Just to nitpick here. Yes the US had some disadvantages at Midway. Things weren’t as bad as requiring a miracle. The US had 360 total aircraft at Midway. The Japanese had 264. The US planes at the time were decidedly of lesser quality than the Japanese in almost all cases. But the US had a much better idea, due to intelligence, of the location of the Japanese fleet and their plan.
The US got lucky, but it wasn’t miraculous. And the luck was mostly self made.
Another thread that may be of interest: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=643488
This is why budgeting an aircraft carrier is not a matter of merely paying for the construction of one ship for $5 billion (or whatever it is). An aircraft carrier always involves a group of ships and they have to be budgeted as well.
You’re right , of course. I was paraphrasing Gordon Prange’s book* Miracle at Midway *in my description.
Missed the edit window. I knew about the Americans cracking Purple, the Japanese code in use, and having thus having some great intelligence but had no idea about the difference in plane numbers. I would have thought that with four carriers the Japanese would have had superior numbers. Thanks for the info.