The Battle of Midway takes place on June 4, 1942, turning the tide of World War II in the Pacific Ocean. The Battle of Midway took place just 6 months after Japan’s surprise attack on the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack was meant to cripple the U.S. Navy’s ability to wage war in the Pacific theater of operations. Japan made a critical mistake in the timing of its attack though, as the American aircraft carriers were not present in Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941. These aircraft carriers were the primary targets of the Japanese attack on that day. Sinking those missed aircraft carriers was also the primary goal of Japan’s planned attack on Midway Island. Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was confident that those aircraft carriers would come to the defense of the U.S. base on Midway Island if Japan attacked the isolated outpost in force. Unfortunately for Yamamoto, U.S. Intelligence had cracked the Japanese Naval code used to encrypt messages, and were lying in wait just to the Northeast of Midway Island on June 4, 1942.
The Battle of Midway sequence of events
The contact between U.S and Japanese forces actually started on the 3rd of June. The U.S. Navy sent out 22 PBY reconnaissance airplanes to search for the Japanese naval forces. One of these planes spotted ships about 500 miles to the west-southwest of Midway Island around at around 9:00 a.m. The ships that were spotted were part of the invasion force sent to occupy the Island. They were not part of Yamamoto’s aircraft carrier force. The Japanese carrier force launched their initial attack on Midway Island around 4:30 a.m. on June 4th. Around the same time, they also launched 8 reconnaissance aircraft to search for any U.S. naval forces that may be in the area. One of the 8 planes was delayed by 30 minutes due to technical problems. This delay, combined with a very poor search plane, would come back to haunt the Japanese naval forces before the day was over.
Around 5:3o a.m, American PBY’s once again searching for the enemy forces spotted 2 Japanese aircraft carriers. They reported the location of the ships, and alerted Midway Island that attacking aircraft were headed their way. The Japanese air strike on the island was comprised of half the aircraft of the carrier fleet. The other half was held in reserve in case enemy ships were spotted by their search planes. The U.S. carriers started to launch their counter attack on the Japanese aircraft carriers around 7:00 a.m. Admiral Raymond Spruance, in command of Task Force 16, ordered his attacking aircraft to proceed to their target immediately. This contradicted the normal protocol of allowing the strike force to assemble together before proceeding to attack their target. This decision would prove to be fatal for both sides before the day was over. Admiral Spruance had taken over the task force just 2 days before it departed Pearl Harbor. He replaced Admiral “Bull” Halsey, who had been hospitalized with a severe case of Shingles.
Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo was in charge of the Japanese carrier force. He had been under a steady attack from planes based on Midway Island following the launch of his air strike earlier in the morning. As his first wave of aircraft were returning to land, the flight leader informed command that they had failed to destroy the air strip on the island. Nagumo was preparing his reserve aircraft for a second ground attack when the delayed scout plane from signaled that it had sighted an American naval force located to the east of their position. The scout plane then sent word that the force spotted included an aircraft carrier. Nagumo decided that while the returning attack group was landing, the reserve aircraft would be re-armed for sea action.
Torpedo Squadron 8 from the Hornet was the first American carrier group to engage the enemy. The group, lead by Lieutenant Commander John C. Waldron, began their attack without any accompanying air support. This was due to the decision by Admiral Spruance to proceed directly to the target on takeoff. All 15 of the TBD Devastator torpedo bombers in the squadron were shot down by the Japanese fighter cover without inflicting a single hit on the enemy. The only member of the group to survive the attack was Ensign George Gay, who was later rescued after the Battle of Midway was over. The attack was followed by the Torpedo Squadron from the USS Enterprise, which lost 10 of their 14 aircraft. The Torpedo Squadron from the USS Yorktown came next, and lost 10 of its 12 planes. There was not a single hit from the 3 decimated groups attacks, and the TBD Devastator aircraft was never used in combat again. While the 3 torpedo groups were being decimated by the defending Japanese air patrol, 3 squadrons of dive bombers from the American carriers Enterprise and Yorktown arrived over the fleet. With the Japanese air patrol focusing on the torpedo attacks, and her carriers re-fueling and re-arming their bombers, the recipe for destruction was set.
Two dive bomber squadrons from the USS Enterprise and USS Yorktown came in to attack the Japanese carrier force. The Kaga was hit by 4 bombs and was quickly engulfed in flames. Only 1 bomb hit the Akagi, but it exploded in the hanger deck where the fuel and the ordinance was located. The resulting conflagration devastated the ship, resulting in heavy casualties. The Soryu was hit with 3 bombs, which ignited gasoline and ammunition, turning the ship into a floating inferno. In a little more than 5 minutes, the Imperial Japanese Navy was down to a single remaining aircraft carrier.
The Hiryu, Japan’s sole remaining operational carrier, launched 2 separate attacks on the USS Yorktown. The first one resulted in 3 bomb hits on the U.S carrier which smashed through the flight deck and exploding deep inside the ship, bringing her to a halt. The USS Yorktown’s damage repair teams sprung into action, patching her flight deck and repairing her boilers. Within 1 hour the ship was operational again and resumed its air operations. When the second strike force from the Hiryu came in to attack, since there was no smoke coming from the ship, they believed it to be a different American carrier. Two torpedoes slammed into her port side, causing the carrier to list 23 degrees.
Later that afternoon, an American scout plane finally located the Hiryu. The carrier Enterprise launched what would be the final blow of the Battle of Midway. Four bombs smashed through the deck of the Hiryu, leaving her in flames. Despite their best attempt to get the fires under control, the crew was unsuccessful. The crew of the Hiryu were ordered to evacuate the ship. She sank early the following morning, with her commander Admiral Yamaguchi going down with his ship. With an American victory at hand, the Battle of Midway would go down in history as the turning point of the war in the Pacific.
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