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Having the name “Dick Best” is a lot to live up to; the man did have a set of aircraft-carrier-sized gonads. Speaking of, he was one of only two pilots in history to score direct hits on multiple aircraft carriers in a single day. The other pilot to hold that distinction was Norman Kleiss, in the same battle: Midway.
—On This Day in History Shit Went Down: June 4, 1942—
The Japanese were doomed the day they decided to attack the United States, and many in their military leadership knew it. The bombing of Pearl Harbor was a gamble. The idea was for the Japanese to deliver such a devastating blow to the U.S. Navy that the Americans would say, “Oh, wow. You guys are total badasses. We give up. Please do continue on with your imperial expansions. We shall bother you no further. Just don’t hurt us anymore.”
Yeah, right. All you had to do was look at American history to see these folks weren’t afraid of a scrap. Rather than terrify the U.S. into peace, it galvanized them for war. And from that moment on, Japan was fucked with a capital firetruck.
The Battle of Midway, on June 4, 1942, is seen as a major turning point in the Pacific theatre of World War II. And there was a lot of luck involved in the American victory. That luck began with the fact that the U.S. Navy’s aircraft carriers were out on training maneuvers during the attack on Pearl Harbor and therefore avoided destruction.
It was more than luck, of course. Pearl had been an intelligence catastrophe for the U.S., whereas Midway was an intelligence coup, allowing the Americans to lay a trap for the Japanese fleet and kick some serious ass. But there was luck in the American planes finding that fleet in order to attack them in the first place, because the Pacific is a big fucking ocean. And when you consider that dive-bomber pilots Best, Kleiss, and others had to fly their planes through an unimaginable onslaught of anti-aircraft and enemy fighter fire to destroy four Japanese aircraft carriers that day, there was probably a bit of luck mixed in with the skill and bravery there too. About 150 U.S. aircraft and their crews were lost in the battle, roughly half their force.
But luck or no, intelligence victory or not, the Japanese never stood a chance in the grander scheme of the war once America decided it was game on. The reasons being that the Americans had twice the population of Japan, oil coming out their asses, and a far greater manufacturing capability. The Japanese could have destroyed every ship in the U.S. Navy and the Americans would have built more, bounced back, and still fucked Japan’s shit up.
Victories such as Midway were important in hastening Japan’s defeat, but the reality is the war was lost for Japan the day they attacked Pearl Harbor.
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