What a difference six months makes.
After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, when a good-sized chunk of a rather antiquated US fleet was damaged or sunk, America had already bombed Tokyo 4 months later and U.S. cryptologists had cracked Japanese communications codes.
So they knew Japan had sent four aircraft carriers to the tiny Pacific atoll of Midway to draw out and destroy what remained of the U.S. Pacific Fleet but winning the battle was still going to take eyeballs and heart. Outnumbered – Japan had 4-to-1 odds over the US in ships – and with inexperienced pilots in inferior planes, the US still sank four Japanese aircraft carriers the first day of the battle.
Japan would play defense from that point on.
Men win wars but intelligence made it possible in the days of World War II and since. Retired Rear Adm. Mac Showers is the last surviving member of station Hypo, the Combat Intelligence Unit at Pearl Harbor that deciphered Japanese messages. Fleet Commander Adm. Chester Nimitz was not just a savvy combat man, he was also a new breed of military leader – “intelligence friendly.”
June 1, 2012: Retired Rear Adm. Mac Showers speaks during a ceremony in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Listening at right is Capt. James Fannell, the Pacific Fleet’s deputy chief of staff for intelligence. (AP Photo/Audrey McAvoy)
Navy marks 70th anniversary of Battle of Midway, which changed the course of World War II by Audrey McAvoy, Associated Press