More flag officers took part at the decision making and planning before the battle, not just Nimitz, Fletcher and Spruance. All the same, commanding officers' staffs were generally bigger than the one or two men portrayed in the movie. Admiral Ernest King, commander-in-chief of the navy, approved the Midway battle plan propounded by Nimitz. They were regularly in contact, so there was no need of sending fictional Capt. Vinton Maddox to consult Nimitz. There were numerous air attacks by Midway-based bombers on approaching Japanese fleets omitted by the script; these had the same effect as later carrier-based torpedo bombers destroyed by Japanese fleet air-defenses portrayed in the movie. The failure of the initial raids by land-based bombers only convinced Japanese commanders of their invincibility and incompetency of US military.