@@TheBeesleys99 Not for the torpedo plane guys, but for the overall battle and ultimately the war, it is good that those torpedo plane guys bore the brunt of that. Initially, the plane was that the American dive bombers would keep the Japanese fighter planes occupied so the torpedo planes could have their runs without interference. As it turned out, the torpedo planes got there first so they were running interference so the dive bombers weren't being hassled by the Japanese. In the end, this worked out better since the Japanese planes were down low and it takes a long time to climb to altitude where the American dive bombers started. Had it been reversed, the Japanese planes could've dove down pretty quickly to get at the torpedo planes. Utter accident that worked out well for the Americans. In any case, someone would've had to bear the brunt of getting shot at by the Japanese. BTW, you should read a trilogy of books by Ian Toll about the Pacific War. Very well written.
@@TheBeesleys99 BTW, surprise had already been lost before that PBY flew over the Japanese ships. That's just WHEN the Japanese learned surprise had been lost. The Americans had broken the Japanese codes and already knew that the attack on Midway was coming.
You guys should really finish this three part series. The third part goes over the American perspective of the battle. It will show you their side of the story and how that lead into the actions that caught the Japanese so off guard. I'm not gonna say what happens, but the change in perspective will really change how you contextualize some of the events you see in the first two parts!
I'd like to see that. I'm not sure if this is the same guy who also does battles between Brittan & Scotland (Longshanks vs William Wallace) and battles from Roman times Caesar vs Middle East (Muslims)
Planes had a practical ceiling. You have to understand - with higher altitude the temperature drops massively. This affects engine reliability, abilities of pilots, judgement abilities, camera equipment stops working, and many more issues. Planes were mostly not insulated to make longer distance runs leading to other additional problems.
Midway isn't just tiny, it is less than a 20th the size of jersey(yours not ours). Its only real value is as a naval supply and airbase being almost perfectly placed as the name suggest close the middle of the pacific.
The Doolittle raid on Tokyo proved to the Japanese High Command that America's carriers were a credible threat to the Japanese mainland. The fact that codebreakers in Hawaii learned Yamamoto's plan and set a trap for the Japanese fleet is largely why this battle went the way that it did.
One thing you gotta remember about just flying a plane over the island is that no plane has that kind of range in those days and it would need to come from a carrier so if it were spotted with radar or other aircraft, not only would there be a chance that it would be shot down but it would also give away the fact that there was enemy ships in the area as well. A plane would’ve destroyed. The whole surprise element. The Japanese thought they had. The Japanese fleet was also under radio silence which means they couldn’t get the information the pilot found unless he made it back.
9:43 remember, this happened 38.5 years after the wright brothers' first flight at kittyhawk. The technology was very primitive in many ways compared to now. High altitude capabilities then were much lower than current technology.
Planes of that era did not have sufficient range to fly from a Japanese base to Pearl Harbor and return. The scout plane was a large seaplane (known to the Americans as an "Emily") which would fly to an unoccupied atoll named French Frigate Shoals and refuel from a Japanese submarine. The plane would then overfly Pearl Harbor, return to the submarine, refuel, and then return to base. When the submarine arrived a French Frigate Shoals they discovered several American warships anchored there and the scouting mission was cancelled.
@@wwoods66 In this case it was because the Japanese tried to use their Emilys to do a bombing run on Pearl Harbor but they missed, badly. The Americans knew the range of those aircraft so worked out all the places that they could have refueled the Emilys at and put patrolling ASW Destroyers in all those places but guessed French Frigate Shoals was the best spot so put triple the Destroyers there plus a bunch of PBY's
As I understand it, the Shokaku was damaged at coral sea and still had much of its air wing intact. Meanwhile, the Zuikaku was undamaged but lost much of its air wing. Americans would have simply transferred the air wing of the damaged ship to the undamaged ship, but the Japanese were too regimented to allow such out of the box thinking.
@@timothyporter1632 Very narrow minded, and double down at every opportunity ... a common Axis failing. If their culture was better or had better leadership the Axis would have won.
@@timothyporter1632 Shokaku had no air wing intact. She lost all her planes. Let me remind you that Shokaku withdrew before its planes returned. It was Zuikaku that had to rescue planes from Shokaku, and since the lives of pilots were most important, planes were dropped from the deck to make room for those landing. This resulted in only 43 of 120 planes remaining after the battle, only a little more than half of what the Zuikaku could take. The Japanese were not stupid as you think.
@@Amrod97 I'm pretty sure that I never characterized the Japanese as stupid. They were glued to their rules and procedures, but there was nothing stupid about them. Yamamoto, Genda, Tomonaga were geniuses. They underestimated their adversary, and our own foolish military bureaucracy nearly did us in. Dud torpedoes in WWII, crappy Sparrow missiles in Vietnam... We were often our own worst adversary.
John Ford the famous directed was on midway during the attack. He had been tipped off that there would be a battle. His documentary about midway has actual footage of the bombing.
22:44 the Nautilus commander having the absolute biggest balls to fire a torpedo that close to an enemy battlegroup. But this will also prove important for later.
WOW! You two are quickly becoming one of my favorite reaction teams. The fact that you chose to react to this series from Montemayor, shows that you have taste and class, and are eager to learn about the five "W's" of war (When, Who, Why, Where and What). Yes, watch all parts of this Midway Series. The other parts give a different perspective on this game-changing WWII battle, and show just how different the two main protagonist's view on the battle resulted in the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat. Nobody beats Montemayor in completeness, professionalism and depth ..... Not even documentaries from such time honored journalistic entities like the BBC or the the History Channel. Keep it going!
planes in 1942 range is the limiting factor. It has to be launched for some where, say a cruiser and once detected that cruiser is dead. Not that Japan and suicide missions didn't go together, but a cruiser is a high price to pay for just recon.
Watch the 1976 movie Midway. This movie stars Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda. The movie is definitely a Hollywood I fluency picture, but, the historical facts are pretty accurate. There is one or two subplots but the movie tells the story. Good movie
Hi Beesleys, glad you followed those of us that encouraged you to watch this video after the Pearl Harbor video. This battle in my opinion is still the absolute best showing of the US Navy. In fact, I named one of my dogs Midway in honor of the battle. I don't want to spoil anything for the American perspective, but the one advantage, battlefield intelligence, that we had was enough to give us an overall advantage. That and the sacrifice of the torpedo squadrons, especially the Hornet squadron. I would highly encourage you both to watch one of the movies called Midway, the first is from the 1970s and is from the perspective of the USS Yorktown, while the 2019 movie from the Enterprise viewpoint was very good and accurate. Either of those would make a great movie review. I do disagree with Montemayor. The battle was very strategic in that it allowed President Roosevelt to focus on Europe first and not Japan. Thus, Prime Minister Churchill knew that the Americans would come to Britain's defense first and defeat Hitler before Japan. The 5 minutes of devastation of the kido bute bought by the earlier attacks, especially the torpedo squadrons, paved the way for Europe first. Love the reviews keep them up👍
Just a note, 10:13 You have to remember in WWII, no one had long range planes, there were no satellites, no internet, no cell phones, no global information access. Information was still transmitted by telegraph lines. (it's amazing to consider all the changes since WWII that have taken place )
The reason you couldnt fly planes over pearl harbor or any heavily defended area is cause there was this new invention called Radar during WW2 it would be able to keep track of a plane even at high altitude if it was in the vicinity
What's more interesting to me is that there were then and are now quite a few residents of Hawaii who were either born in Japan or were second generation (their parents were born in Japan). Before the Pearl Harbor attack, I believe a few of these people were providing some information to the Japanese consul about which ships were in the harbor, arrangement of planes at airfields and so on. As we know, after the attack many Japanese-Americans were interned (illegally in the case of those who were citizens) but for whatever reason, I don't believe there were any reports reaching Japan on ship dispositions after the war began. What's interesting about that is that it's fairly easy to see which ships were at anchor in Pearl Harbor so anyone ashore who was inclined to spy in this way could have. Maybe all Japanese agents had been successfully rounded up. Maybe any remaining couldn't get off messages on the ships. I don't know the reason but this seems to me the bigger risk than an aircraft overflight because the many military installations on the island were certainly running intensive patrols (as well as watching their radar screens).
@@BTinSF Here's some additional information from Gordon W. Prange’s book "At Dawn We Slept." Prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor there were 160,000 Japanese and 37,500 of whom were foreign-born on the various islands of Hawaii. There were also 234 consular agents. The Navy worried about the Japanese sampan fleet based at Kewalo Basin, some twelve miles from Pearl Harbor. The crew of these vessels could be engaging in active espionage as well as be a potential source of sabotage. The Army’s board of investigation did not conclude there was any Japanese espionage. But it was mistaken about certain aspects of the situation on Oahu. The board’s members gave far more credit to the German sleeper spy, Otto Kuehn, than he deserved: ". . . The Otto Kuehn trial revealed his complete disclosure of the fleet dispositions and locations in Pearl Harbor in the period December 1 to December 6 . . ." "Undoubtedly the information of the alert, the placing of planes wing-to-wing, etc., as well as the disposition of the fleet was reported by Kuehn through the Japanese Consul. . . ."
One thing that is frequently overlooked is that this was the first defeat of the axis powers. From 1939 it had been just one major defeat after another.
@Russell Weatherly Midway wasn’t exactly the first defeat but certainty the first “major” defeat of the Japanese. Beginning with the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese began their attacks on the Philippines, Guam and other allied bases around the Pacific. Guam fell on December 10, 1941. Almost immediately after Pearl Harbor was attacked, the Japanese also bombed American base on Wake Island. The tiny atoll was defended by less than 500 Marines and after the first bomb attack, had only 3 or 4 F-4 Wildcat fighters to defend the base from air attacks. After being bombed every day since the war began and three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, a Japanese invasion fleet including three cruisers and several destroyers and troop transports appeared off of Wake Island. The defenders didn’t have a chance. Or so the Japanese thought. The Marines with their shorter range 5” guns, lured the Japanese fleet in close by not returning fire and then opened fired as the fleet closed in on the island. The couple of remaining fighters attacked the ships also. The Japanese lost two destroyers and a submarine and gave up the invasion. It was a stunning defeat of a Japanese fleet and invasion force and just three days after Pearl Harbor. The Japanese fleet returned about two weeks later for a second invasion attempt but this time supported by two light aircraft carriers and a beefed up invasion force. After a fierce battle and with no remaining aircraft, the Marines sank two more destroyers. The tiny garrison was finally overwhelmed but ended up killing a few hundred Japanese in the two battles for Wake Island and repelled the first invasion attempt. The Marines lost less than 100 men total from the opening bombing on December 7th (actually December 8 on Wake on the opposite side of the International Date Line) until their surrender. While it isn’t nearly as well known and certainly didn’t have the crushing effect of Midway, the Imperial Japanese Navy suffered their first naval defeat in WWII at the hands of a few Marines stranded on a tiny atoll.
Actually, the Soviets counterattack about 15 miles west of Moscow on December 6th, 1941, was the first HUGE defeat of the Wehrmacht against the Axis. Germany was dealt a massive blow and allowed the USSR to recover and establish their defenses.
@@briankrames1883 Yes, I thought of the invasion of the USSR. This was the first *major* defeat of the Japanese, but the tide was already beginning to turn as of the draw of sorts at Coral Sea.
The several spaced out U.S. airstrikes from Midway were carried out as self-preservation of the Midway base. It was not purposely done to create delay for the Japanese to launch another airstrike. The attack, which was not coordinated with the U.S. carriers by delaying Japaneses launches, was a fortuitous results for what was to come from the U.S. carriers.
I think you are confused. It's 2500 miles from Midway to Tokyo. Yes, there are closer points in Japan but not close enough because any plane has to go double the distance--there and back. In 1942, no warplanes had anywhere near this range. That's why the Doolittle raid had to take off from carriers considerably closer to Japan than Midway and even so it couldn't return (or land on carriers) so the planes had to over-fly Japan and try to land in China (even so, many didn't make it and crashed). Later in the war, the Americans were able to use the Mariana Islands ( the Hiroshima bomber took off from Tinian--about 1500 miles from Tokyo) for attacks on Japan with newer planes that had much greater range ( the B-29 had a range of about 4000 miles, still not enough to fly from Midway to Tokyo and back but enough to fly from Tinian there and back).
There is an outstanding 2005 book, _Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway,_ by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully; these three videos draw heavily on the new ideas contained in that book. _Shattered Sword_ completely revised our understanding of the Midway battle using evidence from Japanese war records to correct serious myths and mistakes that had been repeated in all English-language histories for more than 60 years. Not only is the book excellent history, but it is very well written and is an absorbing, dramatic narrative. Plus, there is a fine unabridged audiobook version if you'd rather hear the entire story told aloud...
Operation K (the Japanese recon flight of Pearl Harbor) was cancelled because of American intelligence. Operation K was to fly a sea plane to French Frigate Shoals, refuel by tanker submarine, and then fly to Pearl. However, the Japanese had done this same thing before the Pearl Harbor attack, so this time, an American destroyer was station at French Frigate Shoals. The Japanese seaplane couldn’t land to refuel and the tanker submarine couldn’t safely surface. As you’ll learn, America knew of the planned Midway attack and were prepared.
Your comments about Japanese arial reconnaissance needs to keep in mind the vast distances involved and the limited range of the planes. They had seaplanes that needed refueled at French Frigate Shoals in order to reach Hawaii but US Submarines occupied the location.
Montemayor in my opinion is one of the best on RUclips for historical documentaries, brilliant accuracy and such quality. Can't get enough of his work!
Should technically have done battle of the coral sea before this for chronological sake but it won't mean much in the grand scheme of things, this is by the the best.
Operation K had two (actually three) attempted sorties over several days - March 4th - two planes were sent. We were on alert because our code breakers knew a reconnaissance mission was coming. We spotted them on radar but were unable to find them due to low cloud cover. They were also not able to complete their mission.... because of low cloud cover... and returned to base. One of the airplanes had sustained hull damage while taking off from French Frigate Shoals. Another armed reconnaissance mission, scheduled for March 6,[2][5] or 7,[1] was canceled because of the delay in launching the first raid, damage to Hashizume's airplane, and the aircrews' exhaustion.[5] It was carried out on 10 March 1942, but Hashizume was killed when his flying boat was shot down by Brewster F2A Buffalo fighters near Midway Atoll.[6] A followup to Operation K was scheduled for May 30, to gain intelligence on the whereabouts of U.S. carriers prior to the Battle of Midway. However the Americans had become aware French Frigate Shoals were a possible IJN rendezvous point, and naval patrols were increased, per Admiral Chester Nimitz's orders. A Japanese submarine spotted two American warships at anchor there, prompting a cancellation of the plan.[2] This left IJN unable to observe U.S. Navy activity, or to keep track of the American aircraft carriers.[2] Source: Military - history . fandom
One has to remember that distances in the Pacific are extreme - especially in the context of the technology of the time. This was why these "Tiny Atolls" were critical - even the longest range aircraft of the time needed them as refueling bases - Japan had an extremely long range observation aircraft (a flying boat/ seaplane) - but at it' maximum range it would be in the air for more than 24 hours. There was a plan to observe Hawaii by refueling from a submarine at an uninhabited US owned island, but the American's were patrolling it - so the mission was called off.
I'd say do the full 3-parter and when you're done if you're up for it go back and watch the coral sea video it adds a lot of context for why both sides acted the way they did.
The IJN couldn't scout Hawaii with land based planes because of the extreme range they would have to fly. Aircraft ranges were far more limited than they are today. The overflight that was cancelled was to be done by a sea plane flying from a forward base.
The legendary enterprise was at midway all the way through the pacific campaign though it missed Iwo Jima due to a bomb explosion and losing its front elevator. Midway was the absolute first test of the pacific fleet. Midway itself was not invaded by sea. It was hit from above the entire battle. The naval battles at midway were the first for actual ships never to see each other at all and planes to do the work. The original yorktown was sunk by Japanese bombs and torpedoes here. Four of the carriers that hit pearl were sunk at midway; akagi, kaga, soryu, and hiryu, all sunk by American 500 lb bombs. This however wasn’t the problem as Guadalcanal was coming and that was a huge slugfest that lasted six months. Trust me that battle was unbelievable as it was literally inch by inch daily under heavy fire.
Like he said "dawn June 4" I know in Alaska June 21 is usually ONE hour of dark night. The sun sets around 2:30 am then rises around 3:30 am😮 or something like it so June 4 at midway there's probably around 4 hours dark night.
Good video. To answer your questions, the Japanese Submarines were deployed late and Operation K was to send a high flying reconnaissance aircraft to see if the US Navy Aircraft Carriers were in or around Pearl Harbor. For the Japanese, an earlier bombing mission gave away their capabilities and the USN were able to prevent the use of these huge "Emily" flying boats. The scout missions of the Kido Butai were awful. They only used Cruiser and Battleship Float planes, most of which were slow. Also the Japanese Carrier Doctrine was very rigid, they did not want to use their limited Aircraft for Scout Missions. The US Navy had four Squadrons, one Fighter Squadron, one Torpedo Squadron, one Dive Bomber Squadron and one Scout Dive Bomber Squadron. The Japanse depended entirely on Battleship/Cruiser scout planes. The Soryu, in a rare case, had two brand new D4Y High Speed Dive Bomber Prototypes to be used as Scouts but there were only two in addition to five Scout Planes. Carrier Warfare is very interesting. They Royal Navy invented Aircraft Carriers and used them in WWI and made the ground breaking Raid on Toronto. The Japanese studied this 1940 raid and repeated it against Pearl Harbor.Cheers!!
Just to add more context - there were way more ships participating in the battle than just the aircraft carriers. The Japanese had 2 battleships, 2 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser, 12 destroyers, and 13 submarines protecting their carriers. They also had 2 other light carriers, 5 more battleships, 4 heavy cruisers, and 2 light cruisers who were a a part of the attack group, but didn’t participate in the battle. While this may seem impressive, later naval battles in the Pacific dwarfed the battle of Midway.
may have been answered already , but no one had a long distance plane capable of the extreme range required. they planed a submarine with a plane to get close enough to recon pearl harbor but their was a ship in the launch area and that is why the recon plan K was cancelled.
As for aircraft reconnaissance over Pearl Harbor, the Japanese didn't have an aircraft with the range to make such a flight. They had made a few such flights by having seaplanes that took on fuel from submarines for the return trip, but American codebreakers had figured out where they were meeting and stationed ships at that island, resulting in no more reconnaissance flights.
In response to the why didn't they send a spotter plane @9:56 One thing that a lot of people don't realize is the scale of the pacific the distance between Pearl Harbor and Midway(also part of the Hawaiian Islands is about 1,300 miles(2,092km) or 4 times the distance between The Temple Underground Station in London and the main gate of Edinburgh Castle, and that is just between the H in Hawaii and Midway on the Map that is shown at this point. As another point of reference a Avro Lancaster 1 had a max range of 2,530 mi (2,200 nmi, 4,073 km) and max range in this case is how far it can fly before it has to land. So if a Lancaster 1 took off from Pearl and Flew on a bombing run to Midway, it would be out of fuel about 70mi(111km) short of Pearl on the return leg. The only plains that could fly round trip from Pearl to Midway without refueling where the B-24 Liberators and Petlyakov Pe-8s. Once again we are just measuring what you see on the screen @9:56, The H in Hawaii to Midway Island. The Tokyo Airport to Midway Island is 2,548 mi(4,100.6km) or 7.7 times the distance Between London and Edinburgh Castle or about the distance from London to Baghdad And remember it is called Midway because it is Nearly(on the scale the Pacific operates at) the Midway point between the US and Japan...The "Golden Gate" of San Francisco is about 3,200mi from Midway with the San Diego Naval Base about 3,560mi away
The movie Isoroku, or Admiral Yamamoto, depending on what area the film is released, portrays the keen factionalism that Yamamoto and Nagumo possess. Yamamoto's family was wiped out by the shogunate that Nagumo belongs to, so there is quite an undercurrent of dislike between the two.
Beesleys, you may not be interested in this, like Kyle (Geography King) and I are, but Midway is at nearly the end of the extra 1000 miles/1600k of Hawaii's islands called the NW Hawaiian Islands, or in Hawaiian, Papahānaumokuākea = pa-pa-hah-now-moe-coo-ah-KAY-ah, which was made a Marine National Monument and World Heritage Site in 2006. It also has the distinction of being the only place in the US which is in the Samoan Time Zone, at 1 hour west of Hawaii, even though there are other islands west of it.
The conundrum of only being able to launch, spot, or recover at any one time for the WWII era carriers is precisely why modern aircraft carriers have an angled flight deck. By angling the landing area of the deck off to the side, the forward part of the deck could be kept open for prepping and launching aircraft. This means modern carriers can do what the WWII straightdeckers couldn't; launch and land planes simultaneously.
I don't think it can be stressed just how insanely brave these pilots were. Modern pilots have the luxury of smart munitions that allow them to attack well beyond visual, and sometimes, beyond radar range. Not only did pilots have to attack within full sight of their enemy, but they had to do it without modern guidance systems. Can you imagine being in a dive bomber and going into a screaming power dive at a 70 degree angle from 20000ft at over 350mph while dodging enemy anti-aircraft fire? What about releasing your bomb at 1500ft in a place where you think your target might be by the time the bomb impacts? Now what if I told you that you now had a couple of seconds to pull the plane out of the dive while enduring g forces up to 9x the force of gravity? There are some great scenes in the 2019 movie Midway that show this.
The US had radar and the Japanese didn't. The Japanese didn't get German radar until late in the war. So after the debacle of Dec 7, ship and land based radar was very closely watched. Also, aircraft of that day didn't have the range to easily fly from an enemy base, circle Hawaii and then fly back. They wanted to refuel that float plane at French Frigate Shoals using a submarine, but that plan was thwarted when American warships were spotted in the area.
22:33 They both missed a lot. Is this where the children’s game, Battle Ship, came from? It’s a find game for kids, but sad when you visualize it and compare it to actual life events.
Pearl: good question. Keep in mind this is 1942, not 2022. Only large, and slow flying boats would be capable of long range (like 2500 -3000 NM in this instance) reconnaissance. The huge distances preclude carrier based aircraft, and for that matter fighter escort for the recon aircraft. Another option is a submarine, but a sub only would do about 12-15kts on the surface, and about 6kts max submerged. It also has to get close enough to Pearl to verify that the carriers were there or not and how many. A 23% loss would be a disaster by today's standards. That means out of 120 aircraft about 28 are destroyed or require major repairs. The next day 92 are launched: 20% of those go down about 73 come back. By the end of day 3 56 are left. That's less than HALF the air wing gone in less than 3 days.
Planes of that era has limited range, the operation K was cancelled as noted in this information I found online....... "A follow up to Operation K was scheduled for 30 May, to gain intelligence on the whereabouts of U.S. aircraft carriers prior to the Battle of Midway. However, the Americans had become aware French Frigate Shoals were a possible Imperial Japan Navy rendezvous point, and naval patrols were increased, per Admiral Chester Nimitz's orders.[3] The Japanese submarine I-123[9] found the area mined and spotted two American warships at anchor there, prompting a cancellation of the plan, despite the proposed use of Necker Island as an alternative refueling site.[4] This left IJN unable to observe U.S. Navy activity, or to keep track of the American carriers.[3]"
The Japanese should have seen the writing on the wall. They had just scored what they though was a victory in the Coral. They had sunk Lexington and badly damaged Yorktown. But they had lost the use of their two most powerful carriers: Shokaku was badly damaged and would be out for a year, and Zuikaku had lost her entire air group and had to return to Japan to train a new group and would also be out for at least a year. Radar had just been introduced to the US 6 months earlier. It's range was not sufficient to give interceptors a chance to get them before they were gone. Ship-borne radars weren't much better, sometimes they wouldn't spot aircraft until the look-out saw them and have lost ships. Other time they worked perfect.
Biggest takeaways from this stage of the battle is: 1. Most importantly, it kept the Japanese carriers busy with constantly launching and resupplying their interceptors rather than launching bombers to keep attacking Midway and/or counterattacking the US carriers. 2. Seriously challenged everything the Japanese thought they knew about American soldiers/pilots. The propaganda they were fed said that Americans were cowardly and had no sense of honor or duty, and they would flee at the first sign of trouble. And yet, wave after wave of American pilots were relentlessly attacking them despite the high casualties and not achieving any significant damage.
Something to keep in mind as you watch these videos, and if you dive more into the War of the Pacific. America was in Europe to assist our allies and defeat the bad guy Germans, but the animosity we held or the Germans was tempered. It was a righteous war of morals. Our fight with the Japanese was bitter and personal. It was about making them pay for their treachery.
Plane scouting of Pearl Harbor would have been difficult. There were no nearby bases to fly from. Hence the attempt to use long range seaplanes. Didn't work. The Japanese plan was a little wonky to begin with. The main fleet was over 700 miles behind the carriers. Expecting the American to hang around to fight them seems to have been a bit....optimistic. From my reading, it took much more than 20 minutes to prepare and launch a strike. Planes had to be brought up to the deck and warmed up. 45 minutes seems like a better number.
Hello, one comment. The planes at the time were prop planes and could not go fast enough to gain that much altitude. So recon of P Harbor would get that plane shot down. Enjoying ur format.
Since seeing your pearl harbor reaction ive been excitedly patient waiting for a Midway reaction. Just w as tched the first ...as the meme goes..."They had us in the first half..can't lie!"...but ahead lies the climax of the battle and im about to click on that vid! 😊
I found a video that explains 1: how a Japanese bomber gets to Pearl Harbor without a carrier, and 2: why it didn't on the eve of the battle of Midway. ruclips.net/video/29fZsQFbO44/видео.html
I'm well versed on the battle of midway. It was from that point on that the Japanese were on their heels and the future was never in doubt only the length of time it was gonna take to put an end to their being able to carry the fight to America! Just one thing though you guys seem to stop it to discuss what you are seeing a little more often than you normally do. Maybe just a tiny bit too much. I understand you were trying to digest everything that was being told but I think you probably could have stretched a few of the pauses. There were like maybe 2 or 3 times were after pausing it and starting up again within 15. Maybe twenty seconds you would pause it again. It kind of made watching the video a little bit more tedious.
Hi
Hello Andrew :D
@@TheBeesleys99 Not for the torpedo plane guys, but for the overall battle and ultimately the war, it is good that those torpedo plane guys bore the brunt of that. Initially, the plane was that the American dive bombers would keep the Japanese fighter planes occupied so the torpedo planes could have their runs without interference. As it turned out, the torpedo planes got there first so they were running interference so the dive bombers weren't being hassled by the Japanese.
In the end, this worked out better since the Japanese planes were down low and it takes a long time to climb to altitude where the American dive bombers started. Had it been reversed, the Japanese planes could've dove down pretty quickly to get at the torpedo planes.
Utter accident that worked out well for the Americans. In any case, someone would've had to bear the brunt of getting shot at by the Japanese.
BTW, you should read a trilogy of books by Ian Toll about the Pacific War. Very well written.
Holy shit is that THE Andrew Christopher?
@@Northbravo OMG… It’s him!! 🤣
@@TheBeesleys99 BTW, surprise had already been lost before that PBY flew over the Japanese ships. That's just WHEN the Japanese learned surprise had been lost. The Americans had broken the Japanese codes and already knew that the attack on Midway was coming.
You guys should really finish this three part series. The third part goes over the American perspective of the battle. It will show you their side of the story and how that lead into the actions that caught the Japanese so off guard. I'm not gonna say what happens, but the change in perspective will really change how you contextualize some of the events you see in the first two parts!
I'd like to see that. I'm not sure if this is the same guy who also does battles between Brittan & Scotland (Longshanks vs William Wallace) and battles from Roman times Caesar vs Middle East (Muslims)
I did ,t read it sikeee e e e e
Planes had a practical ceiling. You have to understand - with higher altitude the temperature drops massively. This affects engine reliability, abilities of pilots, judgement abilities, camera equipment stops working, and many more issues. Planes were mostly not insulated to make longer distance runs leading to other additional problems.
Midway isn't just tiny, it is less than a 20th the size of jersey(yours not ours). Its only real value is as a naval supply and airbase being almost perfectly placed as the name suggest close the middle of the pacific.
The Doolittle raid on Tokyo proved to the Japanese High Command that America's carriers were a credible threat to the Japanese mainland. The fact that codebreakers in Hawaii learned Yamamoto's plan and set a trap for the Japanese fleet is largely why this battle went the way that it did.
One thing you gotta remember about just flying a plane over the island is that no plane has that kind of range in those days and it would need to come from a carrier so if it were spotted with radar or other aircraft, not only would there be a chance that it would be shot down but it would also give away the fact that there was enemy ships in the area as well. A plane would’ve destroyed. The whole surprise element. The Japanese thought they had. The Japanese fleet was also under radio silence which means they couldn’t get the information the pilot found unless he made it back.
Also no plane could fly high enough or go fast enough as well.
Definitely need to see the "fog of war" from both sides in this series. Crazy bunch of events that happens.
My favorite part was when boogie2988 came out of the ocean and said "It's time to boogie* and boogied everywhere.
My Father was there on the Yorktown when it was hit and eventually sunk. Thank God he survived or I would not be here today.
Great pride in your father and the other sailors on Yorktown they took their hit and one meant for another
9:43 remember, this happened 38.5 years after the wright brothers' first flight at kittyhawk. The technology was very primitive in many ways compared to now. High altitude capabilities then were much lower than current technology.
Planes of that era did not have sufficient range to fly from a Japanese base to Pearl Harbor and return. The scout plane was a large seaplane (known to the Americans as an "Emily") which would fly to an unoccupied atoll named French Frigate Shoals and refuel from a Japanese submarine. The plane would then overfly Pearl Harbor, return to the submarine, refuel, and then return to base. When the submarine arrived a French Frigate Shoals they discovered several American warships anchored there and the scouting mission was cancelled.
Such bad luck, that American ships just happened to be there. What were the odds?
@@wwoods66 Yes, what a coincidence.
In spite of the decades of my pursuit of WWII information, it's great to learn there are tidbits I did not know.
@@wwoods66 In this case it was because the Japanese tried to use their Emilys to do a bombing run on Pearl Harbor but they missed, badly. The Americans knew the range of those aircraft so worked out all the places that they could have refueled the Emilys at and put patrolling ASW Destroyers in all those places but guessed French Frigate Shoals was the best spot so put triple the Destroyers there plus a bunch of PBY's
So glad you guys reacted to this one. Being a Navy man this is one of my favorite videos on RUclips.
Except for their losses in the just prior Battle of the Coral Sea ... they would have had 6 carriers attacking Midway.
As I understand it, the Shokaku was damaged at coral sea and still had much of its air wing intact. Meanwhile, the Zuikaku was undamaged but lost much of its air wing. Americans would have simply transferred the air wing of the damaged ship to the undamaged ship, but the Japanese were too regimented to allow such out of the box thinking.
@@timothyporter1632 Very narrow minded, and double down at every opportunity ... a common Axis failing. If their culture was better or had better leadership the Axis would have won.
@@timothyporter1632 Shokaku had no air wing intact. She lost all her planes. Let me remind you that Shokaku withdrew before its planes returned. It was Zuikaku that had to rescue planes from Shokaku, and since the lives of pilots were most important, planes were dropped from the deck to make room for those landing. This resulted in only 43 of 120 planes remaining after the battle, only a little more than half of what the Zuikaku could take. The Japanese were not stupid as you think.
@@Amrod97 I'm pretty sure that I never characterized the Japanese as stupid. They were glued to their rules and procedures, but there was nothing stupid about them. Yamamoto, Genda, Tomonaga were geniuses. They underestimated their adversary, and our own foolish military bureaucracy nearly did us in. Dud torpedoes in WWII, crappy Sparrow missiles in Vietnam... We were often our own worst adversary.
John Ford the famous directed was on midway during the attack. He had been tipped off that there would be a battle. His documentary about midway has actual footage of the bombing.
Love this series. It explains so well how the battle twisted and turned.
22:44 the Nautilus commander having the absolute biggest balls to fire a torpedo that close to an enemy battlegroup. But this will also prove important for later.
My physics teacher in HS was a back seat Naval aviator from WWII.
WOW! You two are quickly becoming one of my favorite reaction teams. The fact that you chose to react to this series from Montemayor, shows that you have taste and class, and are eager to learn about the five "W's" of war (When, Who, Why, Where and What). Yes, watch all parts of this Midway Series. The other parts give a different perspective on this game-changing WWII battle, and show just how different the two main protagonist's view on the battle resulted in the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat. Nobody beats Montemayor in completeness, professionalism and depth ..... Not even documentaries from such time honored journalistic entities like the BBC or the the History Channel. Keep it going!
planes in 1942 range is the limiting factor. It has to be launched for some where, say a cruiser and once detected that cruiser is dead. Not that Japan and suicide missions didn't go together, but a cruiser is a high price to pay for just recon.
Watch the 1976 movie Midway. This movie stars Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda. The movie is definitely a Hollywood I fluency picture, but, the historical facts are pretty accurate. There is one or two subplots but the movie tells the story. Good movie
Hi Beesleys, glad you followed those of us that encouraged you to watch this video after the Pearl Harbor video. This battle in my opinion is still the absolute best showing of the US Navy. In fact, I named one of my dogs Midway in honor of the battle. I don't want to spoil anything for the American perspective, but the one advantage, battlefield intelligence, that we had was enough to give us an overall advantage. That and the sacrifice of the torpedo squadrons, especially the Hornet squadron. I would highly encourage you both to watch one of the movies called Midway, the first is from the 1970s and is from the perspective of the USS Yorktown, while the 2019 movie from the Enterprise viewpoint was very good and accurate. Either of those would make a great movie review. I do disagree with Montemayor. The battle was very strategic in that it allowed President Roosevelt to focus on Europe first and not Japan. Thus, Prime Minister Churchill knew that the Americans would come to Britain's defense first and defeat Hitler before Japan. The 5 minutes of devastation of the kido bute bought by the earlier attacks, especially the torpedo squadrons, paved the way for Europe first. Love the reviews keep them up👍
Just a note, 10:13 You have to remember in WWII, no one had long range planes, there were no satellites, no internet, no cell phones, no global information access. Information was still transmitted by telegraph lines. (it's amazing to consider all the changes since WWII that have taken place )
The reason you couldnt fly planes over pearl harbor or any heavily defended area is cause there was this new invention called Radar during WW2 it would be able to keep track of a plane even at high altitude if it was in the vicinity
What's more interesting to me is that there were then and are now quite a few residents of Hawaii who were either born in Japan or were second generation (their parents were born in Japan). Before the Pearl Harbor attack, I believe a few of these people were providing some information to the Japanese consul about which ships were in the harbor, arrangement of planes at airfields and so on. As we know, after the attack many Japanese-Americans were interned (illegally in the case of those who were citizens) but for whatever reason, I don't believe there were any reports reaching Japan on ship dispositions after the war began. What's interesting about that is that it's fairly easy to see which ships were at anchor in Pearl Harbor so anyone ashore who was inclined to spy in this way could have. Maybe all Japanese agents had been successfully rounded up. Maybe any remaining couldn't get off messages on the ships. I don't know the reason but this seems to me the bigger risk than an aircraft overflight because the many military installations on the island were certainly running intensive patrols (as well as watching their radar screens).
@@BTinSF Here's some additional information from Gordon W. Prange’s book "At Dawn We Slept."
Prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor there were 160,000 Japanese and 37,500 of whom were foreign-born on the various islands of Hawaii. There were also 234 consular agents. The Navy worried about the Japanese sampan fleet based at Kewalo Basin, some twelve miles from Pearl Harbor. The crew of these vessels could be engaging in active espionage as well as be a potential source of sabotage.
The Army’s board of investigation did not conclude there was any Japanese espionage. But it was mistaken about certain aspects of the situation on Oahu. The board’s members gave far more credit to the German sleeper spy, Otto Kuehn, than he deserved:
". . . The Otto Kuehn trial revealed his complete disclosure of the fleet dispositions and locations in Pearl Harbor in the period December 1 to December 6 . . ."
"Undoubtedly the information of the alert, the placing of planes wing-to-wing, etc., as well as the disposition of the fleet was reported by Kuehn through the Japanese Consul. . . ."
4:26 I really enjoy these videos and the narrator is so calm and even toned lol. I like that about him!
One thing that is frequently overlooked is that this was the first defeat of the axis powers. From 1939 it had been just one major defeat after another.
@Russell Weatherly
Midway wasn’t exactly the first defeat but certainty the first “major” defeat of the Japanese.
Beginning with the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese began their attacks on the Philippines, Guam and other allied bases around the Pacific. Guam fell on December 10, 1941.
Almost immediately after Pearl Harbor was attacked, the Japanese also bombed American base on Wake Island. The tiny atoll was defended by less than 500 Marines and after the first bomb attack, had only 3 or 4 F-4 Wildcat fighters to defend the base from air attacks.
After being bombed every day since the war began and three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, a Japanese invasion fleet including three cruisers and several destroyers and troop transports appeared off of Wake Island. The defenders didn’t have a chance.
Or so the Japanese thought.
The Marines with their shorter range 5” guns, lured the Japanese fleet in close by not returning fire and then opened fired as the fleet closed in on the island. The couple of remaining fighters attacked the ships also.
The Japanese lost two destroyers and a submarine and gave up the invasion. It was a stunning defeat of a Japanese fleet and invasion force and just three days after Pearl Harbor.
The Japanese fleet returned about two weeks later for a second invasion attempt but this time supported by two light aircraft carriers and a beefed up invasion force.
After a fierce battle and with no remaining aircraft, the Marines sank two more destroyers. The tiny garrison was finally overwhelmed but ended up killing a few hundred Japanese in the two battles for Wake Island and repelled the first invasion attempt. The Marines lost less than 100 men total from the opening bombing on December 7th (actually December 8 on Wake on the opposite side of the International Date Line) until
their surrender.
While it isn’t nearly as well known and certainly didn’t have the crushing effect of Midway, the Imperial Japanese Navy suffered their first naval defeat in WWII at the hands of a few Marines stranded on a tiny atoll.
Actually, the Soviets counterattack about 15 miles west of Moscow on December 6th, 1941, was the first HUGE defeat of the Wehrmacht against the Axis. Germany was dealt a massive blow and allowed the USSR to recover and establish their defenses.
@@briankrames1883 Yes, I thought of the invasion of the USSR. This was the first *major* defeat of the Japanese, but the tide was already beginning to turn as of the draw of sorts at Coral Sea.
This video series on Midway is amazing. I've seen it a couple of times.
The several spaced out U.S. airstrikes from Midway were carried out as self-preservation of the Midway base. It was not purposely done to create delay for the Japanese to launch another airstrike. The attack, which was not coordinated with the U.S. carriers by delaying Japaneses launches, was a fortuitous results for what was to come from the U.S. carriers.
Midway was important in ww2 because aircraft range at the time. It had an airfield very close to Japan and bomb raids took off from midway.
I think you are confused. It's 2500 miles from Midway to Tokyo. Yes, there are closer points in Japan but not close enough because any plane has to go double the distance--there and back. In 1942, no warplanes had anywhere near this range. That's why the Doolittle raid had to take off from carriers considerably closer to Japan than Midway and even so it couldn't return (or land on carriers) so the planes had to over-fly Japan and try to land in China (even so, many didn't make it and crashed). Later in the war, the Americans were able to use the Mariana Islands ( the Hiroshima bomber took off from Tinian--about 1500 miles from Tokyo) for attacks on Japan with newer planes that had much greater range ( the B-29 had a range of about 4000 miles, still not enough to fly from Midway to Tokyo and back but enough to fly from Tinian there and back).
There is an outstanding 2005 book, _Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway,_ by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully; these three videos draw heavily on the new ideas contained in that book. _Shattered Sword_ completely revised our understanding of the Midway battle using evidence from Japanese war records to correct serious myths and mistakes that had been repeated in all English-language histories for more than 60 years. Not only is the book excellent history, but it is very well written and is an absorbing, dramatic narrative. Plus, there is a fine unabridged audiobook version if you'd rather hear the entire story told aloud...
Yes that is a great book!
You picked a good spot to end it. The next segment of it really sets up the rest of it
Operation K (the Japanese recon flight of Pearl Harbor) was cancelled because of American intelligence. Operation K was to fly a sea plane to French Frigate Shoals, refuel by tanker submarine, and then fly to Pearl. However, the Japanese had done this same thing before the Pearl Harbor attack, so this time, an American destroyer was station at French Frigate Shoals. The Japanese seaplane couldn’t land to refuel and the tanker submarine couldn’t safely surface. As you’ll learn, America knew of the planned Midway attack and were prepared.
My grandfather used to fly a P-38. Those old propeller planes you had to be good or things go bad quickly!
Your comments about Japanese arial reconnaissance needs to keep in mind the vast distances involved and the limited range of the planes. They had seaplanes that needed refueled at French Frigate Shoals in order to reach Hawaii but US Submarines occupied the location.
There are also some good movies on the Battle of Midway you could see. Pretty exciting.
I was hoping you'd do this video. It is epic. Great content choices Beesleys.
Montemayor in my opinion is one of the best on RUclips for historical documentaries, brilliant accuracy and such quality. Can't get enough of his work!
It's cute how Millie says "that was smart on their teams part" like it's a rugby🏉 or football ⚽ game 😅 😍
Should technically have done battle of the coral sea before this for chronological sake but it won't mean much in the grand scheme of things, this is by the the best.
Operation K had two (actually three) attempted sorties over several days - March 4th - two planes were sent. We were on alert because our code breakers knew a reconnaissance mission was coming. We spotted them on radar but were unable to find them due to low cloud cover. They were also not able to complete their mission.... because of low cloud cover... and returned to base. One of the airplanes had sustained hull damage while taking off from French Frigate Shoals.
Another armed reconnaissance mission, scheduled for March 6,[2][5] or 7,[1] was canceled because of the delay in launching the first raid, damage to Hashizume's airplane, and the aircrews' exhaustion.[5] It was carried out on 10 March 1942, but Hashizume was killed when his flying boat was shot down by Brewster F2A Buffalo fighters near Midway Atoll.[6]
A followup to Operation K was scheduled for May 30, to gain intelligence on the whereabouts of U.S. carriers prior to the Battle of Midway. However the Americans had become aware French Frigate Shoals were a possible IJN rendezvous point, and naval patrols were increased, per Admiral Chester Nimitz's orders. A Japanese submarine spotted two American warships at anchor there, prompting a cancellation of the plan.[2] This left IJN unable to observe U.S. Navy activity, or to keep track of the American aircraft carriers.[2]
Source: Military - history . fandom
One has to remember that distances in the Pacific are extreme - especially in the context of the technology of the time.
This was why these "Tiny Atolls" were critical - even the longest range aircraft of the time needed them as refueling bases -
Japan had an extremely long range observation aircraft (a flying boat/ seaplane)
- but at it' maximum range it would be in the air for more than 24 hours.
There was a plan to observe Hawaii by refueling from a submarine at an uninhabited US owned island, but the American's were patrolling it -
so the mission was called off.
So glad we are both on the same side now🇺🇸🇯🇵
I'd say do the full 3-parter and when you're done if you're up for it go back and watch the coral sea video it adds a lot of context for why both sides acted the way they did.
This is great on Memorial Day weekend.
Thanks👍
You guys rule ! Liking the graphics so far. 👌
The IJN couldn't scout Hawaii with land based planes because of the extreme range they would have to fly. Aircraft ranges were far more limited than they are today. The overflight that was cancelled was to be done by a sea plane flying from a forward base.
Can't wait until you watch all 3 parts. Great reaction again.
The legendary enterprise was at midway all the way through the pacific campaign though it missed Iwo Jima due to a bomb explosion and losing its front elevator. Midway was the absolute first test of the pacific fleet. Midway itself was not invaded by sea. It was hit from above the entire battle. The naval battles at midway were the first for actual ships never to see each other at all and planes to do the work. The original yorktown was sunk by Japanese bombs and torpedoes here. Four of the carriers that hit pearl were sunk at midway; akagi, kaga, soryu, and hiryu, all sunk by American 500 lb bombs. This however wasn’t the problem as Guadalcanal was coming and that was a huge slugfest that lasted six months. Trust me that battle was unbelievable as it was literally inch by inch daily under heavy fire.
Like he said "dawn June 4" I know in Alaska June 21 is usually ONE hour of dark night. The sun sets around 2:30 am then rises around 3:30 am😮 or something like it so June 4 at midway there's probably around 4 hours dark night.
Good video. To answer your questions, the Japanese Submarines were deployed late and Operation K was to send a high flying reconnaissance aircraft to see if the US Navy Aircraft Carriers were in or around Pearl Harbor. For the Japanese, an earlier bombing mission gave away their capabilities and the USN were able to prevent the use of these huge "Emily" flying boats. The scout missions of the Kido Butai were awful. They only used Cruiser and Battleship Float planes, most of which were slow. Also the Japanese Carrier Doctrine was very rigid, they did not want to use their limited Aircraft for Scout Missions. The US Navy had four Squadrons, one Fighter Squadron, one Torpedo Squadron, one Dive Bomber Squadron and one Scout Dive Bomber Squadron. The Japanse depended entirely on Battleship/Cruiser scout planes. The Soryu, in a rare case, had two brand new D4Y High Speed Dive Bomber Prototypes to be used as Scouts but there were only two in addition to five Scout Planes. Carrier Warfare is very interesting. They Royal Navy invented Aircraft Carriers and used them in WWI and made the ground breaking Raid on Toronto. The Japanese studied this 1940 raid and repeated it against Pearl Harbor.Cheers!!
Just to add more context - there were way more ships participating in the battle than just the aircraft carriers. The Japanese had 2 battleships, 2 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser, 12 destroyers, and 13 submarines protecting their carriers. They also had 2 other light carriers, 5 more battleships, 4 heavy cruisers, and 2 light cruisers who were a a part of the attack group, but didn’t participate in the battle. While this may seem impressive, later naval battles in the Pacific dwarfed the battle of Midway.
may have been answered already , but no one had a long distance plane capable of the extreme range required. they planed a submarine with a plane to get close enough to recon pearl harbor but their was a ship in the launch area and that is why the recon plan K was cancelled.
I've been watching everything with you guys for a long time now LOL
"Bad news, fellas... they got the mess hall...."
"WHAT?! They blew up our chow?! THOSE BASTARDS!"
As for aircraft reconnaissance over Pearl Harbor, the Japanese didn't have an aircraft with the range to make such a flight. They had made a few such flights by having seaplanes that took on fuel from submarines for the return trip, but American codebreakers had figured out where they were meeting and stationed ships at that island, resulting in no more reconnaissance flights.
In response to the why didn't they send a spotter plane @9:56 One thing that a lot of people don't realize is the scale of the pacific the distance between Pearl Harbor and Midway(also part of the Hawaiian Islands is about 1,300 miles(2,092km) or 4 times the distance between The Temple Underground Station in London and the main gate of Edinburgh Castle, and that is just between the H in Hawaii and Midway on the Map that is shown at this point.
As another point of reference a Avro Lancaster 1 had a max range of 2,530 mi (2,200 nmi, 4,073 km) and max range in this case is how far it can fly before it has to land. So if a Lancaster 1 took off from Pearl and Flew on a bombing run to Midway, it would be out of fuel about 70mi(111km) short of Pearl on the return leg.
The only plains that could fly round trip from Pearl to Midway without refueling where the B-24 Liberators and Petlyakov Pe-8s.
Once again we are just measuring what you see on the screen @9:56, The H in Hawaii to Midway Island.
The Tokyo Airport to Midway Island is 2,548 mi(4,100.6km) or 7.7 times the distance Between London and Edinburgh Castle or about the distance from London to Baghdad
And remember it is called Midway because it is Nearly(on the scale the Pacific operates at) the Midway point between the US and Japan...The "Golden Gate" of San Francisco is about 3,200mi from Midway with the San Diego Naval Base about 3,560mi away
The movie Isoroku, or Admiral Yamamoto, depending on what area the film is released, portrays the keen factionalism that Yamamoto and Nagumo possess. Yamamoto's family was wiped out by the shogunate that Nagumo belongs to, so there is quite an undercurrent of dislike between the two.
Nobody had high level scout planes like today. No mod air refueling. No jets
I just realized that Millie is wearing a Coachella Valley Palm Springs shirt. Which is where I'm from. Props 😊👍
Yeah someone pointed that out weeks ago.
such a good series.
Beesleys, you may not be interested in this, like Kyle (Geography King) and I are, but Midway is at nearly the end of the extra 1000 miles/1600k of Hawaii's islands called the NW Hawaiian Islands, or in Hawaiian, Papahānaumokuākea = pa-pa-hah-now-moe-coo-ah-KAY-ah, which was made a Marine National Monument and World Heritage Site in 2006. It also has the distinction of being the only place in the US which is in the Samoan Time Zone, at 1 hour west of Hawaii, even though there are other islands west of it.
The conundrum of only being able to launch, spot, or recover at any one time for the WWII era carriers is precisely why modern aircraft carriers have an angled flight deck. By angling the landing area of the deck off to the side, the forward part of the deck could be kept open for prepping and launching aircraft. This means modern carriers can do what the WWII straightdeckers couldn't; launch and land planes simultaneously.
Thanks for reacting to this Battle of Midway Video. After the 3 on the Japanese Perspective react to the American Perspective.
You guys are going to be in for a massive suprise when you get to the next part. Japan didnt know what hit them after it was said and done
I like how the Japanese choose to call their operation MI and be like "Oh, this totally doesn't stand for "Midway Island". 😄
That was good . Can't wait to see the rest.
I don't think it can be stressed just how insanely brave these pilots were. Modern pilots have the luxury of smart munitions that allow them to attack well beyond visual, and sometimes, beyond radar range. Not only did pilots have to attack within full sight of their enemy, but they had to do it without modern guidance systems. Can you imagine being in a dive bomber and going into a screaming power dive at a 70 degree angle from 20000ft at over 350mph while dodging enemy anti-aircraft fire? What about releasing your bomb at 1500ft in a place where you think your target might be by the time the bomb impacts? Now what if I told you that you now had a couple of seconds to pull the plane out of the dive while enduring g forces up to 9x the force of gravity? There are some great scenes in the 2019 movie Midway that show this.
The US had radar and the Japanese didn't. The Japanese didn't get German radar until late in the war. So after the debacle of Dec 7, ship and land based radar was very closely watched. Also, aircraft of that day didn't have the range to easily fly from an enemy base, circle Hawaii and then fly back. They wanted to refuel that float plane at French Frigate Shoals using a submarine, but that plan was thwarted when American warships were spotted in the area.
10:00 Its was very far. And I mean - super far. At that time, no plane could just go there and back on one fuel tank.
The objective of what they wanted from the battle and what actually transpires is ironic
In 2019 they made a pretty accurate Midway movie
22:33 They both missed a lot. Is this where the children’s game, Battle Ship, came from? It’s a find game for kids, but sad when you visualize it and compare it to actual life events.
Pearl: good question. Keep in mind this is 1942, not 2022. Only large, and slow flying boats would be capable of long range (like 2500 -3000 NM in this instance) reconnaissance. The huge distances preclude carrier based aircraft, and for that matter fighter escort for the recon aircraft. Another option is a submarine, but a sub only would do about 12-15kts on the surface, and about 6kts max submerged. It also has to get close enough to Pearl to verify that the carriers were there or not and how many.
A 23% loss would be a disaster by today's standards. That means out of 120 aircraft about 28 are destroyed or require major repairs. The next day 92 are launched: 20% of those go down about 73 come back. By the end of day 3 56 are left. That's less than HALF the air wing gone in less than 3 days.
Great reaction. And i always see brits reacting to good stuff always 😂
Planes of that era has limited range, the operation K was cancelled as noted in this information I found online....... "A follow up to Operation K was scheduled for 30 May, to gain intelligence on the whereabouts of U.S. aircraft carriers prior to the Battle of Midway. However, the Americans had become aware French Frigate Shoals were a possible Imperial Japan Navy rendezvous point, and naval patrols were increased, per Admiral Chester Nimitz's orders.[3] The Japanese submarine I-123[9] found the area mined and spotted two American warships at anchor there, prompting a cancellation of the plan, despite the proposed use of Necker Island as an alternative refueling site.[4] This left IJN unable to observe U.S. Navy activity, or to keep track of the American carriers.[3]"
Midway is considered by some as the American version of the British battle of Trafalgar. With similar results.
This was awesome. Can't wait for the rest. Hope you are well. Peace
10:04 radar was still a new invention amd wasn't like it is today
The Japanese should have seen the writing on the wall. They had just scored what they though was a victory in the Coral. They had sunk Lexington and badly damaged Yorktown. But they had lost the use of their two most powerful carriers: Shokaku was badly damaged and would be out for a year, and Zuikaku had lost her entire air group and had to return to Japan to train a new group and would also be out for at least a year.
Radar had just been introduced to the US 6 months earlier. It's range was not sufficient to give interceptors a chance to get them before they were gone. Ship-borne radars weren't much better, sometimes they wouldn't spot aircraft until the look-out saw them and have lost ships. Other time they worked perfect.
great video guys. you should do a reaction to the Midway movie. I think you would love it after watching this
The creator of the video really is great at it i've burned through almost all of his already
They tested the torpedos in lab settings and they had a 90% failure rate
At that time there was no pressurization of aircraft
This video is Very interesting...thanks.
Biggest takeaways from this stage of the battle is:
1. Most importantly, it kept the Japanese carriers busy with constantly launching and resupplying their interceptors rather than launching bombers to keep attacking Midway and/or counterattacking the US carriers.
2. Seriously challenged everything the Japanese thought they knew about American soldiers/pilots. The propaganda they were fed said that Americans were cowardly and had no sense of honor or duty, and they would flee at the first sign of trouble. And yet, wave after wave of American pilots were relentlessly attacking them despite the high casualties and not achieving any significant damage.
Something to keep in mind as you watch these videos, and if you dive more into the War of the Pacific. America was in Europe to assist our allies and defeat the bad guy Germans, but the animosity we held or the Germans was tempered. It was a righteous war of morals. Our fight with the Japanese was bitter and personal. It was about making them pay for their treachery.
Plane scouting of Pearl Harbor would have been difficult. There were no nearby bases to fly from. Hence the attempt to use long range seaplanes. Didn't work. The Japanese plan was a little wonky to begin with. The main fleet was over 700 miles behind the carriers. Expecting the American to hang around to fight them seems to have been a bit....optimistic. From my reading, it took much more than 20 minutes to prepare and launch a strike. Planes had to be brought up to the deck and warmed up. 45 minutes seems like a better number.
I wish you would put a link in the description to the original RUclips video for reviews like this one
This battle was the turning point against Japan !
Hello, one comment. The planes at the time were prop planes and could not go fast enough to gain that much altitude. So recon of P Harbor would get that plane shot down.
Enjoying ur format.
Thank you for these times of videos during Memorial Day weekend.
Shout out to Millie from Palm Springs California ✌️😀
Since seeing your pearl harbor reaction ive been excitedly patient waiting for a Midway reaction. Just w as tched the first
...as the meme goes..."They had us in the first half..can't lie!"...but ahead lies the climax of the battle and im about to click on that vid! 😊
Regarding sending a plane to scout Pearl Harbor, how are you going to get it in range? The Pacific is HUGE.
I found a video that explains 1: how a Japanese bomber gets to Pearl Harbor without a carrier, and 2: why it didn't on the eve of the battle of Midway. ruclips.net/video/29fZsQFbO44/видео.html
Amazing reaction! ❤
Technology, communication, and surveillance were much more primitive in 1941 compared to today
Since you loved the Pearl Harbor video you're going to love this mini series
my understanding the Japanese naval command game the whole scenario FOUR times. and each time the Japanese navy got beat.
Thanks for sharing. I thought I have seen everything about ww2 but I was wrong.
this is before jets
I'm well versed on the battle of midway. It was from that point on that the Japanese were on their heels and the future was never in doubt only the length of time it was gonna take to put an end to their being able to carry the fight to America!
Just one thing though you guys seem to stop it to discuss what you are seeing a little more often than you normally do. Maybe just a tiny bit too much. I understand you were trying to digest everything that was being told but I think you probably could have stretched a few of the pauses. There were like maybe 2 or 3 times were after pausing it and starting up again within 15. Maybe twenty seconds you would pause it again. It kind of made watching the video a little bit more tedious.
Congratulations!
u guys should totally check out the movies tora tora tora and midway
They have a memorial Set up at pearl Harbour over thr USS ARIZONA, n ita still bubbling oil, it's deff a go to if u go to Hawaii.. 😊