June 3-5, 1942
US Navy Douglas SBD-3 “Dauntless” dive bombers approach the burning Japanese cruiser Mikuma on June 6, 1942. Note bombs hanging under the planes.
Let’s say you play on a football team and your next opponent is known for playing rough, maybe they even break some rules and get away with it. But one day you find their playbook. It tells you all their plans. Now you know exactly what they’re up to, no matter what dirty tricks they might try.
Suddenly, you have a huge advantage over them.
That's close to what happened when American intelligence officer Captain Joseph Rochefort broke Japan’s secret code. Suddenly the Americans learned about Japan’s plans, including a secret mission by Japanese Admiral Yamamoto to attack the island of Midway.
Midway Island was crucial. Not only would it expand the Japanese empire, but Japan could create a protective defensive zone around its homeland. Japan still didn't know where the Doolittle Raiders took off from, but they still suspected the planes flew from Midway. They wanted to stop that from ever happening again.
But to capture Midway, Japan knew it would have to destroy America's carrier fleet.
Sitting about 1,000 miles west of Hawaii, Midway wasn’t just one island. Like Wake Island, it’s a small string of coral atolls. Its total land area is only about three square miles. Your hometown is probably many times bigger than this tiny atoll.
Midway is located just to the right of the 180-degree longitude line. Alaska is directly north, Hawaii is to the west, with Japan to the northwest.
Admiral Yamamoto devised a two-step plan to wipe out the American fleet: Operation AL and Operation MI.
Operation AL was a diversionary attack. Japanese ships would sail north to Alaska, allowing Japanese soldiers to invade the Aleutian Islands. Japan hoped that America would rush into the fight in Alaska, since the enemy would be at its doorstep. That fight would mean fewer American troops could fight at Midway.
But meanwhile Operation MI really did focus on Midway. Yamamoto’s plan called for four Japanese carriers and eighty support ships to surround the atoll while Japanese planes bombed the American defenses. Then invading soldiers would land on two of the atolls and establish a Japanese air base.
Yamamoto expected some American carriers to show up and fight, but he planned for a fleet of Japanese subs to be waiting for them. The subs could delay—maybe even destroy— the American ships. And even if the American carriers made it to Midway, they’d be too late to beat Japan’s superior air power.
Japan definitely had the superior force, and it was winning most of the Pacific battles. If they could just secure Midway, they could rule Asia.
Yamamoto was so confident his plan would work that he expected it to force America to sue for peace. “Suing for peace” means one country starts the peace process, hoping to avoid an unconditional surrender.
However, Yamamoto’s plan had some flaws. First, he thought the American carrier Yorktown was sunk in an earlier fight, the Battle of the Coral Sea. But repair crews at Pearl Harbor had worked around the clock to put the Yorktown back in action. Now the Yorktown joined the carriers Enterprise and Hornet.
Also, Yamamoto didn’t know the Japanese code was broken. He’d lost the element of surprise.
American Admiral Chester Nimitz learned about Yamamoto’s plan and quickly devised a strategic defense for Midway. Nimitz’s attitude was “the best defense is a good offense.” Instead of waiting for the Japanese, Nimitz planned to ambush them. America would start this fight at Midway.
First Nimitz sent the Yorktown, Enterprise, and Hornet north of Midway. Then on June 3rd, American planes attacked the Japanese fleet about 600 miles west of Midway.
American bombers hit four carriers, but they were no match for the long-range fighter aircrafts like the Japanese Zero. Quick and agile, the Zero's pilots were able to shoot the American planes out of the sky. Japanese pilots also forced the B17 bombers to drop their loads from about 20,000 feet, too high for the bombs to do much destruction.
The next morning Japanese Admiral Nagumo sent aircraft to bomb Midway. But he didn't realize those three American carriers were waiting for him. After an initial attack that didn’t do much damage, the Japanese planes flew back to their carriers to reload for another attack. But an American observer plane followed the fleet and the pilot relayed the precise location of the Japanese carriers back to American commanders.
Crews onboard the Japanese ships started reloading the planes, packing them with bombs for Midway. But American Rear Admirals Raymond Spruance and Jack Fletcher launched torpedo planes from the Enterprise, Hornet, and Yorktown.
The Japanese managed to shoot down some of the American planes before they could inflict much damage, and a second American attack also failed. It also resulted in the loss of all fifteen planes from one torpedo squadron. Now the Americans had lost their bomber planes, and Japan knew the exact location of the American carriers.
Admiral Nagumo decided to destroy all three American ships. He ordered his aircrew to change armaments, taking out the bombs and switching to torpedoes. But by changing armaments, Nagumo delayed takeoff. And in the rush, the bombs got left on deck next to the fully-fueled airplanes.
Japan fired the torpedoes at the American planes. But pilots flying the Dauntless dive bombers hit back hard, dropping their explosive loads down the carriers' exposed elevator shafts.
The explosions destroyed the ships.
Within five minutes, three Japanese carriers --Akagi, Kaga, and Soryu --began to sink. A fourth carrier, Hiryu, was stationed about forty miles away from the main battle. It managed to cripple the Yorktown, but the American planes swooped down for counter-strikes.
The next day, the Hiryu sank.
One Japanese submarine fired in retaliation, striking the already-damaged Yorktown. The following day, June 6, the Yorktown sank.
But that was all Japan could claim.
In just three days, the less-powerful, less-experienced American force had inflicted serious damages to the Japanese navy. Japan hadn’t lost a naval battle in about eighty years. Now four Japanese aircraft carriers were gone, along with scores of planes and hundreds of highly-trained sailors and pilots. Those men couldn’t be easily replaced, and did Japan have enough raw materials to rebuild those huge ships.
America won the Battle of Midway.
But Japan kept pounding through the Pacific.
The war was far from over.
Douglas Devastators of Torpedo Squadron 6 unfolding their wings on the deck of USS Enterprise prior to launching attack against four Japanese carriers on the first day of the Battle of Midway.
WHO FOUGHT?
Lieutenant Commander C. Wade McClusky was leading the American squadrons searching the ocean for the Japanese ships that came to attack Midway. Although American intelligence officials gave him a certain location where the ships were supposed to be, McClusky's squadron found only an empty ocean.
Even though his planes were running low on fuel, McClusky ordered his pilots to keep searching. Then, using some sly navigational expertise, McClusky found the ships. He told his dive-bombers to attack. These pilots destroyed the Japanese carriers Kaga and Akagi.
McClusky’s perseverance, said Admiral Nimitz, “decided the fate of our carrier task force and our forces at Midway….”
Awarded the Navy Cross, McClusky later described the attack.
“It was quick work to figure the return course, and as I raised my head from the plotting board, a stream of tracer bullets started chopping the water around the plane. Almost immediately my gunner, W. G. Chochalousek, in the rear seat, opened fire. Then a . . . Zero zoomed out of range ahead of me. A hurried glance around found another Zero about 1,000 feet above, to the left and astern, about to make another attack. Remaining at 20 feet above the water, I waited until the attacking plane was well in his dive, then wrapped my plane in a steep turn toward him. This not only gave him a more difficult deflection shot, but also enabled my gunner to have free room to maneuver his guns. Then ensued about a 5-minute chase, first one Zero attacking from the right, then the second from the left. Each time I would wrap up toward the attacker with Chochalousek keeping up a constant fire. Suddenly a burst from a Jap seemed to envelop the whole plane. The left side of my cockpit was shattered, and I felt my left shoulder had been hit with a sledgehammer. Naturally enough it seemed like the end, we sure were goners. After two or three seconds, I realized there was an unusual quietness except for the purring engine of the old Dauntless. Grasping the inner phone, I yelled to Chochalousek, but no answer. It was difficult to turn with the pain in my left shoulder and arm, but I finally managed and there was the gunner. facing aft, guns at the ready and unharmed. He had shot down one of the Zeros (probably the one that had got the big burst in on us) and the other decided to call it quits.”
Later, “We found that our plane had been hit 55 times.”
You can read the rest of McClusky’s interview here.
FIND OUT MORE:
BOOKS
The Empire Falls: The Battle of Midway by Steve White
Midway 1942: Turning Point in the Pacific by Mark Stille
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrandt
INTERNET
There’s a lot of great information on the Battle of Midway at a website maintained by Naval History & Heritage Command. Check out links to historical footage of the battle and profiles of Midway’s leaders: http://www.history.navy.mil/Midway/midwaybattle-index.htm
Here’s an “animated history” of the Battle of Midway. Click on “fleet movements” and you can see all the combat unfold in sequential order: http://pacificwaranimated.com/Midway.html
MOVIES
Midway
The Battle of Midway (1942).
This film uses footage by US naval cameramen in the Battle of Midway. Directed by John Ford, this documentary is a stirring reminder of combat sacrifice.