Found in the message board about the movie Midway.

What do y'all think about it?

1st post

Fletcher had won the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross earlier in his career, so I'm certain he was a brave man. However, he did seem to be extremely overly-cautious when in command of carrier groups.

His record there is somewhat dubious. In his first action, at Coral Sea, his planes focused on the small carrier Shoho, while letting the big carriers Shokaku and Zuikako escape -albeit after seriously damaging one, and causing his aircraft attrition in the other.

At Midway, he only launched half his planes in the initial attack (while Spruance launched all his, save for the Combat Air Patrol over the carriers). If he had launched all his dive-bombers, they might have been able to sink the Hiryu on the first attack, thus preventing it from launching the two attacks on Yorktown.

Then, at Guadalcanal, he essentially bugged out, leaving the Marines high and dry.

Spruance was a great admiral. Perhaps because he was the complete opposite, personality-wise, from Halsey. Spruance was a calm, quiet, methodical man. He had the great ability to keep cool in battle and stay focused on the big picture. The press loved Halsey because he was a colourful character and highly agressive. Spruance, because he such a quiet and non-grandiose character, was practically unknown during the war. I think the best thing that can be said for Halsey was that he could energize people to win. He WAS an aggressive and colourful commander and those qualities raised morale and encouraged the best in his sailors and marines. Nimitz was very lucky to have those two admirals underneith him. What's more, he realized how different they were and that each brought something unique to the table. Halsey brought aggressive enthusiasm while Spruance brought coolheadedness in battle.

Overall, I think Nimitz relied more on Spruance by the time the war ended. He saw that Spruance was able to see the big picture enough that he was able to really handle the big fleet actions. As well, Nimitz (a quiet, reserved man himself) likely related with Spruance better than with Halsey. Some authors have likened the relationship between Nimitz and Spruance to that of Grant and Sherman in the Civil War.

One other thing I found annoying, was how they refer to Fletcher as "docking" the Yorktown. Fletcher didn't dock anything. He wasn't the ship's captain. He was the admiral in command of the task force. Elliot Backmaster, the Yorktown's captain was responsible for bringing the ship back from the Coral Sea safely then "docking" her at Pearl.

2nd post.

Spruance was denied a fifth star soon after the war, due to a Senator who was a big fan of Halsey's. However, he was given a very nice "consolation prize" of sorts. By executive order, it was decreed that from the moment of his retirement, Spruance would receive the full pay of a four-star admiral (which was his retirement rank), rather than the usual partial (or retirement pay) of a retired officer that every other officer in the service received once they retired.

So, Spruance didn't get a promotion to Fleet Admiral, but he did get far better pay in retirement than any other officer in the Navy. (His retirement pay was probably much higher every month than the five-star admirals pensions).

I think Spruance's career would make an interesting film on its own. It's notable because he was so unlike many of the famous generals or admirals. He wasn't a "personality" like Halsey or Patton. He was simply a quiet, methodical, soft-spoken leader.

Supposedly, when Spruance came aboard the Enterprise before the Midway sortie, Halsey's staff didn't know what to make of him. He was about as opposite from Halsey as one could get. Halsey was a boisterous, passionate man with many vices. Spruance was quiet, introspective and was what we would now call a health-fanatic. He didn't smoke or drink and walked miles around the deck everyday for exercise. He even dragged many of Halsey's staff along with him. His purpose there was to pick their brains and learn what he could about flight operations. He knew that he was a novice to carriers, so he wanted to learn from the experienced carrier people.

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Best Regards,
JW

I think the original poster has a very sparse grasp of the facts.

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I wonder what this button does . . .

A review of the "Movie" it was.
The PTO was a big place, and a lot little things make up the "Big Picture" as he/she said. You would need a 36 million square mile screen, and a lot of eyes, to see it all.

that would be Captain E. Buckmaster CV-5

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"Danger Will Robinson!"