Coral Sea, Midway and Submarine Actions

This is another in the History of United States Naval Operations in World War II books. As usual, I will only point out a few of the most interesting parts of the book. The entire series is very well done and definitely worth getting.

Admiral Hara, the carrier commander at Coral Sea, said that the many early Japanese successes “caused many officials in high positions in Japato succumb to the so-called 'Victory Disease.' People stricken with this malady predicted that American counterattack would develop slight strength and come too late, after Japan has organized her new acquisitions and obtained all the strategic materials she needed.”

In other words, this helped lead to the Japanese idea of their own invincibility. It also helped cause them to under-estimated the abilities and resources of the U.S.

Japanese Operation Mo: their idea that they would occupy Port Moresby and important positions on Tulagi and southeastern New Guinea. They would build air bases, then attack Nauru and Ocean Islands. From Port Moresby, they would take Papua, although the idea of actually taking over Australia seems to have been rejected as not being really necessary.

The book talks about the various complex naval plans of the Japanese, and says “...the successful execution of which required a tactical competence rare at any time in any Navy, as well as the enemy's passive acceptance of the role he was expected to play.” In other words, their plans were elaborate and detailed, but would only work if the enemy forces they faced behaved exactly as they expected them to, and were inferior to their own forces.

The Battle of the Coral Sea was the first purely carrier-against-carrier naval battle. There were many mistakes made by both sides, but the Japanese made more mistakes than the Americans.

There was a Battle of Sydney. This involved an attack by Japanese mini-subs. It is somewhat similar to the attack by a Japanese submarine on Santa Barbara, basically something that shook people up and did some damage (although, in the case of Sydney, a few people did die), but was otherwise nothing that was really followed up on.

There were more attacks on Hawaii than just Pearl Harbor. On the night of March ¾, 1942, Oahu was rained by two four-engined flying boats. They missed Pearl Harbor and dropped some bombs into a crater behind Honolulu.

Midway was found in 1859 and claimed for the U.S. on August 28, 1867. It was put under the control of the Naval Department in 1903, primarily for use as a cable station. A group of Japanese feather collectors was chased off the island.

The Japanese plan for their attack on Midway did not include an additional attack on Pearl Harbor. They could use Midway to stage nuisance raids on the American base, though. Part of the plan was an attack on the Aleutian Islands. Otherwise, the Japanese planned to land 5000 ground troops on Midway on the night of June 5th. He split his fleet in parts, though, using some to attack the Aleutians and some for Midway, rather than having his entire fleet attack Midway.

When the Americans found out about the planned attack on Midway, some of the officials actually thought that the Japanese were really planning to attack Pearl Harbor again, or even the U.S. West Coast.

Indications are that, if the Japanese had landed on Midway, they would have been given a very, very rough reception by the U.S. forces.

The Japanese sailors were “confident of annihilating the Pacific Fleet.” The Japanese were so confident of success that they had already renamed Midway, one of the names meaning “Glorious Month of June.”

”The firstp hase of the battle ended in the enemy's favor. In exchange for perhaps 40 planes he had destroyed over half the aircraft on Midway and inflicted severe damage on the installations, All his fighting ships were intact...”

The American torpedo attack on the Japanese ships was disastrous. 41 planes were in the attack, and only 6 were recovered. Not one torpedo reached the enemy ships. The thing the attack accomplished was to prevent the Japanese from launching a second attack wave on Midway, and it caused the Japanese planes to fly at a low level to attack the torpedo planes, allowing later U.S. planes to attack from a higher altitude.

This led to the successful sinking of the Japanese carriers and the end of the Japanese attempt to take Midway.

The book says that, as of 1941, the Aleutian Islands were uninhabited except for Army and Navy bases at Dutch Harbor, and small settlements on Atka and Attu.

Although the Aleutians on a map look like they would have been a natural route for a U.S. invasion of Japan, or a Japanese invasion of the U.S., they were not that useful. The weather is bad and unpredictable. The land on the islands is not the type that is good for motorized vehicles. The temperatures are cold, and flying conditions are difficult. It's just wasn't a practical way for invasion in either direction.

The Japanese had no plans to invade Canada, Alaska or the U.S., or to take anything east of Adak.

The Japanese who took Attu captured 30 Aleuts and 2 Americans. The Kiska Occupation Force encountered ten members of a temporary U.S. weather station.

The book then goes on to talk about submarines. “Nearly one-third of all Japanese combat ships destroyed were their victims, and no less than 63 per cent of Japanese merchant tonnage sunk was accounted for by the American underseas boats.”

The average fleet-type U.S. sub had 7 officers and 70 men. It had a cruising range of 10,000 miles and had sixty days worth of supplies.

In 1942, the average length of a submarine patrol was 47 days at sea.

16% of the officers and 13% of the enlisted submariners in the Pacific were lost.

The Japanese submarines never really accomplished what was expected of them. The subs were put onto other missions such as refueling big seaplanes and doing nuisance bombardments. They were also used to transport men and supplies. This was all a distraction to the main task of sinking Allied shipping.

The book says that, early in the war, “in Washington, there was even serious talk of abandoning Australia and New Zealand to the enemy.”

Main Index
Japan main page
Japanese-American Internment Camps index page
Japan and World War II index page