Battle of Midway, WWII

At the end of a film on that subject, the character for Adm. Nimitz asked if we were better than the Japanese, or just lucky.

Well, our side had a few things the Japanese didn't have.  We had radar.  We cracked their codes.  We had better reconnaissance, as we had more planes than they had.  We were also in our own backyard, so to speak.  We had other advantages, too.  Like better fire suppression in ships.  Better armor on our planes.

But we had some disadvantages.  There were few battleships available because of the successful Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor.  These battleships could have provided greatly needed cover.  The Japanese had them and it was almost decisive.  We were nearly out of attack planes when the final ones came in and caught the Japanese by surprise.  It was a surprise because they didn't expect a third carrier to be available.  Yorktown was damaged at Coral Sea.  Emergency repairs made her sea worthy, and this wasn't expected.  Three Japanese carriers were knocked out with that last blow.  That final carrier was decisive.  Game over.

No, the Battle of Midway wasn't all luck.  There was some luck involved.  That luck could have been decisive as well.  But it wasn't all luck.  If that third carrier wasn't available, even this wouldn't have been good enough.

The moral of the story.  Don't count on luck.  You should strive to be good enough to take advantage of what luck you may get.