Battle of Midway Epilogue

All,

If you made it this far, thanks for reading all these, I hope you enjoyed them.  I had fun, but I can't say it was a lot of fun, just too many ass-whoopins for my taste!  It pains me to no end to know that the US Army Air Force is performing  better than my sailors and beloved Marines...

Thus ends Midway, the (in my humble opinion) true turning point of the War in the Pacific.  Yes, the war would continue for three more years of hard-fighting, and yes, of course, Guadalcanal was no sure thing; as a Marine, I'd love to say that Guadalcanal was the turning point, but the truth is that the US never won before Midway, and never lost afterward (I don't mean setbacks or battles like Savo Island, I mean campaigns).

I brought my Marines (VMF-343, the "Dirt Divers"), stationed aboard Midway, and my Naval aviators (VF-63, the "Killer Pelicans"), stationed aboard the USS Yorktown.  While there were some individual successes, we lost way too many planes, scored too few victories, and lost too many pilots.  Here is the breakdown:

VMF-343 Dirt Divers
Escorted 24 bombers of various types, lost 14 of them
Intercepted 12 bombers of various types, stopped 4 of them
Killed 7 enemy fighters (another 4 were killed by bomber crews)
Lost 11 of the squadron's fighters (2 to enemy bomber crews)
No pilots became Aces, none were decorated
Three pilots KIA or MIA, one seriously wounded

VF-63 Killer Pelicans
Escorted 16 bombers of various types, lost 10 of them
Intercepted 12 bombers of various types, stopped 6 of them
Killed 7 enemy fighters (another 6 were killed by bomber crews)
Lost 13 of the squadron's fighters (2 to enemy bomber crews)
Four pilots became Aces, three Bronze Star w/V awarded
Six pilots KIA or MIA, three seriously wounded

Total:
Escorted 40 bombers of various types, lost 24 of them
Intercepted 24 bombers of various types, stopped 10 of them
Killed 24 enemy fighters (ten were killed by bomber crews)
Lost 24 friendly fighters (4 to enemy bomber crews)

So, not particularly pretty.  The US fighters shot down 14 Zeros, the Japanese fighters shot down 20 Wildcats, with the Japanese often being out numbered, though I must point out that the Japanese always had a qualitative advantage, sometimes quite significantly.

I plan on playing a week with the Chickenhawks in New Guinea, P-40s vs Zeros, with the Japanese maintaining their qualitative advantage, but when we get to Guadalcanal things are going to begin to change as cumulative losses begin to tell on the Japanese, and their aircraft advantage will go away as Wildcats and P-40s are replaced by Corsairs, Hellcats, and Lightnings.  Actually, the Japanese aircraft advantage will be nullified over Guadalcanal as I look to show the advantage the Marines had operating over the 'Canal, compared with the Japanese operating at the edge of their 'legs,' coming all the way from Rabaul.

Lastly, there is one bit of good news: A PBY out of Midway was patrolling wide swaths of ocean several days after the battle when the pilot suddenly had sunlight glare off of something on the water.  "What the hell?" the pilot commented to himself as it happened several more times.  He leaned over to his half-asleep co-pilot: "Barney, do see that there," he said, pointing.  "Put the glasses on it and tell me what ya got."  The co-pilot rubbed his eyes and pulled the binoculars to his face, scanning.  "Damn, Roger, it's a lifeboat."  The co-pilot called the sighting in to Midway, then they set down and, lo and behold, who did they fish out of the great Pacific Ocean but the hotshot fighter ace, Lt Fitzsimmons, winner of the Navy Cross, with five kills on four sorties!  Thanks Kyote and Shaun ;)

Stay tuned!

V/R,
Jack

1st Platoon in the Philippines, Epilogue

Following the battle at Begate (fight #6 in the Philippines), Captain Moon and Sgt Carlson continued moving east/southeast, looking for a US Navy ship rumored to be hiding in a nearby cove.  Their situation was bleak; Japanese convoys and patrols abounded, Japanese aircraft regularly dotted the sky, and Japanese vessels dashed to and fro offshore.  The Marines' situation was dire: out of food, water, ammunition, and medical supplies, their wounded suffering intolerably, but the men kept moving.  They'd heard from local Filipinos and on short-wave radios news of the war, they were well aware of the deteriorating situation in the Philippines, that the collapse of US forces was a foregone conclusion, and that they platoon's only hope was escape from the Philippines.

So Captain Moon and Sgt Carlson drove their men to exhaustion searching for their escape capsule.  They managed to move overland incredible distances, though this began to take a toll, and ultimately some of the wounded were left behind with Filipino villagers, the Captain figuring that was the wounded Marines only hope for survival.  Down to nothing but their personal weapons and the clothes on their backs, they passed through seemingly impenetrable terrain, and managed to secure transport to neighboring islands multiple times, by the good graces of friendly Filipinos.

The platoon continued to suffer as casualties grew sick and died from lack of medical supplies and treatment, but they moved southeast through the major islands of Mindoro, Panay, and many smaller ones, before arriving on the island of Negros, where Filipinos transported them in outriggers along the coast, until finally the platoon found the US Navy.

"That's it!!!  That piece of @#$% is what we've been looking for!!??"  "Calm down Sergeant, I think this will do nicely," replied the Captain.  And with that, Capt Moon sidled up and introduced himself to the vessel's captain, Ensign Kemp Tolley.  They quickly made each other aware of their particular situations: the Captain explained the platoon's plight, beginning in China, while Ensign Tolley explained how the schooner was chartered from a US businessman, and prepared for a mission to French Indo-China that never occurred due to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  The USS Lanikai, as the schooner was known, departed Mariveles Bay on Luzon on 26 Dec 1941, hugging the coastline and dodging Japanese ships and aircraft as it made its way here to Negros Island.  Ensign Tolley had received orders from Admiral Hart, commander of the US Navy's Asiatic Fleet, to move his ship to the Dutch East Indies, specifically the naval facility at Surabaya.

Captain Moon told Ensign Tolley that Surabaya sounded a helluva lot better than staying here in the Philippines, and so Ens Tolley welcomed the Marines aboard.  At this point, only 23 Marines boarded:

13 were killed in action
5 more died of wounds enroute from Luzon to Negros Island
3 Marines were captured during fighting on Horseshoe Ridge
4 Marines had been wounded and evacuated to Cavite, and would be captured by the Japanese in March 1942
1 badly wounded Marine was left in the care of Filipino villagers on the island of Mindoro, and would be captured in July 1942
1 badly wounded Marine was left in the care of Filipino villagers further north on the island of Negros, and would be discovered and executed by the Japanese in May 1942

This left twenty able-bodied men of the platoon (though six of them were walking wounded), and three wounded Marines to board the USS Lanikai, though one of the wounded died during the transit to the Dutch East Indies.

The trip was long and arduous, but Ensign Tolley and his crew managed to successfully dodge the Japanese and navigate the Sulu Sea, the Celebes Sea, the Makassar Strait, and the Java Sea.  On 3 Feb 1942, Ensign Tolley pulled the USS Lanikai into harbor at Surabaya on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies.  Once there the crew of the USS Lanikai and 1st Platoon parted ways; the remaining two Marine wounded were evacuated to Darwin, Australia, while 1st Platoon was brought up to full strength from Marines of the ships companies of the USS Marblehead, USS Boise, and USS Houston, then shipped out.  Captain Moon and his Marines were stuffed aboard a Dutch trawler and shipped west to southern Sumatra, where they were charged with bolstering the Dutch garrison at Palembang.

**The USS Lanikai and its ordeal/journey is real, you can look it up, though the dates are kinda fuzzy as to when it actually departed the Philippines.  That is, it left Mariveles Bay on 26 Dec 1941, and arrived at Surabaya on or about 3 Feb 1942, and we know the general route it took southeast through the Philippines then across into Indonesia, but I couldn't really figure out the dates attached to the locations.  And now the Marines are at Palembang, go ahead and Google that.  I've got two words for ya: Japanese paratroopers!