The Battle Of Midway, the first major American victory in the war against Japan after Pearl Harbor, and a crucial point at which momentum shifted in our favor, began sixty years ago today.

It's a big week for Naval History:

The Battle of Jutland was fought 86 years ago last week, May 31-June 1, 1916 (someone check my math!) as the German High Seas Fleet steamed out to fight the arguably superior the British Grand Fleet-- the two fleets totaled some 100,000 men on 250 ships. Neither side won, though the butchers' bills favored the Germans: 6,000 Royal Navy sailors lost (mostly on three battlecruisers lost to lucky high-angle hits on magazines where sailors had learned some criminally negligent powder/shell-handling practices) to 2,500 German sailors. The Brits landed about 100 heavy-caliber shells to the German's 85 (including 15 hits each on HMS Warspite and HMS Tiger, which both remained afloat!). Both navies were hindered by a distrust of radio transmissions, lousy North Sea weather hindering visual signals, and a stagnant admiralty.

My source, a book called _At War at Sea_ by Ronald H. Spector, notes that the Royal Navy lost more men that afternoon than they lost in 20 years of war against Napoleon.

The outcome of Jutland was pretty small-- the British was able to rapidly restore its Navy and were still blockading the Germans; the Germans didn't want to spoil with the Grand Fleet again and started to rely on its new U-Boats to harrass merchant shipping.

Eternal Father, strong to save...

I take issue with your statement that Midway shifted the momentum in favor of the U.S. Midway was a defensive battle. The object was to inflict as much damage on the Japanese battle fleet as possible while maintaining the cohesion of the small U.S. fleet. Fletcher and Spruance achieved this apparently contradictory objective brilliantly, albeit with the help of U.S. codebreakers. Midway did not more, however, than halt the Japanese momentum in the Pacific.

The momentum in the Pacific (an indeed for all the allies in all theaters)swung in favor of the U.S. two months later with the landing of the 1st Marine Division on Guadalcanal. Though the issue there remained in doubt for several months, the initiative had definitely been taken by the U.S. I believe this also was the first strategic offensive action by any of the allies in World War II.

Ummmm...a shift of momentum away from the Japanese (which Midway was) is a "shift in our favor," even if we were both figuratively dead in the water until Guadalcanal...

If one merely compares the order of battle, Midway should have been a slam dunk for the Combined Fleet. But we had some fairly amazing breaks, such as correct analysis of the Sigint, showing up for the battle with 3 carriers instead of 2, and catching Admiral Nagumo flat-footed with his strike force re-arming on the flight deck after all of our torpedo bombers were wiped-out.

As it stands, however, Midway proved to be a strategic triumph for the United States, as the IJN was on the strategic and tactical defensive afterwards, and was never able to reconstitute the offensive sea power it lost at Midway.

Surely, for all that was at stake and everything that (improbably) went right for us, the Battle of Midway ought to be reckoned as America's Trafalgar...