On 4 June 1942 the US Navy met the main Japanese carrier force north of Midway Atoll in the central Pacific. Warned by codebreakers, three American carriers were waiting. After the Japanese struck Midway at dawn, dive bombers from Enterprise and Yorktown wrecked the carriers Akagi, Kaga and Soryu in one morning attack, and Hiryu was hit that afternoon, though not before its aircraft had crippled USS Yorktown. Admiral Yamamoto called off the invasion of Midway, and the balance of naval power in the Pacific began to shift.
The secret of "AF"
American naval codebreakers had been reading parts of Japanese naval traffic since early 1942. Messages referred to the next objective as "AF". According to the National WWII Museum, Midway was told to send out a false report that it was short of fresh water, and when a Japanese message then said "AF" was short of water, the target was confirmed. The Naval History and Heritage Command describes the same step as a radio deception that settled the question on 22 May, after which the station at Pearl Harbor, known as Hypo, predicted an attack on 4 June.1
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's plan was to take Midway and draw the US Pacific Fleet into a trap, where his carrier and battleship forces could destroy it. Instead, Admiral Chester Nimitz sent Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance with Enterprise and Hornet, and Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher with Yorktown, to wait northeast of Midway. The Japanese striking force brought four large carriers, Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu.2
The morning of 4 June
Early in the morning Japanese carrier aircraft bombed Midway. For the next two hours, Marine, Navy and Army Air Forces planes from the island attacked the Japanese carriers without success, and many were shot down. Meanwhile, as the National WWII Museum describes, the Japanese command learned that American ships were in the area while its aircraft were returning to rearm.3
Between about 9:30 and 10:30, torpedo bombers from all three American carriers attacked. They were almost wiped out, but they drew off the Japanese fighters and left the sky open for the dive bombers. Dive bombers from Enterprise then hit Kaga and Akagi, and dive bombers from Yorktown hit Soryu; all three were set ablaze. Our full account of these minutes is in the Battle of Midway, 1942: the five decisive minutes.4
Hiryu strikes back
Hiryu, the only Japanese carrier left undamaged, launched two attacks on Yorktown, first with dive bombers around noon and then with torpedo planes, and the ship had to be abandoned. A Yorktown scout plane found Hiryu in the afternoon, and dive bombers from Enterprise left it burning at about 5 p.m.. Akagi and Hiryu were scuttled by Japanese destroyers early the next morning.5
With his carrier force destroyed, Yamamoto abandoned the invasion of Midway, and the Japanese fleet turned west. American aircraft sank the heavy cruiser Mikuma on 6 June. The same day the Japanese submarine I-168 torpedoed Yorktown, which was being salvaged, and sank the destroyer Hammann alongside her; Yorktown sank on 7 June. The dates here are local to Midway, as in US Navy accounts.6
What it cost
The National WWII Museum puts Japanese losses at about 3,057 men, four carriers, a cruiser and hundreds of aircraft, and American losses at about 362 men, one carrier, one destroyer and 144 aircraft. The Naval History and Heritage Command notes that all four Japanese carriers had taken part in the attack on Pearl Harbor, and that Japan lost more than a hundred trained pilots it could not replace.7
Both institutions treat the battle as a turning point: the museum writes that it stopped Japanese expansion in the Pacific, and the Naval History and Heritage Command that the balance of sea power had begun to shift. The month before, the Battle of the Coral Sea had already turned back a Japanese advance on Port Moresby, as told in our article on the Coral Sea.8
Also on this day
- 1916: Brusilov offensive. General Brusilov's Russian armies launched a vast offensive against the Central Powers in Galicia and Volhynia on the Eastern Front.
