not realize the Army Air Corps became the Army Air Force in May 1941, long before Pearl Harbor. The fact that most of their equipment still had Air Corps or AAC stenciled on it probably helped them remember it that way. Took a while for the stencils to catch up to the reorganization. Most of my Dad's WW-II buddies said they were in the Air Corps if you asked them.

 

Thanks for the correction, Terry. I know that I remember seeing a lot of things with USAAC or AC written on it and I think that I have figured it out. I was stationed at Langley Field that was one of the original Army airfields, built in 1918. My three story barrack was built at that time , made of poured cement and brick. It is still there and in use. There was a lot of older equipment still there , the boathouse and dirigible hangar harbored some of it, too. Interesting, busy, and exciting place during the war.

 

Yes, in basic training we sang Air Force marching songs that had lyrics that were "Army Air Corps" or just "US Air Corps ". Never anything like USAAF.

 

I was expecting sequels with Torpedo Squadron 8 and LCDR Waldron and ENS George Gay. LCDR Waldron was a stud - the same with the rest of his squadron + the other torpedo squadron crews.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-aug-29-mn-4792-story.html


The Navy buried his F'd up actions and amazingly Ring eventually became, a Vice Admiral. Most people have no idea. The Navy fought the battle with an arm tied behind their back.

Ring ^^

A book about the battle is also floating around that claims some fighter units or elements avoided the fight. You cannot say the same thing about the crews who flew the TBD Devastator and TBF Avenger.

 

I had many bushwhackers that claimed that I omitted the nose guns in the picture and they were observant. All weapons and ammo were removed to save weight. The bushwhackers will never notice that I also showed the correct number of planks between tie down rails and that the nose wheel was on the white centerline stripe painted on the deck for this operation. Launch crew in yellow and the escorting cruiser in a rough rainy sea.

 

Bob- Affirmative, they used broomsticks in place of the guns in some positions. No Norden, just a sheet metal bomb sight good for only one altitude. Anything to get weight down. I try to imagine what it would be like to try and take off with one of my F-111s and no catapult from one of those carriers. Normal take-off for us was over 2000'. The guys in the early aircraft had the worst deal. The last ones had more deck to use.

The Japanese recalled a lot of fighter units and top pilots after that raid. Probably saved quite a few of our guys during the island hopping.

 

Terry, I think that the recall of fighter squadrons was a part of the effect of the raid. They recalled several divisions of the army for island defense. I don't think that many realize the deep effect that the Doolittle Raid had on Japan. Then I think of the sacrifice that so many of the raiders gave after they completed their mission. Cole said that they bailed out at night over unknown Chinese territory and some how made a safe landing.

 

It's too bad that the Enterprise (CV-6) was sold for scrap, and not saved as a memorial.

 

By far the best book I've read on Midway is:
Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully, et al.
Highly recommended!
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This is a photo of the Hiryu with the front half of her flight deck collapsed down into the hanger deck...
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I agree. Too many airplanes and ships were quickly scrapped and all of them could have been effective memorials. Flying out of Langley several times we saw navy ships being towed in to Portsmouth and Norfolk with awesome damage that told a vivid story of what war is like. 20-20 hindsight again.

 

One of the better documentaries of the battle. Great archival footage.

 

https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/shows/battle-of-midway-the-true-story/0/3475927