World War II: Stunning Victory at Midway!

June 4, 1942 - US and Japanese naval forces clash near Midway Island in the Pacific, with the Americans scoring a decisive victory. In the wake of their strategic defeat at the Battle of Coral Sea, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto moved to obtain a base for attacking Hawaii by invading Midway Island, while also hoping to draw the US Pacific Fleet into a major battle. Made aware of this threat by the efforts of US code breakers, Admiral Chester Nimitz dispatched Admirals Frank J. Fletcher and Raymond Spruance with the aircraft carriers Enterprise, Hornet, and the recently repaired Yorktown to the waters north of the island.

On the morning of June 4, Admiral Chuichi Nagumo launched an attack on Midway from the four carriers of his First Carrier Striking Force. Arriving over the island, they easily defeated the defensive fighter screen and inflicted heavy damage. As his planes returned, the pilots expressed the need to attack the island again. While the planes were being rearmed with bombs, the American fleet was sighted, necessitating another change in armament. In the meantime, American planes were approaching from Fletcher's carriers. The first to strike were torpedo bombers from Hornet and Enterprise which failed to score any hits, but succeeded in pulling the defending Japanese fighters out of position. This allowed the arriving American dive bombers (above left) to attack against minimal opposition. Striking around 10:00, they caught the Japanese carriers with their hangar decks full of fuel and bombs from the rearming, and were able to sink three of them. The fourth, Hiryu managed to launch two counterstrikes which put Yorktown out of action before American planes returned to sink it. In the following days US carrier planes managed to sink a Japanese cruiser as it retreated west, while the submarine I-168 torpedoed and sunk Yorktown while it was being towed back to Pearl Harbor. The Battle of Midway broke the back of the Japanese carrier fleet, turning the tide in the Pacific and allowing the US to go on the offensive.

Photograph Courtesy of the US Naval Historical Center