There has been several posts on Midway recently which has got me thinking could Nagumo have saved Hiryū?
POD: At 11:15 Nagumo having transferred his flag from his burning flagship Akagi to the Cruiser Nagara - realising that he is holding a very poor hand - places Moral courage above personal courage and orders the Hiryū and the escorting Crusiers and Battleships to abandon the 3 burning Carriers and leave the battle area, leaving a few DD's behind to recover the crews and scuttle the ships
Could Hiryū, being instead of spending several hours getting closer to the positions of the suspected US Carriers by early afternoon in fact having moved North West at max speed and is instead nearly 100 NM's further away by the time of her OTL fate of being Dick Best 2nd carrier kill of the day, survive to fight another day?
Does this also reprieve Yorktown as she is not the target of a 2nd strike?
Despite not killing off Yorktown (potentially) is this result 'better' for the Japanese - despite being 3 : 0.5 to the Americans?
POD: At 11:15 Nagumo having transferred his flag from his burning flagship Akagi to the Cruiser Nagara - realising that he is holding a very poor hand - places Moral courage above personal courage and orders the Hiryū and the escorting Crusiers and Battleships to abandon the 3 burning Carriers and leave the battle area, leaving a few DD's behind to recover the crews and scuttle the ships
Could Hiryū, being instead of spending several hours getting closer to the positions of the suspected US Carriers by early afternoon in fact having moved North West at max speed and is instead nearly 100 NM's further away by the time of her OTL fate of being Dick Best 2nd carrier kill of the day, survive to fight another day?
Does this also reprieve Yorktown as she is not the target of a 2nd strike?
Despite not killing off Yorktown (potentially) is this result 'better' for the Japanese - despite being 3 : 0.5 to the Americans?