"Sighted Main Body"

The Battles at Midway Island 3rd-6th June 1942

A Pacific War addon scenario for EAW

The Battle of Midway

"The annuals of war at sea present no more intense heart shaking shock than this battle, in which the qualities of the United States Navy and Airforce and the American race shone forth in splendour. The bravery and selfless devotion of the American airmen and sailors and the verve and skill of their leaders were the foundation of all."

Winston Churchill

"Now in regard to America and Britain our Imperial forces are constantly crushing their forces wherever they appear and are continuing swift and bold attack on their forces. Recently our naval forces have carried out an attack on the enemy stronghold of Midway and have annihilated the remnant aircraft carrier force"

Prime Minister Tojo's Broadcast to the Japanese people July 27, 1942

"We started hearing about the defeat at Midway from the carrier pilots. The more I heard their stories, the angrier I was. Not towards the enemy, but towards Vice Admiral Nagumo and his staff who took command. Their panic stricken and errornous decisions after finding the US carriers, failure to recover from damages, and most of all, to the fact that they got on board a destroyer and left the Akagi while the crew were desparately fighting the raging fire." Their rationale for leaving the ship was that if they were killed, there would be nobody to take command of the fleet. However, a dive bomber pilot spoke for all of us in heavy Tokyo accent, "What command? All we could do then was pack up and go home. Anyone can do that!".

Hiroshi Yasunaga, E13A and C6N pilot

In the course of the second world war although many Americans did expect Japanese landings on the west coast, and at the very least, Japanese bombing of the west coast cities, there never was a "Battle of America" as there was a decisive Battle of Britain in the European Theatre. That Battle of Britain meant that Germany would not win a quick war, or obtain a quick and cheap peace. The war would go on, and Germany would loose it. The only reason there never was a Battle of America is that there was a Battle of Midway.

An American victory at Midway was however the least likely outcome, given the forces each side could bring to bear in June 1942. Using part of their available forces, for Operations MI and AL the Japanese could sortie a huge fleet including eight aircraft carriers with some of the best aircraft and the most experienced pilots in the world, and inumerable battleships, cruisers, destroyers and other craft. Against that, less than six months after the attack on Pearl Harbour, the United States could put up only two fully working carriers, and a third which was still under repair, and a few mostly inferior and almost obselete or new and untried aircraft.

It is said that the Battle of Midway has been wargamed innumerable times by US military academies, but a US victory has yet to be obtained in any of those games. Had two or more of the American carriers been lost and the Rising Sun planted on Midway Atoll, there would have been little left to stop the full realisation of the Japanese stratiegic plan. Their planned defence perimeter would havebeen achieved. With a further strike at the US Navy Pacific base in Hawaii in clear contemplation, and the future US navy still only taking shape in the shipyards, the United States would have had to contemplate the hitherto unthinkable - an accomadation with Imperial Japan.

Between that repugnant scenario and reality stood about 400 pilots and aircrew of the US Navy, Army, and Marine Corps. They had some matters in their favour ... Firstly the Japanese plan broke all the usual military rules - it was too complex. It depended on everything going right. It also depended on surprise ... ... but US intelligence was extremely good. Their codebreakers were reading many of the Japanese signals, and had receovered most of the details of the Japanese intentions and their forces could be disposed accordingly. The Japanese on the other hand had no idea of the American dispositions. Secondly the brilliant qualities of the US Commanders - Admirals Nimitz, who trusted the intelligence he was given, and Spruance, who conducted the battle.

But finally, as Churchill noted, it was finally the courage, skill, and selfless dedication of the Navy airmen which made the difference. The torpedo bomber pilots knew before they took off that they were not comming back, and to a man were shot to peices by the withering fire of the anti-aircraft guns - but they drew down the Zeros and "opened the roof" for the dive bombers, who in seven minutes sunk three of the mightiest ships in the world and later came back for the fourth.

As you work through the missions in this addon remember those men - the other "few". The American victory at Midway meant that Japan would not win a quick war, or obtain a quick and cheap peace. The war would go on, and now Japan could only loose it.

New! Midway 1.2 inclusive upgrade installer Download

For the new Midway 1.2 inclusive of all upgrades below the 80 MB installer file download is here

For the manual installing downloads see below

Installing the basic Midway addon for EAW

Version 1.02 29th May 2001

Screenshots of the main and other menus can be seen here

(1) Please first download and read the documentation

readme.zip (13 KB)

Introduction, gameplay, installation, indices for mission files

(2) The next three archives are the required files

common.zip (3 MB)

This contains airfields and carriers, screens, menus, sprites, terrain organisation and elevation, and basic data.

skins.zip (1.5 MB)

This contains models and skins for the aircraft package.

terrain.zip (1.3 MB)

This contains ground objects and skins, and terrain tiles.

(3) The final three archives are the missions and menu music

usmissions.zip (6 KB)

31 single mission files for the US forces

japmissions.zip (6 KB)

30 single mission files for the Japanese forces

menumuspacific.zip (800 KB)

Pacific theatre main menu soundtrack

See Upgrade and Alternative files below!

Upgrade Files for the Midway addon for EAW

Aircraft Upgrades

Aircraft Upgrade 1 for the Midway aircraft Including Captain Kurt's improved models for virtually all the aircraft, Claudio Wilches cockpits, and consolidating all the fixes since the original release including the shadow files and B26 and PBY ordnance.

New! Aircraft Upgrade 2 for the Midway aircraft includes Col Gibbon's new hi-res Wildcat model, with hi-res skins by DeanH for the Yorktown, Enterprise, and Hornet airgroups and for The US Marine Corps Squad on Midway Island

Get the Aircraft Upgrades HERE

Additional Files for the Midway addon for EAW

Aircraft Shadow fix files (now also included in the Aircraft upgrade) here

NEW! Midway Speech Pack (James Richard's Japanese speech files and RR's US speech file fixes) here

The original object and terrain skins developed for this addon here

Alternative Files for the Midway addon for EAW

NEW! Wudpecker's alternative environments (weather & terrain) and MenuMusic for Midway here

Flip's adaptation of Lumpkins' Tarawa terrain for Midway here

Alternative mainscreens and Earoks Random Mainscreen Selector for Midway here

Thankyou to all those people who helped in the construction of this addon and its upgrades fixes and alternative files.

Any problems, please email me HERE and I'll do my best to help

Moggy

Return to RAF Chattenden