The Battle Of Midway In The Pacific
Nothing distinguished the dawn of June 2, 1942, from countless other dawns that
had fallen over tiny Midway atoll in the North Pacific. Nothing, that is, except
the tension, the electric tension of men waiting for an enemy to make his move.
On Midway's two main islands, Sand and Eastern, 3,632 United States Navy and
Marine Corps personnel, along with a few Army Air Force aircrews, stood at
battle stations in and near their fighters, bombers, and seaplanes, waiting for
the Japanese attack they had been expecting for weeks. The carrier battle of
Midway, one of the decisive naval battles in history, is well documented. But
the role played by the Midway garrison, which manned the naval air ...
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China Clipper (Miracle 5). In March 1940, after a
report on U.S. Navy Pacific bases declared Midway second only to Pearl Harbor in
importance, construction of a formal naval air station began. Midway Naval Air
Station was placed in commission in August 1941. By that time, Midway's
facilities included a large seaplane hangar and ramps, artificial harbor, fuel
storage tanks and several buildings. Sand Island was populated by hundreds of
civilian construction workers and a defense battalion of the Fleet Marine Force,
while Eastern Island boasted a 5,300-foot airstrip. Commander Cyril T. Simard, a
veteran naval pilot who had served as air officer on the carrier USS Langley and
as executive officer at the San Diego Air Station, was designated the atoll's
commanding officer. Along with the naval personnel manning the air station was a
detachment of Marines. The first detachment was from the Marine 3rd Defense
Battalion; it was relieved on September 11, 1941, by 34 officers and 750 ...
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under Lt. Col. Ira B.
Kimes. Midway settled into a routine of training and anti-submarine flights,
with little else to do except play endless games of cards and cribbage, and
watch Midway's famous albatrosses, nicknamed gooney birds, in action (Stevens
56). Then, in May 1942, Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, commander in chief of the
Japanese Combined Fleet, came up with a plan, called Operation Mi, to draw out
the U.S. Pacific Fleet by attacking Midway. Using Midway as bait and gathering a
vast naval armada of eight aircraft carriers, 11 battleships, 23 cruisers, 65
destroyers and several hundred fighters, bombers and torpedo planes, Yamamoto
planned to crush the Pacific Fleet once and for ...
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"The Battle Of Midway In The Pacific." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 22 Oct. 2008. Web. 22 Nov. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Battle-Of-Midway-In-Pacific/91815>
"The Battle Of Midway In The Pacific." Essayworld.com. October 22, 2008. Accessed November 22, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Battle-Of-Midway-In-Pacific/91815.
"The Battle Of Midway In The Pacific." Essayworld.com. October 22, 2008. Accessed November 22, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Battle-Of-Midway-In-Pacific/91815.
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