The 2nd point that ralph makes is pertinent: the US of course had a doctrine where the battlewagons were the ones which softened up the landing sites, not the carrier-based aviation. Unfortunately the IJN had no such doctrine, else you would have had the Yamato and company blasting Midway to pieces while Nagumo lurks to the west (with anti-ship ordnance on his planes, natch), waiting for the American CVs to show up.
The objective was the destruction of the American carriers. The occupation of Midway was secondary.
Hence the battleships were several hundred miles behind the Japanese carriers- they were to demolish the American fleet after the airstrikes had battered them.
It wasn’t a simple matter of the battleships being able to nip in and shell Midway.
These drippy wartime subplots seem to work better in books than movies.
Another example is the tormented Willie-May relationship in The Caine Mutiny (which also could have been a lot better movie if they hadn’t cast an inept male ingenue as Willie).
I don’t know for sure, but I doubt the US had that doctrine at the start of the war. The battleships were expected to be the main battle units in surface engagements, but the losses at Pearl Harbor forced the Navy to make carrier aviation the centerpiece of their striking power. Later, when the damaged battleships were returning to service and new ones coming out of the shipyards, it was already understood that they had almost no role left in surface combat. Except in a few cases like Leyte Gulf, when their opposition had no air cover either, they became bombardment platforms.
I see what you did there.
Gosh- that was unintended. I had to look to see “What have I done now?” 
My husband was actually in that movie! Well, sort of. He was in OCS at Pensacola and evidently they were required to be extras in the cast of thousands.:o
As Cicero noted, there was a CAP over the Japanese fleet. It had just spent a half hour wiping out our torpedo attack. It was sheer luck that the various uncoordinated dive-bomber groups all arrived over the fleet when they did. The first indication the Japanese had that they were doomed was when a lookout on the Akagi happened to look up.
Fun fact: Nobody attacked the Akagi (I think that’s the one). After-action debriefings all say that the carriers bombed were the Kaga and Soryu. Nobody claims the Akagi. Yet it blowed up real good. This is why eye-witnesses are lousy sources.
I’ve read this like 5 times and I’m still not sure what you are saying, or how exactly you are disagreeing with me, since I did say that their doctrine simply didn’t recognize the value of the big gun ships in shore bombardment, and instead was still in the “mop up the survivors after the carrier planes have blown their wad” prewar frame of mind. An obvious strategy in hindsight was to use the heavies as bait (as they bombarded the islands) to get the attention of the US carriers, and then hit them at the optimal time of Nagumo’s choosing. But that isn’t even a what-if, because the Japanese doctrine didn’t even consider that an option (or even conceive of it in the first place).
Dick Best and his 2 wingmen were acknowledged as the ones who attacked Akagi-the only hit on her was by Best himself, but it set off a bunch of exploding ordnance & started a bunch of fires which the Japanese were ultimately unable to put out.
Yep, but the after-action reports by Best identify the carrier they bombed as one of the others. There was a lot of confusion as to which carrier had the island on what side. They eventually figured everything out, but at the time, nobody claimed bombing the Akagi.
Why do I have to be disagreeing with you?
Ralph asked: -the land based plane from Midway scored almost no hits on the japanese task force-why didn’t Nagumo move hois battleships in and shell the island?
You provided an answer to which I added a few more details. I can’t see that it is contrary to anything you wrote. Nor does it have to be - it is complementary.
Did only Akagi have all the planes on deck being reconfigured with all the fuel and bombs sitting around?
I don’t believe so. I think all the carriers were in the process of changing the weapons on the planes for an attack against the American fleet rather for a second strike at Midway. Hiryu only survived the first US carrier plane attack because it was hidden under some clouds a few miles away, IIRC. It wasn’t hit or even attacked.
Yes, all the planes were refuelling on the decks except the last
one mentioned above. When the bombs hit with the fuel lines
pumping gas it made the explosions bigger and sunk the ships
faster.
The code breakers enabled us to find them first as we sprung a
trap.
They lost 3,000 men and 400 planes - all were used at Pearl Harbor.
Nitpick: I’m not sure this is correct. The codebreakers and some good intelligence work enabled the USA to know that Midway was the target but the actual location of the Task Force was due to aerial surveillance.
Wiki seems to hint more at code breakers. Anyone got more info?
No. The Japanese were still rearming for their counterstrike against the American carriers. The Japanese did all their arming of aircraft in the hangar bay. The flight decks were kept clear in an effort to recycle the CAP.
Aircraft packed into the hangar bay is actually more of an explosive condition than being out on the flight deck. The compact hangars of the older carriers (Akagi, Kaga) makes fighting fires difficult. Stuff burning on the flight deck can be jettisoned overboard.
This was the conclusions reached by Shattered Sword, anyway.
I can’t find the hint you’re referring to. Please quote it.
Whether we knew the exact location of their fleet, the code breakers certainly did allow us to find them first and spring a trap. The US Navy got into the area far sooner than the Japanese expected, and before they were looking seriously. And the Navy sent a shit load of very long range Catalina flying boats to Midway for surveillance, so their fleet was spotted first. The US actually attacked the Japanese the day before the big carrier battle, with a squadron of B-17s that didn’t hit anything. And they sent some of those flying boats in a torpedo attack that night – there is some conflicting information over whether they git a hit on one of the supply ships.
The big battles happened the next day.
Catalinas with torpedoes?
They must have been sitting ducks.
They all survived IIRC. The attack was in the middle of the night. The biggest surprise was that they actually found any targets. I’m pretty sure they didn’t have radar yet.