World War Two
Published 5 Jun 2021

The supposedly surprise Japanese operations against Midway Atoll and the Aleutian Islands kick-off, but they don’t know that Allied intelligence has cracked their codes. As the Japanese fleet advances in the Central Pacific and Japanese planes bomb Midway, the US Navy has a big surprise waiting for them.

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Written and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Director: Astrid Deinhard
Producers: Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Executive Producers: Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson, Bodo Rittenauer
Creative Producer: Maria Kyhle
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Markus Linke
Edited by: Iryna Dulka
Sound design: Marek Kamiński
Map research: Wieke Kapteijns, Bastian Gaete
Map animations: Eastory (https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory), Daniel Weiss, Lucas Aimo, Wieke Kapteijns

Colorizations by:
– Carlos Ortega Pereira, BlauColorizations – https://www.instagram.com/blaucolorizations
– Mikołaj Uchman
– Daniel Weiss
– Norman Stewart – https://oldtimesincolor.blogspot.com/

Soundtracks from the Epidemic Sound:
– Jo Wandrini – “Dragon King”
– Howard Harper-Barnes- “Underlying Truth”
– Rannar Sillard – “Split Decision”
– Brightarm Orchestra – “On the Edge of Change”
– Edward Karl Hanson – “Spellbound”
– Dream Cave – “The Beast”
– Edward Karl Hanson – “Firebreak”
– Jo Wandrini – “To War!”

Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

From the comments:

World War Two
3 days ago (edited)
1. Check it out limited time Midway collectibles here: https://timeghost.tv/collectibles/
2. For a discussion about the “six minutes” and “planes on deck” see below
3. This week there are three regular weekly episodes. Today’s episode — an extra regular one — covers the Japanese attacks this week and the first day’s action at the Battle of Midway. As many of you doubtless know, it is one of the most important battles of the 20th century and changes the entire nature and scope of the Pacific War.

Now to the discussion of planes on deck and the infamous six minutes as refined in the book Shattered Sword. This is what Indy and Markus who worked on the script for this together have to say:

Markus: “I actually used Shattered Sword for the research after we received some comments regarding the same issue in the Sabaton History Midway episode. The problem is basically this: older sources recite Fuchida’s statement in his book Midway: The Battle that doomed Japan, that the flight decks were full with bombers and fighters, just waiting to be unleashed, and that the Americans just hit them in those ‘fateful 5 minutes’, when they presented the optimal target. But Shattered Sword disputes this claim, saying those five minutes aren’t plausible, since it would take way longer anyways to launch and that the Americans could have attacked half an hour later and still inflicted as much damage as they did, because the Japanese counterstrike wasn’t even close to being ready. Shattered Sword also claims that the planes were instead still in the closed-off hangars, as it was custom on Japanese carriers, unlike the Americans, who refueled and stored their planes directly on the flight decks. Following Shattered Sword thesis I wrote in the research for Midway pt.1: ‘For the whole morning Kido Butai had found itself out of position, trying to find an opening to spot their flight decks. The relentless but so far hapless attacks of American aircrafts had paralyzed their offensive power, stifled by the constant need for defensive action.’ But Shattered Sword also admits that its own viewpoint is refuted by some eyewitness reports from American pilots, who claim seeing many Japanese aircraft being destroyed on the decks. So I don’t think there is 100% proof here which statement is right. I personally side with Shattered Sword, but that doesn’t mean that the eyewitness reports are false.”

Indy: “I did not include that sentence in the final script, mainly because I was already over 3,000 words, just pointing out that the torpedo bombers had disrupted the carrier formation, and inserting the planes on decks, myself not having read Shattered Sword. However, something else Markus also says: that book reaches its conclusion using ship data and not eyewitness reports, and I don’t really want to disregard all eyewitness reports as unreliable. I cannot now say just which is correct, planes on deck or no, but either way, it does not affect the course of the battle. Wish I knew for sure, though.

Markus: “In the end it comes down to what people understand as ‘full of planes’. There were definitely some planes moved and stored on deck, but most likely not the full attack force that just needed five more minutes to launch. In the end it doesn’t make a difference. Those planes are out of the fight either way. It’s not like they expected to fight again.”