Battle of Midway
Background
“AF is short of fresh water.” Have you heard of this message? What is AF? (Definitely not Air France, though.) Today, I will introduce the battle that changed the situation of the Pacific War—the Battle of Midway.
So, as everyone knows, on 7 Dec 1941, the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbour in Hawaii, which made the USA join WW2. In the attack, the Pacific Fleet was damaged severely, and many ships such as USS Arizona (BB-39) and USS Utah (BB-31) were sunk. At the same time, the Japanese Navy only lost a few fighters. Luckily, none of the aircraft carriers of the US Navy—which were the targets of the Japanese Navy—were in port. On 8 Dec 1941, the USA declared war on Japan, and the Pacific War started.


So, five months after the attack, in May 1942, there was the Battle of Coral Sea. In this battle, the Japanese Navy lost one aircraft carrier, IJN Shoho, and another aircraft carrier, IJN Shokaku, was severely damaged. The US Navy also lost one aircraft carrier, USS Lexington (CV-2), and another aircraft carrier, USS Yorktown (CV-5), was severely damaged.
At the same time, in early 1942, American cryptanalysts had begun breaking Japanese communication codes. They noticed that a location called “AF” was mentioned frequently. Officers suspected that Japan was going to attack Midway Atoll. Midway sent out a false message that it was short of fresh water to prove that they were right. Then, they finally intercepted the message from the Japanese Navy: “AF is short of fresh water.”
Battle of Midway
On 3 June 1942, a PBY reconnaissance aircraft of the VPB-44 squadron spotted a Japanese fleet sailing towards Midway. Admiral Nimitz initially thought it was a fleet led by Nobutake Kondō, not the main fleet led by Chūichi Nagumo. He immediately ordered another admiral, Admiral Fletcher, to hold his fleet. Meanwhile, some B-17 bombers of the Army Air Force found the landing fleet led by Raizō Tanaka, but their attack did not have much effect. Also, four PBY planes dropped torpedoes on the Japanese landing fleet, but only one ship was hit. Although the US Navy knew the Japanese plan, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto and Chūichi Nagumo still chose to continue the operation.
On 4 June 1942, at 4:30 am, four Japanese aircraft carriers—IJN Akagi, IJN Kaga, IJN Sōryū, and IJN Hiryū—started sending planes to strike Midway. To be prepared in case of encountering American fleets, some planes carried torpedoes instead of bombs. Additionally, some aircraft were sent out by cruisers to search for American fleets.




Between 5:34 am and 6:00 am, a PBY of the VP-23 squadron (call sign: Strawberry 5) spotted the Japanese carrier battle group and the Japanese air group heading towards Midway. Later, another PBY (call sign: Strawberry 12) also spotted the Japanese air group. After the location of the carrier group and air group was known, all aircraft on Midway were sent to attack the carrier group, while the USMC sent out the VMF-221 fighter squadron (24 F2A and F4F fighters) led by Floyd B. “Red” Parks to intercept the Japanese air group. Although six Japanese bombers were shot down, many American fighters were lost due to lack of experience, and only 11 pilots survived.


At 7:00 am, the Japanese air groups arrived at Midway but spotted no planes at the air base. Hence, the planes could only attack other facilities of the airport. Even so, the runway was not damaged. At 7:05 am, Nagumo agreed to send out planes to strike Midway again. However, the fighters were busy fighting off planes from Midway.
Meanwhile, in the American fleets, Fletcher received the message of the discovery of Japanese fleets at 6:03 am, but planes from USS Enterprise (CV-6) and USS Hornet (CV-8) took off at 7:00 am. Since the planes that took off needed to wait for other planes still on deck, they hovered above the carriers until 7:45 am. At 8:30 am, planes on USS Yorktown took off.
At 7:15 am, Nagumo gave the order to strike Midway. All the Nakajima Ki-27 fighters needed to replace their torpedoes with bombs. But at 7:28 am, planes from the cruiser IJN Tone reported to IJN Akagi that they spotted “10 American ships”. Nagumo received this report at 7:45 am.



Now, Nagumo had to make a decision. As the Japanese fleets were being attacked by American planes from all directions, they needed to find the American carriers as soon as possible. However, Aichi D3A planes and Ki-27s already had bombs loaded. If the planes were not sent out, they could only attack American fleets after 1.5 hours. Additionally, there were not enough A6M fighters to protect all the planes.

At 7:53 am, American planes attacked the Japanese fleets again. While A6M fighters were sent to protect the aircraft carriers, air strikes continued until 10:40 am.
At 10:20 am, planes from American aircraft carriers approached Japanese ships. Soldiers on IJN Kaga noticed the American planes flying towards them. Over four bombs hit Kaga; the bridge of the ship was completely destroyed, and the hangar was also damaged. Moreover, munitions, bombs, and fuel on the ship caught fire. Kaga was on fire in a few minutes.
The next ship attacked was Soryu. At 10:24 am, the ship received the report that Kaga was attacked. At the same time, three bombers successfully dropped bombs on the ship, causing severe casualties. The captain ordered the crew to abandon ship, but since the communication system was destroyed, only a few sailors received the order.
And now the Akagi. The ship was trying to escape from American planes when Kaga was being attacked. But three bombers changed their direction towards Akagi and dropped their bombs. The steering gear of the ship was destroyed, and the ship caught fire.
How about the American fleets? At 12:59 pm, USS Yorktown was attacked by Japanese planes. The ship was on fire, the radar was damaged, and the power was lost. At 1:40 pm, the ship started to move again, but another strike from Japanese planes arrived. This time, the ship was severely damaged and listed to the left. The captain ordered the crew to abandon the ship at 2:55 pm.
Shortly after Yorktown was attacked, IJN Hiryu was attacked by planes from the Enterprise and Hornet. Around 40 bombers were sent. Originally, some of them were planned to strike IJN Haruna, which was protecting Hiryu, but all the planes changed direction to attack Hiryu instead. The front deck of Hiryu was hit, and the ship was set on fire.
At night, IJN Soryu, IJN Kaga, and IJN Akagi were sunk by Japanese destroyers after it was clear that the ships could not be repaired. On 5th June at 2:30 am, Hiryu was also determined to be beyond repair. Destroyers hit the ship with torpedoes, but the ship did not immediately sink. It finally sank at 7 am. Japan lost the battle completely.
Follow up Battles
After the Japanese fleets left the battlefield, they were still chased by American planes. IJN Mikuma was severely damaged by planes and sank. Only 180 out of 800 crew members survived.

In the American fleet, the Yorktown had been abandoned, but the Japanese submarine I-168 spotted it and hit the ship with a torpedo. While USS Hammann tried to save Yorktown, it was also hit by a torpedo and sank along with Yorktown.


Aftermath
After the battle, the power of the Japanese fleets was severely weakened as they lost four aircraft carriers. The situation in the Pacific Ocean became favourable to the Americans. This battle also marked the turning point of the Pacific War.