What advantage helped Admiral Chester Nimitz defeat the Japanese at Midway Island?
1 Answer
I would say the ability to pinpoint exactly the objective of the Japanese attack.
Explanation:
It is becoming almost a legend the episode that led the US intelligence to discover the exact location of the Japanese attack.
In fact, although the Americans had deciphered the Japanese Naval Code, the Japanese high command was using the acronym AF to indicate the objective of the attack. The Americans, trying to discover the meaning of AF, sent a message in clear saying that the desalination apparatus of Midway Island was not working. The Japanese intercepted, read the message and sent an encrypted message to the high command saying that AF was without water treatment.
The Americans reading the message were then able to associate AF with Midway.
Although the battle could still go wrong for the Americans, nevertheless this trick caused the Japanese to lose the surprise element (remember that the Pacific is quite big!) so that the American fleet was able to place herself in the best defensive position possible in an incoming battle where aircrafts were going to be used on long distances without any direct contact between battleships.
[Code breaking...a powerful weapon indeed!]
As a personal note it is also important to underline the almost suicidal bravery of the pilots of the US torpedo bombers that, attacking without defense of fighters, were massacred but attracted the Japanese protection fighters to low level leaving free space for the dive bombers to attack without worry!
