Midway

What was?

 

Has anyone considered the ability to house, repair, sortie any great influx of aircraft at Midway?

 

After the first IJN bombing raid there was little room for all that business.

 

Instead of Army squadrons, what about additional Marine/Navy squadrons, were there any available to bolster the air units that were already stationed at Midway?

 

Not practical, but possible, and was done in 1942 & 1943.

After the battle, P-40s of the 73rd Fighter Squadron were flown into Midway. The 78th fighter squadron's P-40s also operated, on occasion, from Midway. In January, 1943, the 78th flew their P-40s from Barking Sands, Kauai to Midway atoll. The P-40K-1s were stripped of all but 2 guns and carried about 170 gallons of avgas in drop tanks.

 

My mistake. It isn't the end of the world.

 

So short answer: P-40s were in short supply do to other Allied needs and Pearl Harbor, and the P-38s and P-39s were either not available in numbers, not ready for that type of use, needed or en route elsewhere.

 

Been reading Shattered Sword as of late. Army B-17s flew out and attacked the Japanese carriers several times during the battle, but did little more than kill a lot of fish. Big bombers were not much use in bombing carriers from high altitudes it seems. Maybe smaller bombers would've been better, like B-25s and B-26s.

 

Yeah, and from what I read they bombed from waaaaaaay to high. Should've came in lower and maybe they would've gotten a better return on the bombs dropped. At least the Japanese sailors floundering in the water after abandoning ship had ready made sushi waiting for them.

 

4 B-26s did attack Nagumo's Kido Butai with torpedoes, and the unescorted B-26s got hammered. IIRC, two were lost in the attack, and the other two were written off when they landed back at Midway.

Two of these B-26s were hold overs from a previous flight headed to the South Pacific, and two were the first arrivals of the 69th and 70th bomb squadrons rushed to Hawaii to participate in the battle. The other 20-some B-26s would not arrive at Oahu until June 5-6, after the main show had ended. It can be considered to be a miracle that no planes were lost, as there was little to no reserve of fuel if anything went wrong on the flight from California.

The B-26 run-up to Midway is covered in the first few pages here:
http://www.b26.com/page/pdf/69thbombardmentsquadron.pdf

and about 1/3rd through here:
http://www.b26.com/page/70th_bombardment_squadron_history.htm

 

Yes I read about the B-26s making their attack, and about one of them that came close to hitting the bridge of Nagumo's flagship (Kaga? Not sure) while he and his staff were watching the attack. Wonder how the battle would've played out if that B-26 would've kamakazied into the bridge and taken them out.

And yes I've read about the Army bombers getting a lot more credit than they earned in the battle, in another thread here on the forums someplace. Kind of a tall story indeed. Did the Army pilots make those claims themselves, or did the PR people take that onto themselves?