American peacetime naval aviation and the Battle of Midway

Abstract

Abstract There are many explanations for the victory of the United States against the Japanese at the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942. Mistakes made by the Japanese certainly factored in the outcome and the United States also had certain advantages. However, an important if not sufficient explanation for the US victory is the pre-war preparation of the US Navy during peacetime. Designed by Ed Heinemann at Douglas Aircraft in El Segundo, California, from 1934 until 1938, the first Dauntless planes were delivered to the navy in 1940, well in advance of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the moment which is conventionally regarded as the US entry into the war. The pilots of the Dauntless, as I will show in this essay, were much the same; they too were the product of a peacetime Navy.