Battle of Midway

The Battle of Midway was fought just a month after the Battle of the Coral Sea and took place between June 4th - 6th, 1942 . The battle was a plan devised by the Japanese to try and draw the American carrier fleet into a trap. With the remaining American ships destroyed, the Japanese hoped to avenge bombing of the Japanese home islands which had occurred two months earlier during the Tokyo Air Raid. They also hoped to stop the hole in their Eastern Defensive perimeter which the US had control over because of their holding of Midway. Japan hoped to finish off the American Pacific Fleet, maybe even attack and invade Hawaii. The Americans hoped the Midway Battle would be a decisive one, soon to find out that it was.

Imperial Headquarters in Japan set the stage for the Battle of Midway going by its order of May 5th. The plan was produced by the Combined Fleet Staff and involved almost the entire Japanese Navy. A total of close to 200 ships including; 8 carriers, 11 battleships, 22 cruisers, 65 destroyers and 21 submarines, as well as accompanied by more than 600 aircraft. Admiral Nimitz, on the American side, could only get together 76 ships, and a third of these would never come into battle .

For the Midway operation the Japanese used several different forces that all had a separate task. An advanced submarine force was deployed intended to cripple the American naval countermoves. There was an invasion force of twelve escorted transports, carrying roughly 5000 troops, with close support from four heavy cruisers and a farther distance support from four more heavy cruisers, two battleships and a light carrier. Also Chuichi Nagumo's First Carrier Force of four fleet carriers, carrying over 250 planes and was escorted by two battleships. Finally the main battle fleet under Yamamoto, was made up of three battleships, with a destroyer screen and one light carrier, this force consisted of the recently built giant battleship, the Yamato, weighing 70,000 tons and mounting nine 18-inch guns . The Japanese also had an Aleutians operation that consisted of an invasion force of three escorted transports, carrying around 2,400 troops, with a support group of two heavy cruisers. Also a carrier force of two light carriers and a covering force of four older battleships.

The battle plan was to open in the Aleutians, with air strikes against Dutch Harbor on June 3rd, followed by landings at three different points on June 6th. During the 4th, Nagumo's carrier planes were to attack the airfield on Midway, and the next day at Kure Atoll was to be occupied so the Japanese could use it for a seaplane base. On the 6th of June, cruisers would bombard Midway, and the troops would be landed as the invasion was covered by Kondo's battleships .

The Japanese expected that there would be no American ships in the Midway area until after the landing and the invasion had begun. They also hoped that the American Pacific Fleet would hurry northward as soon as news came of the opening air strike in the Aleutians. This would allow the Japanese to trap the fleet between their two carrier forces. By pursuing their strategic aim of destroying the American carriers, the Japanese handicapped themselves. Wanting to strike as soon as possible, Yamamoto was unwilling to wait until the Zuikaku had replaced her aircraft losses in the Coral Sea so that it could accompany them and reinforce the other carriers. Of the eight available carriers, two were sent to the Aleutians and two more were with the battleship groups. At the same time, the fleet was tied to the speed of slow troop transports. Also by the division of the fleet by moving to the Aleutians, it didn't make much sense if the Japanese actual plan was to destroy the American carriers, rather than just capture Midway. The worst part of the Japanese attack was because they were committing themselves to a specific point at a specific time, they lacked strategic flexibility in their plan.

Admiral Nimitz and the Americans were worried about the Japanese strength in numbers and force. After Pearl Harbor, Nimitz had no battleships left and after the Coral Sea battle, he had only two carriers fit for service and ready to see action, the Enterprise and the Hornet. He managed to get this number up to three carriers after the Yorktown was repaired quickly in two days rather than the estimated ninety that was at first thought. Nimitz and the Americans did have one advantage over the Japanese, which was their superiority of means of supply and information. The three American carriers and 233 planes were stationed to the North of Midway and were out of sight of Japanese reconnaissance planes. They also got early word of Japanese movements from their long range Catalina's that were based in Midway. The Americans hoped to make a flank attack on the Japanese forces. On June 3rd, the day after the carriers were in position, air reconnaissance sighted to slow moving transports 600 miles west of Midway . Gaps in Japanese search patterns fueled the belief of Yamamoto and Nagumo that the U.S. Pacific Fleet would not be there, which allowed the American carriers to remain unseen.

Early in the day on June 4th, Nagumo launched a strike of 108 of his aircraft

against the island of Midway, while another wave of similar size was being prepared to attack any warships that were sighted. The first wave attack did much damage to the installations on the island, with little loss to the wave itself. Reports to Nagumo said that there was no need for a second attack on Midway. Since his own carriers were being bombed by planes from Midway, Nagumo felt that there was still a need to neutralize the Airfield on Midway, since there was no sign of any American carriers in the area. He ordered his planes to switch from torpedoes to bombs to take care of the airfield. Shortly afterwards, a group of American ships was reported spotted about 200 miles away. At first the reports said that the ships consisted of only cruisers and destroyers but as the ships came closer a further report indicated that there was a carrier in the group of ships. This was a tense moment for Nagumo, as most of his torpedo bombers were now equipped with bombs to destroy the airfield. He had to still recover the aircraft returning from the first strike at Midway.

Still, by a change of course North-eastward which Nagumo made, helped him avoid the first wave of dive bombers which came at him from the American carriers. Three waves of slow dive bombers attacked the Japanese carriers, but 35 to the 41 which attacked were destroyed, either shot down by Japanese fighters or by anti-aircraft guns. After that, the Japanese had thought that they had won the battle.

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