USS San Francisco SSN-711

[powell99]

Im with Jason. I am a Midway Addict. Still the largest factor that resulted in an American victory was that we broke their code.

 

[AKAImBatman]

I refuse to get drawn into a debate with you.

I'm not looking for a debate either. My original point was that the introduction of aircraft carriers made battleships obsolete, not their vulnerability to torpedoing as Death had suggested. I have attempted to back up my facts below, however. Again, I'm not looking for a debate either. I'm just providing references for what I said.

Still the largest factor that resulted in an American victory was that we broke their code.

Very true. Without the broken code, we wouldn't have been able to surprise the Japanese during their own surprise attack.


References:

Japanese Carriers in Front
From http://www.centuryinter.net/midway/veterans/howardadyjr.html

As was the pattern of the day, this was followed by a more detailed contact report. Then, around 0530, the curtain rose on the biggest show of his life. His radio began sending back reports:

0534 Enemy Carriers
0540 ED 180 sight 320
0552 Two carriers and main body of ships, carriers in front, course 135, speed 25

Backed up here:
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/USN-CN-Midway/USN-CN-Midway-5.html

Battleships More Dangerous Forward
From here: http://johnsmilitaryhistory.tripod.com/carriertactics.html

Battleships were still a great danger to the carrier task force. At night, it was impossible for a carrier group to detect a force of battleships. Within the period of one night, a force of battleships could traverse the 200 mile range of aircraft and be within gun range of the carrier task force before morning. (Hughes 105) Even in daylight the threat from battleships was all too real. The decisive battle of Midway could have been very different had the Japanese deployed their numerically superior battleships in the front, and not in the rear, of their naval force.

(Note that US carriers were later refitted for night-time operations, thus negating this advantage. The carriers that were refitted had their designations changed to CV(N), not to be confused with CVN for nuclear carriers.)

Battleships Screening Carriers
Here is a reference to battleships being use for screening carriers, although I don't have any hard figures at the moment for when the practice was started.
http://www.multied.com/Navy/battle/Washington.html

Washington rendezvoused with other carrier groups that composed TF 50 on 25 November and, during the reorganization that followed, was assigned to TG 50.4, the fast carrier task group under the command of Rear Admiral Frederick C. "Ted" Sherman. The carriers comprising the core of the group were Bunker Hill (CV-17) and Monterey (CVL-26); the battleships screening them were Alabama (BH-50) and South Dakota. Eight destroyers rounded out the screen.