Midway with Genda in good health.

What if Minoru Genda, the First Naval Air Fleet CO of the Nagumo Force at Midway, was in good health and commanding the airoperations for the carrierforce of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo during the Midway battle? In his place Vice Admiral Nagumo himself would be the one who was temporarily off duty for some fever, or illness, being temporarily replaced by the commanding officer of the 2nd Carrier Taskforce, Rear Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi.

Historically Genda was ill during the battle itslef and was replaced by a junior officer as acting airgroupleader. Vice Admiral Nagumo tended not to intervene in airoperations himself, leaving such things to his subordinates, who were more or less free to do as they pleased. Yamaguchi was justy the opposite and a strong suporter of naval airpower himself, where Nagumo was actually a torpedo specialist, used to command destroyerssquadrons in action.

So Genda, the most experienced commander of the Naval Air Fleet, was normally free to act on his own innitiative under Nagumo and was definetely the most skilled person to do so in the IJN.
 
What if Minoru Genda, the First Naval Air Fleet CO of the Nagumo Force at Midway, was in good health and commanding the airoperations for the carrierforce of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo during the Midway battle? In his place Vice Admiral Nagumo himself would be the one who was temporarily off duty for some fever, or illness, being temporarily replaced by the commanding officer of the 2nd Carrier Taskforce, Rear Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi.

Historically Genda was ill during the battle itslef and was replaced by a junior officer as acting airgroupleader. Vice Admiral Nagumo tended not to intervene in airoperations himself, leaving such things to his subordinates, who were more or less free to do as they pleased. Yamaguchi was justy the opposite and a strong suporter of naval airpower himself, where Nagumo was actually a torpedo specialist, used to command destroyerssquadrons in action.

So Genda, the most experienced commander of the Naval Air Fleet, was normally free to act on his own innitiative under Nagumo and was definetely the most skilled person to do so in the IJN.

Nothing the Japanese can do during Midway will stop it from being a disaster, short of all the USN planes exploding due to Act of Bat.

The best they can realisticaly salvage is an earlier (partial) strike on the US carriers, which would be Yorktown at the time in question, almost certainly resulting in her being sunk. That would mean more planes back, so a second strike (presumably now on Enterprise/Hornet) would be much more lethal. He may also get them to get out of the danger zone rather than mucking about with a proposed surface attack.
Best result of that would be one carrier saved, but the IJN have still lost 3, and the US 1-3 (most likely I think 2, if the second attack strike is heavier and on E/H).
The carrier strike groups are still basically destroyed, so they arent doing much anytime soon.

Genda could possibly insist on an immediate partial strike, but even that is pushing things - it was against doctine, and the IJN stil hadnt really fixed the USN positions. He's more likely to press for getting any surviving carriers out of harms way, but that doesnt do a huge amount in the long run. Indeed, it could possibly prove worse, as the IJN could be tempted to carry out the Midway attack, which really isnt good for them even if they do take the place.
 
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