Bret Devereaux

Probably for the best I didn't watch Midway (2019) when it came out. I saw a snippet of the dive bombing attack on Kaga - the AA comes up and the first dive bomber gets hit (Ok) and then the second (?) and third (??) and fourth (!?!) and a fifth (!?!?)

As Parshal and Tully (2005), 234 note, IJN carrier AA only shot down a single dive-bomber on Midway (Kaga's guns, hitting Ens. JQ Roberts), a testament to the low quality (and insufficient quantity) of IJN AA. I was about screaming by the third SBD in flames.

Also, in the scene, the IJN carriers have multiple escorts putting out lots of supporting AA fire which is probably not right in two ways. First, while there are lots of ?? about the location of IJN DDs at Midway, my impression is that the only ones really close to the CVs...

...were the plane guard destroyers, of which there were four (one for each CV). The other DDs seem to have been out as air raid pickets (Arashi was chasing a USN sub) or got spread out by the repeated air attacks on the formation.

They're definitely not the heavier ships - the BBs of Bat-Div 3 were the closest by the time the bombs hit and they were 5+ km off of any of the carriers. Second, those little ships put up lots of AA fire which...no. As P&T note - the simple majority of the AA fire in...

...Kido Butai was on the CVs (because IJN AA was bad); any of the CVs on their own had more AA than the entire 12-ship (1CL, 11DD) screening force combined and the carriers collectively had c. 60% of Kido Butai (4CV, 2BB, 2CA, 1CL, 11DD)'s AA power.