Anzac Day (2013)

Today is ANZAC Day and we commemorate more than just the ANZAC troops landing on Gallipoli in 1915. It is a day when we commemorate all Australian soldiers who have served and sacrificed their lives in all wars. We do not celebrate war nor do we disregard it; We solemnly respect and remember those who have fought for and with the Anzac’s and how war has affected us all. One of the most destructive Wars in human history would be World War II. More than 993, 000 Australians fought in that war with a majority in the Pacific theatre of the war, which was situated in the Pacific Ocean and South East Asia. On this solemn occasion, we shall look into detail of the Battle of Australia, specifically the battle of the Midway, an important naval battle that effectively turned the tides in the Pacific Theatre of the war. 

Prior to the outbreak of World War II, Japan’s goal was to become a modern industrial nation and to catch up with the Western Powers, like France and Britain. As a result, the Empire of Japan had undergone rapid industrialisation and militarisation under the slogan Fukoku Kyohei, or ‘enrich the country, strengthen the army. By 1912, Japan had become a dominant nation in the Asia-Pacific region. However, Japan had another ambition yet to fulfil- to become a world power and bring the Asia-Pacific under its control. At that time, the empire was also suffering from an acute fear of land and food shortages to accommodate its growing population and this provided another incentive to start their conquest…

By 1941, Japan had successfully invaded Manchuria, Indochina, Indonesia and parts of China and Thailand. On the 7^th of December 1942, the United States of America was propelled into the Pacific war right after Japan’s audacious surprise attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii in an attempt to wipe out the US Pacific fleet, which posed a threat to Japan’s military actions in Asia-Pacific. On the same day, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong, Philippines, Malaya and the rest of Thailand to continue on their conquest for Asia-Pacific.

Australia had been involved in the war since 1939. Like other British dominions, Australia sent troops to North Africa or the Mediterranean to aid Britain, the mother country, fight against the Germans and Italians. However, the Japanese conquering of much of South-East Asia had brought the war closer to Australia. On the 15^th of February, Singapore fell into the hands of the Japanese, resulting in surrender of 15, 000 and the deaths of 1, 789 Australians. The defeat of the supposedly unbeatable British at Singapore made the Japanese war machine look unstoppable. The subsequent bombing of Darwin on the 19^th February 1942 and submarine attack on Sydney Harbour on the 31^st May 1942 made it apparent that Japan had intentions to invade Australia. It was the first time in Australia’s history that the nation had been directly threatened by a foreign enemy. With Britain being submerged in its own matters in Europe, Australians started to look to the US, which was geographically closer, for help. US and Australian forces eventually teamed up to counter the advancing Japanese forces in Asia-Pacific. This was the battle for Australia.

The Japanese sought to demolish the US Pacific Fleet for once and for all. In addition, the Japanese planned to invade and occupy Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea and use it as a launching point to invade mainland Australia. Thus, it was imperative that Port Moresby could not fall into the hands of the Japanese. Between the 4^th and 8^th of May 1942, the Japanese attempted an amphibious invasion on Port Moresby, but this was repelled by US air carriers and Australian RAAF units during the Battle of the Coral Sea. These US aircraft carriers were the primary targets for the Japanese during their attack on Pearl Harbour. However, every one of these aircraft carriers had been out of port at the time of the attack. These aircraft carriers and their aircraft would now take on the Japanese. Although technically the Japanese won the battle in terms of the number of ships sunk, the Allied achieved a strategic victory as they had halted the Japanese advance, an unprecedented success.

The Battle of the Coral Sea demonstrated the effectiveness of aircraft carriers. The Japanese were determined to obliterate all of the US aircraft carriers. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the Commander in Chief of Japan’s Combined Fleet was in charge of Japan’s next operation. Yamamoto decided to lay a trap. He would target something so valuable to the Americans that they would send out their aircraft carriers to protect it, and the bait for his trap would be Midway.

Midway was in fact two tiny islands west of Hawaii, halfway between the US and Japan. It was one of the few American air bases left in the Pacific. Yaramoto’s battle plan was extremely complex. The assault fleet was to be divided into three groups. Yamamoto, himself, would be in the centre group with three big battleships. To the south, another group of ships carrying thousands of soldiers would land on Midway and take control. Admiral Chūichi Nagumo would command the group of ships in the north which consists of four aircraft carriers and escort ships. Nagumo’s force was to be the spearhead of the attack. The bombers on the carriers would first bombard the defences of the Midway. A huge wave of planes would then attack the US aircraft carriers when they came to the island’s rescue. Yamamoto’s plan seemed to be perfect. However, following the catastrophe at Pearl Harbour, the Americans have made military intelligence a top priority. Before Yamamoto could initiate the attack on the Midway islands, the US intelligence had completely cracked the Japanese naval code. Thus, the location and date of the ambush were disclosed to the Americans. With this information, the Admiral of the US Navy, Nimitz, who was in charge of the defence of the Midway, would plan an ambush of his own to counter to Japanese attack.

Nimitz sent three aircraft carriers, the USS Hornet, USS Enterprise and the USS Yorktown from Pearl Harbour to a spot coded Point Luck 300 miles northeast of the Midway Island. Here, they would wait until the Yamamoto’s spearhead force approached the island before ambushing it and eliminating Yamamoto’s four precious aircraft carriers. In addition, Nimitz had secretly turned the island into an unsinkable aircraft carrier by deploying numerous planes onto the island. Machine gun and large calibre gun emplacements were set up to defend the island from the imminent amphibious invasion. By the 3^rd of June, pilots were waiting by their planes, crew were standing beside their guns and US Marine Corps were hiding in their bunkers. The greatest naval battle in history was about to take place and Australia’s fate hung in the balance…

On the morning of the 4^th of June 1942, Nagumo began the battle of the Midway by launching 100 planes against the island. Fifty US planes soared into the skies to defend the island, but without much success. Although the initial Japanese strike was effective, the island was still operational.

The attack wasn’t going according to plan for the Japanese. Yamamoto expected the US aircraft carriers to arrive right after Nagumo launched his attack. He couldn’t spot a single US aircraft carrier in the Midway. Unaware that there were three US aircraft carriers waiting to ambush his fleet, Nagumo decided to continue attacking the island. He had equipped his Nakajima B5N bombers with land bombs, which were extremely effective for ground attacks.

Meanwhile, US reconnaissance planes spotted Nagumo’s fleet. It was about time to ambush the Japanese. Torpedo bombers and fighters from the USS Enterprise and Hornet took to the skies to destroy Nagumo’s precious aircraft carriers. However, the aircraft carriers were barely in striking distance of Nagumo’s fleet. This meant that the planes could run out of fuel on their way back to the carriers. Advancing the aircraft carriers was no good either as they would be risked being spotted by the Japanese. Even worse, many of the pilots were inexperienced and had just finished training school. Their skills were often incomparable to the experienced and skilful Japanese pilots. Thus, this was a risky and bold move by the Americans.   

As Nagumo was prepared to launch his second wave of bombers, one of his scout planes reported the sightings of US aircraft carriers approaching towards their position. The news came as a shock to Nagumo, who was certain that there were no US aircraft carriers in the area. Nagumo immediately suspended the second strike on Midway and reattached his bombers with anti-ship torpedoes in an attempt to sink the US aircraft carriers.

At 9.20 am, American torpedo planes spotted Nagumo’s aircraft carriers. They dived in to attack. Japanese deck crew fired anti-air shells into the air and patrolling Zero fighters pursued the enemy. The slow US torpedo planes were no match to the agile Zero fighters. At 10.24 am, 47 out of 51 US torpedo planes were shot down into the vast Pacific Ocean. The attack had been a disaster- the Americans failed to score a single hit.

Nagumo believed that he had won the battle and could continue on his plan to demolish the US aircraft carriers. However, not all of his planes were refuelled and reequipped with torpedos. At 10.21 am, US dive bombers appeared high above the Japanese aircraft carriers and their bomb run was clear. The Japanese fighter planes that were supposed to attack the incoming dive-bombers had been drawn off to pursue the torpedo planes from the first raid. The Japanese aircraft carriers were defenceless as there was nothing to stop the US dive bombers.

4 bombs ripped into aircraft carrier Kaga and another 3 struck Nagumo’s aircraft carrier Akagi. Within moments, fresh dive bombers from the USS Yorktown entered the fray and destroyed another Japanese aircraft carrier, the Soyru. The last aircraft carrier, the Hiryu managed to escape. In the end, 3 valuable aircraft carriers had been obliterated and turned into flaming wrecks in 5 minutes.

However, Nagumo wasn’t yet finished. He sent out 18 dive bombers Zeros from his surviving carrier, the Hiyru. His scout planes had fully located the USS Yorktown’s position and Nagumo was determined to sink it. The Japanese planes eventually found their target. The USS Yorktown has torpedoed twice and bombed three times. The USS Yorktown was seriously damaged, however, it did not catch fire and remained afloat. The USS Yorktown was still operational. Now the Hiyru revealed itself and was caught and sunk by American dive bombers six hours later.

With a 4 aircraft carriers wiped out, Yamamoto realised that the Japanese had lost this battle. He and his main battle group retreated. On the 6^th of June 1942, a proportion of American forces chased the retreating Japanese and destroyed a heavy cruiser. However, this came at a cost as the USS Yorktown sunk on the following day.

During the Battle of the Midway, the Americans had dealt a massive blow to the Japanese. The Japanese had lost 4 aircraft carriers, a heavy cruiser, 3500 men and 270 planes. On the other hand, the Americans lost one carrier, 100 men and 130 aircraft. But, the Americans had successfully stopped the Japanese war machine in its tracks. The tide of the war had turned and it was now the Allies who were on the offensive and the Japanese on the retreat.

Although the battle of the Midway was mainly an American campaign and no Australia warships were involved, the battle of the Midway was so vital to Australia’s national security. The loss of 4 aircraft carries had significantly deprived Japan’s capabilities to mount a full scale invasion on mainland Australia and her territories. Thus, Australia was saved. The Japanese would now have to find another way to get to Port Moresb, which is through the jungles and mountains of Papua New Guinea, known as the Kokoda Trial, but that’s another story. To the Americans, it was imperative to prevent the Japanese occupy Australia but there were US bases in Darwin and Queensland that were springboards to recapture South-East Asia. The Japanese defeat at the Battle of the Midway made it apparent that Australia was winning the battle for Australia. On the In August 1945, American dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which effectively ended the war in the Asia-Pacific. During the Pacific war, 9470 Australians were killed, 13997 were wounded and 21726 were taken prisoner. All of them have fought for our nation’s freedom. All of them have fought for our interests. All of them have fought to secure safe and happy lives for future generations.

We shall remember them. Lest we forget.

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