The Battle of Midway
June 1942
The Japanese sent 21 ships towards the Aleutian Islands as a diversion to draw attention from the Midway invasion force which consisted of 37 vessels with four fleet carriers to give air cover. Seven battleships, five cruisers and twelve destroyers under Yamamoto himself would be in a central position to give battle to the American fleet, once Nimitz's counter moves became clear. The Japanese forces were to widely spread however, to offer any swift help to each other. The Japanese captured two Aleutian Islands between 3-7 June, but the Americans refused to rise to the bait. At 0430 hours on the 4th, the first strike against Midway was launched while a second strike armed with torpedoes and bombs was prepared to attack naval targets. American planes took off from Midway to meet the incoming raid but the Japanese broke through and inflicted serious damage on Midway. Nagumo was told that a second strike on Midway was needed and at 0700 he ordered the waiting second strike aircraft to be rearmed with suitable bombs. The confusion and blunders that then followed would seal the fate of four Japanese carriers and hundreds of seamen. Halfway through rearming the second strike aircraft, At 0820 Nagumo received word that ten American ships were approaching from the north-west although no carriers were mentioned, and so continued with the arming of the second strike aircraft with weapons suitable for use against land targets. Just as this was being completed, Nagumo received positive identification of at least one American carrier accompanying the American force. Nagumo was in a bind, his fighters were circling ready to land and refueling and to make matters worse the first Midway strike force was returning. In a quandary, Nagumo gave priority to the returning aircraft and would deal with the American naval threat afterwards. Just about this time Nagumo's ships were found by the fifteen Douglas Devastators of Commander John C. Waldron's squadron 'Torpedo 8' The slow, antiquated Devastators bravely pushed home their attack while their outnumbered fighter escort 'mixed it up' with the Zeros. Large numbers of Zeros barrelled through the few American fighters and fell on the lumbering torpedo bombers with a vengeance. Unable to maneuver as they were on their attack runs, 'Torpedo 8' were Blown from the sky by fire from the warships and the Zeros, only Ensign Gay lived to tell the tale. Pleased with this apparent success Nagumo ordered the rearming of all his planes. The sacrifice of 'Torpedo 8' was not in vain however, nearly all the Zeros had come down to sea level to participate in the massacre of the torpedo bombers and it was at this moment that Commander McKlusky's Dauntless dive bombers found the unprotected fleet. The dive bomber crews couldn't believe their luck, here was the Jap fleet with no fighter top cover and the carriers decks crowded with rearming and refueling planes. They peeled off to begin their dives and within five minutes had sunk the carriers Soryu, Kaga and Akagi. The Hiryu was still operational and launched aircraft that soon found the American carrier Yorktown and damaged her so badly that at 1500 hrs Admiral Fletcher transferred his flag to a cruiser and put the Yorktown under tow. Meanwhile aircraft from the carrier Enterprise, had found the Hiryu and by 1700 hrs had battered her into a smoking wreck (she was later scuttled). The Americans had won a strategic victory, although they lost the Yorktown (she and the destroyer towing her were sunk by a Jap submarine on June 6) they had sunk four Japanese fleet carriers and lost half as many aircraft as the Japanese. Worse for the Japanese than these material losses was the loss of so many irreplaceable aircrews, They had lost the war at sea and it had been proved beyond doubt that the days of huge battleships engaging each other in massive ship to ship duels were over, the carrier was the new 'Queen' of the sea and the Japanese navy would never go on the offensive again.
Hellcat fighters with drop tanks under the fuselage prepare to take off