Battle Of Midway Essay

The 20h century saw the increase of countries with the desire of being a world power. Countries like Japan, Great Britain, Germany, as well as the United States, saw having a global presence through sea power as the foundation to becoming a world power. The increases of technology in ship construction was the catalyst for sea power with modernization and enlargement of ships, implementations of steel and steam, electrical systems, and the use of battleship naval ordnance. The Battle of Midway showed the importance of this technology and was arguably the most pivotal naval battle in history. As depicted in Decisions at Sea, Craig Symonds details the Battle of Midway to be a decisive contest for supremacy at sea, illustrates the importance of …show more content…
The Japanese steamed into the battle thinking that the United States only had two carriers and that they would be able to dominate with their four rather than the six they had in their fleet. Japanese carriers were far more superior and they believed surely that they would completely surprise the United States with this attack. The use of four carriers rather than six gave Americans a chance off the bat. The use of six carriers could have easily led to mass destruction of the United States Fleet. In planning the Midway operations, the Japanese made two fundamental errors that in the end proved fatal. First, they lost focus on their primary objective which was to completely destroy the American carriers while using Midway as bait, and secondly, the final plan that emerged was far too complex and ended up having a scattered fleet with ships so distant that they would not be able to provide mutual backup (Symonds 220). Their attack strategy completely ignored the Mahanian Doctrine. To achieve sea control, a nation should keep its main battle fleet concentrated (220). This was the Japanese’s battle to win. The United States had luck on their side and were able to capitalize and protect themselves