Spielberg/Eastwood Iwo Jima Movie

[midnight Target]

The casualty numbers I found for Iwo are a little different.


Total Losses
U.S. personnel 6,821 Killed 19,217 Wounded 2,648 Combat Fatigue Total 28,686
Marine Casualties 23,573

Japanese Troops 1,083 POW and 20,000 est. Killed

the article is saying 26k killed for US troops, it should read 26k casualties.

[-tronski-]

Originally posted by oboe
Yep I always read about Midway being the turning point of the Pacific War, but Coral Sea is where we finally blunted a Japanese offensive, isn't it?   And I think the Japanese had no more successful Pacific offensives after that point.     Every following campaign ultimately failed - Midway, Guadalcanal, New Guinea, etc.

Midway was a great US victory and a much more devasting loss to the Japanese material-wise than Coral Sea, but it was the 2nd failed offensive, not the first.   Their offensive momentum had been stopped at Coral Sea; that's I why I call that battle the turning point instead of Midway.     Not sure if anyone else ever saw it that way (war historians I mean).

Usually I hear Coral Sea characterized as a tactical Japanese victory but a strategic US victory.    If that's fair, then Coral Sea was the first US victory in the Pacific War, after which the Japanese won no more significant victories?     Wouldn't that fit the definition of "turning point"?

Midway is probably considered the turning point because after that battle, the Japanese stopped thinking offensively.

I agree with what you said about the Coral Sea, but after Midway whilst the IJN was broken, the Japanese army was still on the offensive.
Imo the "turning point" may have been at Milne Bay (and the subsequent Kokoda track battles) where for the first time a Japanese invasion force had landed but was driven back into the sea, and where the Japanese land forces suffered their first outright defeat(s) of the war.
 
 Tronsky