The architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, once warned his superiors, “In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success.” Seventy-five years ago today, his prediction came true.
Almost exactly six months after the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, the American fleet was able to surprise a Japanese invasion force—the core of which were four of the six aircraft carriers that had attacked Hawaii—just off Midway Atoll in the central Pacific.
The key to the American battle plan was intelligence: American cryptologists had broken the Japanese code in March of that year. They began to see references to a target known as “AF.” Naval intelligence convinced Adm. Chester Nimitz, commander-in-chief of the Pacific fleet, that the target was Midway, but his commanders in Washington were skeptical. Lieutenant Commander Jasper Holmes suggested that Midway, which required regular deliveries of potable water, send out an unencrypted message reporting a broken desalinization machine. Sure enough, a few days after the message was sent, Japanese radio traffic mentioned that AF was low on water. The Americans knew without doubt that Midway was the target.
Nimitz ordered Midway to be as heavily fortified as possible: Anti-aircraft guns, small arms, fighter planes, dive bombers, heavy bombers, submarines, mines, barbed wire, and all sorts of materiel were immediately dispatched to the small, isolated atoll.
But that wasn’t enough. Midway might have been able to repel an amphibious invasion, but it couldn’t destroy the Japanese fleet. Nimitz needed aircraft carriers, but they were in short supply. At the Battle of Coral Sea in early May, the USS Yorktown and USS Lexington were able to thwart a Japanese offensive, but the Lexington had to be scuttled after extensive damage and the Yorktown was severely damaged. Nimitz was told repairs would take three months. He ordered them done in three days, and they were.
Yorktown joined the carriers USS Enterprise and USS Hornet, plus a bevy of submarines, cruisers, and support ships, all under the command of Adm. Frank Jack Fletcher, to face off against four Japanese carriers: Akaga, Kagi, Soryu, and Hiryu, again under Yamamoto’s command. On the morning of June 4, the American fleet was lying in wait, north of Midway, knowing that the Japanese carriers would steam just south of them.
First contact came at 5:30 a.m. By 11:00 a.m, only Hiryu remained untouched and able to fight. American dive bombers and torpedoes reduced the other three carriers to fiery wrecks. After two more days of nearly continuous fighting, all four Japanese carriers had been sunk. Without the benefit of air cover, Yamamoto was forced to recall the vulnerable invasion force. The next day, July 7, Yorktown succumbed to the damage she’d received during the battle.
During the fighting, Cpt. Richard E. Fleming displayed heroism that would earn him a posthumous Medal of Honor. His citation reads, in part:
In his report of the battle, Nimitz concluded, “All participating personnel, without exception, displayed unhesitating devotion to duty, loyalty and courage. This superb spirit in all three services made possible the application of the destructive power that routed the enemy.”
The United States lost 307 men in the battle; the Japanese lost perhaps ten times that number. It would take more than three more years for America’s island-hopping campaign to chip away at the Empire of the Rising Sun, and finally end the war.
But none of it would have been possible if not for the decisive victory at Midway.
