Yorktown doesn't make "Point Luck"
What if the USS Yorktown was still under repair and unable to participate in the Battle of Midway. All occurrences of the battle are still the same for this discussion. The Japanese would not be affected so they change nothing in there strategies for attacking the Island. Would Tone’s no. 4 search plane still find the US Fleet? (IIRC it was Yorktown that was spotted)? Given that the Hornet’s air crews preformed poorly and not many planes even found the fleet, would the Enterprise’s air crews do enough damage to the Japanese fleet? When the Japanese counter attack the US CV’s could they have sunk both carriers from TF-16? Would the US even commit themselves to countering the attack? Finally, with Yorktown not participating it leaves her for future operations since she doesn’t get sunk. What effect could this possible extra carrier early in the war have?
IMHO, the Japanese do not find the US task force and conduct raids on Midway until the US planes are overhead. At least one carrier is still sunk with the first waves and the Japanese begin to scramble to find the US carriers. Eventually they will find them but not until one day later. Japanese strikes on the second day claim one carrier because there are far more planes available at this time. The US sinks another carrier on this second day and with only one carrier left in battle they return to the safety of Pearl.
Let’s leave any landings on Midway out of this discussion please, as that is for another day.
__________________
"When war does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." -General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson
"The conqueror is always a lover of peace; he would prefer to take over our country unopposed."-Karl von Clausewitz
|