From Pearl Harbor to Midway Island: A popular science epic about the beginning of the Pacific War

Ethel 2022-01-05 08:01:53

The Battle of Midway has long been regarded as a turning point in the Pacific battlefield, and has been extensively studied and discussed by historians, military scientists and enthusiasts in the past few decades. Around this subject, many excellent film and television literature and game works have been born. Today’s Roland Emmerich’s decisive battle Midway provides the audience with a shocking scene of the sea and air war, and at the same time allows viewers who are not familiar with this history to understand the reasons for the battle of Midway.

The Pacific Theater held an important position in the entire history of World War II, and as a result, it directly led to the surrender of the militarist Japan, which was then unparalleled. The Battle of Midway Island has long been regarded as a turning point in the Pacific battlefield. In this battle, the Old Japanese Navy lost four regular aircraft carriers and hundreds of experienced elite pilots, and was forced to abandon its planned strategic intentions. The U.S. and Japan’s combat power on the Pacific battlefield regained balance. Since then, the U.S. military has taken the initiative, while the Japanese forces have been forced to engage in a long war of attrition with the Allied forces in the Southwest Pacific and gradually shifted to strategic defense.

For those who are a little familiar with the history of World War II, the name of Midway Island is undoubtedly familiar. For military enthusiasts, it is even more interesting to talk about the detailed process of the Battle of Midway and the above-mentioned results and impact. However, it is not universally known why the United States and Japan have come here step by step, and why they want to block the national fortune around a projectile atoll. If the historical events of Pearl Harbor, Coral Sea, and Midway Island are beads, then this movie is like a chain, connecting independent events that we are familiar with, using entertainment and publicly acceptable means. I made a popular science to the audience about the beginning of the Pacific War.

If you are indeed a professional in the relevant field and have a tendency to perfectionism, you will inevitably shed painful tears because of the detail problems here or there when you watch this movie, and you will even be invited out because you tore the seats of the theater. Projection hall. However, for the less critical historians and other moviegoers who just want to have fun, this movie has a good movie experience to a large extent: it has both the hot war scenes on the front line and the intelligence department at the rear. The battle of wits and courage; while gaining visual enjoyment, he also learned historical knowledge along the way. Perhaps some of them became interested in the Pacific War because of this, and they wanted to know what happened afterwards and thus invested in the vast sea of ​​history. This can also be said to be a beautiful thing.

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I personally believe that this decisive battle on Midway is a rare and outstanding historical war movie in recent years; it is also a rare Hollywood war movie that takes a battle perspective to survey the overall situation, rather than a panoply-style war movie. From saving Private Ryan, Pearl Harbor, to Hacksaw Ridge and Dunkirk, Hollywood is very good at this kind of narrative that uses small people and small events as the starting point to describe the big background. However, such a panoramic approach to Midway Island is rare. In order to avoid the look and feel similar to a documentary, while maintaining the continuity of the story, "Midway Island" uses dialogue and scene construction to insert supplementary background as much as possible to explain the historical reasons. For example, at the beginning of the article, I used Yamamoto's mouth to briefly introduce the main contradictions between the United States and Japan, and explain to the audience the reasons for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Through the scene of the sailors preparing for the dinner on the USS Arizona, it demonstrated the US military's long-standing peace and lax preparedness, and allowed the audience to understand the background conditions for the success of this sneak attack.

In fact, all of this starts with the Navy Holiday. On February 6, 1922, after the First World War, the five naval powers of the United States, Britain, France, Italy, and Japan signed the " Washington Naval Treaty " on the restriction of naval armaments in Washington . The treaty detailed restrictions on the tonnage and artillery calibers of naval ships of various countries, as well as the tonnage, technology, and armament of capital ships before 1937. Coupled with the provisions of the subsequent " London Naval Treaty " and the many restrictions on the German navy imposed by the " Versailles Treaty ", in a word, the navies of various countries have entered a 15-year "peace era", which is known as a naval holiday in history. However, undercurrents are surging under the calm surface. The navies of various countries not only try to exploit the gaps in the treaty, but also actively plan to expand their armaments. Take the Old Japanese Navy (IJN) as an example. As early as 1934, the Military Command issued a plan to design and build the main battleship of the 18-inch naval gun, which later became the Yamato-class battleship. The uppermost level was also classified as a light cruiser by installing a 6-inch gun. Soon after the war, it was replaced with the originally planned 8-inch naval gun, and it was transformed and resumed heavy patrol. In addition, Japan blatantly withdrew from the signing of the second London Naval Treaty in 1936. At this time, the fragile agreement had already existed in name only, the afterglow of peace was diminishing, and the shadow of turbulence was hanging over the Pacific Ocean.

During the naval holiday, the battlecruiser Akagi (1925), which was converted into a regular aircraft carrier due to treaty restrictions

From the 1930s to the early 1940s, the militarist Japanese government's ambitions expanded dramatically. On September 18, 1931, the Japanese army brazenly launched the September 18th Incident and forcibly occupied our three eastern provinces. In 1937, the Qiqi Lugou Bridge Incident was launched frantically and invaded the entire territory of China. However, the tenacious fighting will and brave resistance of the Chinese soldiers and civilians also plunged the Japanese invaders into the quagmire of war. Japan, a small country, has been short of resources since ancient times. By 1941, the domestic economy collapsed and supplies were nearly exhausted. In order to maintain the war in China, in September 1940, after the surrender of France, the Japanese army took advantage of the situation to occupy the northern part of French Indochina, which is today's Southeast Asia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and other regions. The lips are dead and the teeth are cold. This behavior has angered Western countries such as the United States and Britain, which have a large number of colonies in Southeast Asia. In 1941, the United States asked Japan to withdraw from French Indochina, and together with Britain warned to cut off Japan's oil supply. Oil is the blood of the war machine. As far as the navy is concerned, it has lost fuel supplies, and the existing reserves of the joint fleet are only enough for half a year of combat. On the one hand is the battlefield of China, which consumes huge amounts of money each day, and on the other hand is the international sanctions of "Miying ghosts and livestock"; for Japan, which has domestic and foreign troubles, it can only rely on eating the fat of Southeast Asia if it wants to maintain its warfare, and this means that it must We have to wipe out the great power of Britain and the United States in the Pacific. Naturally, it is impossible for the film to integrate these era backgrounds one by one, but with only a small amount of space, the logic behind this has been hinted to the audience.

But what the film did not elaborate on is that the attack on Pearl Harbor was not a fully prepared and independent event. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese immediately launched a full-scale offensive. On the same day of December 7, the old Japanese navy expedition to the Malay Peninsula and began to occupy Southeast Asia. On December 8, the Japanese Chitose Air Force took off from Kwajalein Atoll and attacked Wake Island, opening the prelude to the Battle of Wake Island. On December 10, the British Far East Z Fleet was attacked by Japanese troops in the waters near Malaysia. The new battleship Prince of Wales and the Anti-War Cruiser sank, and more than four thousand people under Commander Phillips were buried in the ocean. This blow made Churchill "tossing and turning, having trouble sleeping." At this time, Japan had an absolute advantage in the Pacific, and the year-end of 1941 was shrouded in a gloomy cloud.

The Nanyun mobile force returning from Midway directly sent the Second Air Force and the Eighth Cruiser to support the Wake Island operation on the 16th. This also directly affected the outcome of the second Wake Island battle. At this time, the vast Pacific Ocean was almost completely held by the Japanese.

It is commendable that the idea of ​​selecting historical nodes in "The Battle of Midway" is very clear. In the film’s first battle, the Enterprise attacked Japanese warships and facilities at a port on a small island. The torpedo aircraft shuttled through the valley to meet and chase enemy aircraft. The air battle scene was impressive. This battle is supposed to be the Marshalls-Gilberts raids (Marshalls–Gilberts raids). The battle that took place on February 1, 1942 did not cause serious losses to the Japanese army, and neither strategically nor tactically had a profound impact on the entire Pacific battlefield. However, the director spent a lot of space on this, and even took the obvious more historical value of the Coral Sea battle with a lens, precisely because this part played an important role in supplementing the background of the times in the film and taking on the important role of the main story line.

One of the main characters in the play, Rear Admiral William Halsey, nicknamed "Bull Bull", is here for the first time. As the commander of the 16th Task Force (TF-16) (and the 8th Task Force at the time), the aircraft carrier battle group with the Enterprise (CV-6) as the core under his command played an indispensable role in the Pacific battlefield. In this campaign, he and Rear Admiral Fletcher commanded the 17th Task Force (TF-17) with Yorktown (CV-5) as the core and launched an offensive. The scenes in the movie, such as the lack of combat experience of the US naval aviation, the inadequacy of tactical arrangements, and the embarrassment of aviation torpedoes, are all practical problems in history.

At the beginning of 1942, which had been passively beaten and exhausted, the Marshall-Gilbert Islands raid was the first systematic US attack on Japan. This battle and the future Dolittle air raid on Tokyo greatly encouraged the morale of the U.S. Navy and the public. It also accumulated valuable aircraft carrier combat experience for the U.S. military and laid the foundation for subsequent operations in the Coral Sea and Midway Island. Rome was not built in a day, and training experienced pilots cannot be accomplished overnight. In the movie, we can also intuitively feel that after the preparations for the First World War in Marshall, the Enterprise pilots at Midway Island have been reborn as a result of the baptism of war, both physically and mentally.

In addition, the bombing of Tokyo and the Battle of the Coral Sea in the film excerpts were also necessary conditions for the decisive battle between the United States and Japan on Midway Island. The bombing of Tokyo threatened Japan's homeland, forcing Japanese senior officials to realize the need to eliminate the threat of the US aircraft carrier fleet and to formulate an offensive route in the East Pacific. This is also reflected in the fictional scenario of the Japanese Navy and Army Strategic Meeting. The Coral Sea battle resulted in the Wuhang Fighting Xianghe Ruihe two large aircraft carriers being forced to return to Hong Kong for repairs, and thus missed the Midway Sea battle. This has enabled the two sides to balance their aviation capabilities, and the United States has the opportunity to give it a go.

The scene details are another highlight that makes this film outstanding. In particular, the depiction of dive bombing scenes from multiple positions has left viewers impressed by this decisive tactic that symbolized the rise of the naval aviation era. Speaking of the theme of Midway, it is easy for us to compare today's "Decisive Battle of Midway" with Jack Smet's "Midway" in 1976 (in fact, the original title is Midway). In fact, even without considering the advantages of special effects, the film still has another extremely important advantage: academic achievements. In recent years, research on the Battle of Midway has been further improved, and many details that have not been clear before have also been revealed one by one. I am very happy to see that this film makes good use of this advantage, adding some historical details to the film and giving close-ups:

① One of the four B-26s that took off from Midway almost hit the Akagi bridge during the crash. ② The Mk13 torpedo broke into two after hitting the sideboard of the King Kong-class battleship. ③A bomb dropped on the Akagi exploded from the port side near Lost Sea. ④The dive bomber Captain McCluskey of the Enterprise followed the destroyer Arashi that returned to the fleet to find the Japanese aircraft carrier. It was because Arashi was ordered to drive the USS Nautilus submarine that launched torpedoes at the Akagi. ⑤The Nautilus discovered the TBF Avenger torpedo aircraft taking off from Midway, and then observed a large amount of anti-aircraft fire in the distance, thereby discovering the position of the Japanese fleet. ⑥ The five-minute fateful scene that has been affected by Mitsuo Fuchida's description for a long time has been corrected, and the relatively empty Akagi deck has been restored. At the same time, it was emphasized that the maintenance work was carried out in the hangar, described the Kaga that lost power and electricity after being attacked, and restored the scene where a large amount of ammunition in the hangar was detonated. ⑦It depicts the scene where McCluskey’s VS-6 and Best’s VB-6 fleet simultaneously dived and dropped bombs on the Kaga due to a coordinated error. Only the three aircraft such as Best were transferred out in time. ⑧One of the protagonists of the film, Enterprise pilot Richard Halsey "Dick" Best (Richard Halsey "Dick" Best) inhaled tuberculosis-inducing smoke during the mission, and then kept coughing up blood, was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was hospitalized until Retired in 1944. The film also restores this historical fact.

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Let’s talk about the problems with the video below.

Early Yamato. Note that the towering iron tower at the stern of the ship was removed at the end of the battle.

First of all, I want to be clear: a movie is not a documentary, and the standard of textual research does not need to be perfect, so it is inevitable that there are omissions. What's more, many major battles have to be filled in just two hours, and it is inevitable that there will be omissions and simplifications. However, for very demanding audiences, this movie does have some innocuous flaws. For example: (1) Five Yamato-class battleships appeared in the Nanyun mobile force before the Battle of Midway Island. ②The Yamato in the film seems to be in a decisive battle state rather than an early state. ③In the Marshall-Gilbert Islands raid, there was a four-turret King Kong battle cruiser at the port, which was not in keeping with history. ④ The Doolittle air raid on Tokyo was April 1942. TF16 and TF17, which returned from the Marshall battle, would not encounter the Hornet (CV-12) three months later. ⑤Only 4 B-26 bombers took off from Midway Island, instead of the 9 (or more) in the movie. ⑥The target of the Nautilus submarine attack was not the Kirishima/Haruna battleship but the flagship aircraft carrier Akagi. ⑦A Brooklyn-class light cruiser appeared in the US fleet at the Battle of Midway. The three turrets on the front deck were very eye-catching. However, this type of cruiser did not participate in the battle of Midway Island. ⑧The US military aircraft carrier that was lost and slowly sinking in the Coral Sea should be Mrs. Lexington, and the York City-class model was used in the movie.

Brooklyn class (top) and Atlanta class (bottom) light cruisers. The difference between the two ships is obvious. Only the latter participated in the Battle of Midway and was incorporated into the 16th Task Force (TF-16) in Spruance.

The shape of the bridge between the Lexington (top) and the Yorktown class (bottom) is very obvious.

If some of the above omissions may be limited by funding, and some are adaptations for the smoothness and coherence of the plot, not only is it difficult for most viewers to detect, but also has a subtle impact on the overall expression of the film. However, some of the following questions have to be raised.

1. Explosion effect. There are many gorgeous explosion scenes throughout the story, but a large part of them is unreasonable. The machine guns and aerial cannons of the aircraft are absolutely unable to cause an explosion by strafing, and a 250kg aerial bomb will definitely not be able to plunge the entire airport into a sea of ​​flames. This apparently distorted scene runs through the entire movie. This kind of error is actually more common in many similar movies, such as Pearl Harbor in the past few years and machine guns that exploded the red tail of a destroyer. Although it is understandable to make a certain degree of exaggeration for visual effects, films with historical themes will become Star Wars with the background of World War II, and they will inevitably be suspected of insulting the audience's IQ.

2. Fleet equipment. The "Five Minutes to Decide Destiny" that has been talked about is because Nanun Chuichi, after receiving contradictions and vague information, was hesitating between "loading air bombs to bomb Midway Island or loading torpedoes to attack the US aircraft carrier fleet", which made the aircraft carrier deck It was piled with warplanes and ammunition under maintenance, which finally caused the main force of the mobile unit to be destroyed in just five minutes. Although recent research results refute this view, at least there is no controversy regarding the hesitation of "air bombs or torpedoes." However, the first wave of Tomoejo City who attacked Midway Island in the film turned into a chaotic formation of zero combat and 99, 97 bombers, and all members flew to the island with torpedoes. This is really confusing. It may be difficult for ordinary viewers to distinguish between the models of different aircraft or warships, but the appearance of torpedoes and aerial bombs are quite different, which is a common sense error that laypersons can also see at a glance.

3. Severely injure the flying dragon. At the end of the film, the Best plane dived and bombed the aircraft carrier Flying Dragon, and directly hit a 1000lb aerial bomb on the fore deck. The film depicts the dive bombing scene many times, and the Bombing Dragon, which was selected as the climax of the whole film, is particularly caring for the director. However, I may have used too much force because of this, and I shot the smell of Luke Skywalker driving the X-WING to destroy the Death Star, and I let the Buddha echo Obi-Wan's "luke, trust your feeling". However, it was this period of dive bombing that was highlighted that almost destroyed all previous descriptions of this tactic, because the timing of Best's bombing in the film was completely wrong.

Schematic diagram of dive bombing. The dive bomber drop position should be 3 instead of 4 in the picture.

Description of dive bombing angle and altitude. If the bomb is dropped below 1,000 feet, the lifted height will be less than 700 feet, and it may be affected by the explosive shock wave of its own bomb.

As shown in the figure, the significance of the dive bombing tactic is to control the drop line of the bomb by manipulating the aircraft to eliminate the horizontal speed and improve the bombing accuracy. Therefore, it usually enters the field at a large angle of attack. The correct dive bombing scene appeared many times before in the film, but a detailed error demonstration was placed at the finale of the play. There is no problem with Best's dive entry angle. However, in the play, he did not drop the bomb at the position shown in Figure 3, instead, after diving and leveling, he flew along the deck to the position 4 before releasing. At this time, the bomb has a very high horizontal velocity, and there is not enough vertical impulse to penetrate the deck. It can be said that the meaning of dive bombing has been completely lost. Moreover, the altitude of the flight was almost the same as that of the landing, and it was obvious that it would be affected after the bomb exploded. When I was in the theater, there was already a funny scene in my mind where the bomb bounced several times before sliding down the deck and falling into the water. However, the thickened deck steel plate of the Flying Dragon in the film looked like a layer of glutinous rice paper, and the bomb was stabbed in with a "puff". Coupled with the unpowered magic of the plane floating up after landing, this comically full orgasm part really reduces the seriousness of the movie.

In addition to the above scene issues, I think the biggest controversy of the film lies in its narrative rhythm. "The Battle of Midway" is not content to follow Hollywood traditions to tell a story in a big context around a small person and an isolated incident. Instead, it wants to depict an epic by showing the overall strategy of both sides of the war. However, according to the standards of an epic drama, although the plot has clear goals and reasonable choices, the director's grasp of the rhythm of the whole story still needs to be polished. The Battle of Midway is a complicated battle. From the rear intelligence preparation to the deployment of troops on the battlefield, there are many details that are indispensable for understanding the story. Especially when the battle is imminent, both sides are racing against time, and every minute is of utmost importance. The rhythm here should be the same as Dunkirk, so nervous that you can even hear the ticking sound in the background. However, the director slowed down the rhythm in some insignificant places, resulting in insufficient time for the battle of Midway Island. Because of the emphasis on describing the course of the war on the day of the war, there is a lack of coherent and sufficient explanation of the preparations before the war. Which troop was, and what mobilization was made; where and when the fighter took off, and who bombed. These historical facts, which could have been accurate to the minute, were fragmented and turned into isolated historical scenes. As a result, the audience only remembered that the plane flew over and fell down, and the bomb exploded here and there, but they lost their grasp of the overall direction of the war. It will inevitably make people feel that an important battle that has been paving the way for more than an hour has just ended inexplicably.

As for the film's complete depiction of Nan Yunzhong as a stupid and incompetent trash, and the depiction of Yamaguchi Duawen as a resourceful hero who died in the martyrdom, it is a matter of opinion. But I personally think that when looking at historical events, we should try not to evaluate the behavior of historical figures from the perspective of God to be more fair. In fact, after receiving four 1,000-pound aerial bombs, the Flying Dragon once regained a speed of 26 knots due to damage to the tube, and even after being struck by lightning, it remained unsinkable overnight. Some researchers in later generations also believed that it was not an "irrecoverable" situation in any case. And given up on such a precious right voyage that can still be rescued, and Yamaguchi, who chose to sink with the ship, heard what kind of mentality he was holding at the time, and future generations will not be able to surmise.

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Two months after the Battle of Midway, the U.S. Army landed on Guadalcanal Island in the Solomon Islands in the southwest Pacific, kicking off the half-year-long Battle of Guadalcanal. Since then, the Japanese army was forced to fall into an endless war of attrition and gradually turned into a strategic disadvantage. With the support of powerful industrial forces, the U.S. military has continuously launched new warships into service. As of 1945 on the eve of Japan's defeat, the United States had built a total of 147 aircraft carriers of various types, of which 22 were Essex-class large aircraft carriers. However, Japan's economic strength could not keep up with the war losses. Since then, the battle has been determined, and Japanese fascists have no power to recover. On August 15, 1945, Japan officially announced its unconditional surrender. On September 2 of the same year, the representative of Japan signed the surrender on the US battleship Missouri (BB-63), which was anchored in Tokyo Bay. Representatives of China, the United States, and the Soviet Union signed successively. And this also marked the end of the victory of my country's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. So far, the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War came to an end.

The victory of the Anti-Fascist War in World War II has only been more than 70 years. Today, the shadow of war has not faded from the memory of the previous generation, and the world is full of undercurrents, which is far from peaceful. Therefore, in any case, I would like to see more films describing the themes of World War II appear. Because people are forgetful, and some history can never be forgotten. Sitting in the theater, I can't help thinking of the afternoon when I wandered in the middle school library more than ten years ago. I remember when I searched the corner of the bookshelf and found a book whose pages had been yellowed and the price was only 2 cents of "The Pacific War". When I opened the old book, the afternoon sun shone on the pages. The first eight characters of the book are still fresh in my memory.

Past experience guide for the future.

View more about Midway reviews

Extended Reading
  • Charlotte 2022-03-26 09:01:09

    "Every battle needs a miracle" The sea is immortalized.

  • Bennett 2022-03-25 09:01:14

    This is a typical "blockbuster" filming method. The arrangement of literary, opera and martial arts has been carefully calculated, and even the plot of "hitting the enemy ship" has been designed with ups and downs: raising expectations, but repeatedly missed, the audience's expectations continue to fall Shen, finally hit, the audience's sense of refreshment reached its peak, and it was really arbitrary. After the bloody battle at Hacksaw Ridge, there was finally another super hard-core World War II war film, and after Dunkirk, there was another exciting air battle scene. All the elements of this film are for the service of "blockbuster look and feel", love and friendship are just embellishments, giving way to the incomparably real air vs sea battle (the first perspective is really shocking), giving way to very convincing details ( Even the format of the Japanese military information sheet is strictly verified). The director, Emmerich, specializes in blockbuster movies. He knows the tastes of the audience too well. This movie is like a big plate of Texas-style barbecue, rough, solid, clear, and squeaking in front of you in the heat, which is hard to resist.

Midway quotes

  • Dick Best: [repeated line, as he attempts to land on a carrier] Hang in there kid, we're almost home.

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt: It is a day which will live in infamy.