The Battle of Midway
Six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, a decisive naval battle in the Pacific theatre of World War II resulted in the defeat of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Japan had set out to eliminate the United States as a strategic power from the Pacific, but they sorely underestimated what they were up against, and the resulting damage to the Japanese fleet was so extensive, that it proved to be irreparable.
The Battle of Midway is generally agreed to have been the turning point of the Pacific War, and came from intelligence intercepted by American cryptographers. There was just enough decryption of Japanese traffic to understand that there was to be an attack at Midway, but the information was far from complete in detail. However, it gave Admiral Nimitz enough to gamble on the ambush.
Considering how important the Battle of Midway was, I was surprised to find only one old time radio show really referencing Midway in particular. This comes from The Cavalcade of America, and is called Vengeance of the Torpedo 8.
It's the story of courage out of the annals of our war in the Pacific. A story of vengeance presented to the enemy and collected in fullest measure by the men of the United States Navy Torpedo Squadron, and by their skipper. The name of the squadron is Torpedo 8, the name of their skipper is Lt. Harold 'Swede' Larsson, and the vengeance was on behalf of the forty two men whose lives were lost at the Battle of Midway.
Joy and I have always been history buffs, as you've probably noticed in many of the shows we have written about on RUSC. So when we saw that the latest release from Hollywood was a World War Two drama called 'Midway', we eagerly booked our tickets for this Veterans Day weekend.
The movie is said to be historically accurate throughout, with a large part of the film focused on the heroism of the dive bombers - who flew their planes nose down to get as close as possible to the enemy target - and real-life US Navy bomber pilot Richard ‘Dick’ Best. The director, Roland Emmerich said he worked with the US navy to make the movie, with an Admiral from Pearl Harbor even being an 'extra' in the production.
I really hope that the movie is the masterpiece it is anticipated to be, and a cinematic statue to the bravery of the young men who sacrificed their lives in the Pacific.
Other important broadcasts to help us remember those days lest we forget, are of course the historical World News Today broadcasts many of which from World War II have been preserved and are available to listen to today.
And of course, there is the World at War Radio Station available on RUSC.
A poignant selection of old time radio shows to remind us of the courage and bravery of the fighting men and women who have served in the conflicts of the past century.
