Reading the IJN mail was a major factor at Midway, no doubt. But I think there was an act of providence or luck or call it whatever that caught the IJN Carriers with their decks full of torpedoes, bombs and fuel. As well, the IJN fighters that were supposed to be doing CAP above the Carriers had dropped down to get after the USN torpedo planes so the USN Dauntless dive bombers went in un opposed and the rest is history. A loss at Midway would have caused the USN to pull back to Pearl or perhaps even the West Coast and begin from there. In a pivotal turn of events at the same time the Navy Yards in the US had gotten spooled up and were beginning to produce ships at an astounding pace. The IJN couldn?t replace it?s losses, had prepared for a short war so Midway was far more decisive than the US recognized at the time. Imperial Japan only trained 1000 IJN pilots, figuring that would be more than enough but a big chunk of those were lost at Midway and that further aggravated a loosing situation. So I?d say that the USN Victory at Midway was owning to cracking the IJN code, being at the right place at the right time with the right weaponry and lucky as all heck. For the USN at Midway was surely outnumbered, out planed and out gunned and could have gotten mauled real bad if it weren?t for those USN Dauntless dive bombers finding open and uncontested air right over the IJN Carriers. A few minutes either way and the USN dive bombers would have run right into a swarm of IJN Mitsubishi Zeros and I'm sure the story would have come out differently. Timing is everything sometimes.
Fair seas, Bill
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