The Turning Point of the Pacific War: an Interview with Captain John Crawford, Jr

The Turning Point of the Pacific War: An Interview with Captain John Crawford, Jr. about the Battle of Midway L. Rokoff Captain John Crawford February 13, 2008 Table of Contents Interviewee Release Form…………………………………………………………………2 Statement of Purpose……………………………………………………………………...3 Biography………………………………………………………………………………….4 Historical Contextualization—The Battle of Midway: A Turning Point in the Pacific…..6 Interview Transcription…………………………………………………………………..21 Time Indexing Recording Log…………………………………………………………...53 Interview Analysis…………………………………………………………….................55 Appendix………………………………………………………………………………....59 Works Consulted………………………………………………………………………....64 Statement of Purpose The purpose of this oral history is to provide a more complete understanding of the Battle of Midway through an interview with Captain John Crawford. Captain Crawford provides and eye-witness account, as an Ensign on the USS Yorktown, of this battle that occurred during World War II from June 4-6, 1942. He also gives insight about the importance of the Battle of Midway in the Pacific War and World War II. This interview will provide future historians with information and opinions about the turning point of the Pacific War. Biography Captain John W. Crawford, Jr. (USNR) was born in 1919 in Andover, Massachusetts. During his childhood he moved to New Hampshire where he enjoyed skiing, skating, playing football and baseball, and studying. After graduating from the Tilton School, he attended the Naval Academy and graduated in 1942. He earned two Master Degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The first degree was earned for Naval Construction in 1946 and the second for Physics in 1950. Captain Crawford was sent to MIT for a five month course in the new field of radar after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. In June 1942, Captain Crawford was assigned to the ship the USS Yorktown and was on the ship during the Battle of Midway in World War II. After the Battle of Midway, he served on the USS Santee in North Africa and the USS Brooklyn in the Mediterranean. Following World War II he was assigned as a Submarine Superintendent at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. As a Naval Officer, Captain Crawford then severed in various assignments with the Atomic Energy Commission. His responsibilities included providing guidance and direction to ensure that required safety, quality, and reliability standards were incorporated in the planning and construction of naval nuclear power plants. Captain Crawford married his wife Carol Crawford in 1951. After retiring from the Navy with the rank of Captain, he returned to the Atomic Energy Commission to begin a career in civilian nuclear technology. He was appointed the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy and served on the Three Mile Island Clean up Committee. Captain Crawford and his wife have four children and now live in Rockville, MD. In 2001 he was awarded the “Distinguished Graduate Award” from the Naval Academy. Historical Contextualization The Battle of Midway: A Turning Point in the Pacific Upon learning the success of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto stated, “I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve” (Skylighters.org). Although Japan had succeeded in a surprise attack of Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto knew that this was only the beginning of the Pacific War and there were many battles to be fought with the United States. Franklin Roosevelt had kept to the policy of neutrality and kept the United States out of war until the morning of December 7, 1941. On that morning the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and set into motion the events that launched “World War II” and the U.S. involvement in Europe and the Pacific. While the Pearl Harbor attack destroyed much of the U.S. Navy in the Pacific, poor Japanese intelligence and U.S. code breaking led to an attack when the U.S. aircraft carrier task forces (TF-16 and 17) were at sea. Only six months after Pearl Harbor, the remaining forces of the U.S. Navy engaged the Japanese Navy at Midway. It was at Midway that the Japanese thought they were luring the remainder of the U.S. Navy into a trap, only to be surprised by the U.S. tactics that resulted in the sinking of all four of the Japanese carriers. The Battle of Midway left the Japanese unable to recuperate and provided superior U.S. naval air cover for future battles, making Midway the turning point in the Pacific. Therefore, to understand The Battle of Midway one must examine World War II, the Pacific War, and the battle itself, as well as gain a first-hand perspective from someone who was there. The Treaty of Versailles created humiliation and anger for Germany, which eventually led to World War II. The Allies demanded that German delegates agree to sign this treaty of peace, including a “war guilt clause” which stated that the war was caused “by the aggression of Germany”. On June 22, 1919, German delegates agreed to sign all of the 200 articles of peace except the “war guilt clause”, and on that same day the German navy scuttled the German fleet, which violated one of the terms of the armistice. This enraged Lloyd George, the British representative at Versailles, and his colleagues, so they declared no alterations were possible and Germany had 24 hours to sign all terms. On June 28, Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles where they were punished heavily. Some of the limiting articles included that the German army was restricted to 100,000 men, the Navy was permitted no new ships larger than cruisers, an air force was banned, and an Allied control commission was to be set to check that Germany was abiding by these terms. Also, the German Rhineland was demilitarized and Germany was asked for enormous reparations for countries, such as France, who had been devastated by the war. However, one of the major sources of resentment of the Germans was the European borders being redrawn. Poland was given part of East Prussia which isolated East Prussia from the remainder of Germany (Duffy). This treaty was not honored for long because Germany had deep resentment and quickly rearmed. Germany had lost 14% of its land and 10% of its population in the redrawing of the borders (Coffey 48-62). In 1939, German and Russian foreign ministers signed a pact, in which Russia agreed not to resist a German invasion of Poland in return for a part of Eastern Poland. Hitler staged German convicts, dressed in Polish uniforms, and had them surround a German communications outpost in Poland, and then had them shot. Hitler made it look like the Poles were attempting to subvert a legitimate German presence on their soil. This staging of false Polish aggression served as a pretext for Hitler to move German tanks across the border (Coffey 59). On September 1, 1939, German troops entered Poland with a sudden, immense attack called a blitzkrieg, “lightning war”. Great Britain and France sent Hitler an ultimatum to withdraw German forces from Poland, or they would go to war against Germany. German force’s penetrated deeper into Poland, so Great Britain and France declared war on Germany in accordance with their pledges to Poland (Cressman 1-2). While World War II was about to begin, Japan had already been in the Sino- Japanese War with China since 1937. In 1933, Japan withdrew from the League of Nations because it was heavily criticized for actions in China (Spector 36). Japanese forces invaded China and began a war that would last for eight years. Roosevelt eventually lent Chinese premier Chiang Kai-shek a limited sum of money to buy arms (Coffey 88). Once Japan invaded Indochina1 in July 1941, the U.S. reacted by freezing all Japanese assets in America. In November, Japan made a peace offer to Washington where they promised to move all troops from southern Indochina into the north if America sold it a million tons of aviation fuel. A few days later Roosevelt received word that further Japanese troops had landed in Indochina and this outraged him. The U.S. demanded that Japan withdraw from China and Indochina immediately (Johnson 777- 778). Even though the Japanese continued to negotiate in Washington D.C., Japanese leaders were convinced that war with the U.S. was inevitable and they started planning the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese hoped that a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor would be a decisive victory and would force the United States to negotiate. 1 Indochina was the three states of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia formerly associated with France. This area was called Indochina until 1950. In June 1940, Mussolini, the fascist dictator of Italy, ordered an invasion of Egypt. Britain only had 36,000 men in Egypt and opposing them in Libya were nearly 250,000 Italians. Once Italian forces entered North Africa, Mussolini’s armies seized posts along the Egyptian-Libyan border, drove into Kenya, penetrated the Sudan, and took British Somaliland. In September 1940, the Italians launched their expedition into Egypt (Collier 80). Then British troops launched a surprise attack on Italian troops, who occupied parts of western Egypt, in December 1940. By January 1941, the British captured Tobruk and later in February they captured Bengasi and Ethiopia. Two months later, German reinforcements, under the command of General Rommel, arrived in Africa and stopped the British advance. Soon after, the British troops were forced to withdraw (HistoryCentral.com). Rommel maintained control over Northern Africa until British and U.S. troops invaded North Africa in a massive effort to end the desert war called ‘Operation Torch’, in November 1942. General Montgomery2 led the British troops and General Patton3 led the U.S.

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