Why did Admiral Nimitz say they had 3 to1 carrier advantage?
In the movie Midway after the Battle of Coral Sea Henry Fonda as Nimitz made the comment they had started out with a 3 to 1 carrier advantage was he implying the Pacific fleet had more carriers?
Did he not know how many carriers Japan had or was it a mistake by the writers of the script?
Japan had a total of 12 carriers of all types in commission by the battle of Midway.
After Coral Sea the US Pacific Fleet had 4 carriers Saratoga was undergoing repairs on the West Coast and arrived one day after the battle had finished in Hawaii.
Best Answer
I think this is the way it's phrased (which is quite badly).
Nimitz is trying to say that they started off working against a Japanese superiority of 3-1 and so they definitely can't afford to trade carriers on a one-for-one basis.
We can't trade the Japanese carrier for carrier, Matt. We started with a 3 to 1 superiority.
In December 1941 it was 11-4 and in May 1942 (10-3) so the actual numbers would seem to bear this put.source
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Why did Japan lose battle of Midway?
Japanese industry was unable to construct enough new flattops afterward to replenish the fleet, at the same time that American industry was laying the keels for\u2014among other things\u2014the seventeen-ship Essex class of carriers. Japanese naval aviation never recovered fully from Midway.Was America outnumbered in the battle of Midway?
The U.S. was badly outnumbered and its pilots less experienced than Japan's. Even so, it sank four Japanese aircraft carriers the first day of the three-day battle and put Japan on the defensive, greatly diminishing its ability to project air power as it had in the attack on Hawaii.What if Japanese won Midway?
A Japanese victory at Midway definitely would have precluded the Americans' August 1942 counteroffensive at Guadalcanal. Japanese incursions would have posed a more serious threat to Australia and New Guinea because the U.S. could not have stopped them.How many US planes were lost at Midway?
The Japanese lost approximately 3,057 men, four carriers, one cruiser, and hundreds of aircraft, while the United States lost approximately 362 men, one carrier, one destroyer, and 144 aircraft.Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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