“The Battle of Midway was the most decisive naval battle in modern history.”

By David Rigby

THE BATTLE OF Midway, fought from June 3 to 7, 1942, was the turning point of World War Two in the Pacific.

The Japanese naval high command had expected that the attack on the remote Midway Atoll, which sat roughly 1,000 miles northwest of Hawaii, would once again catch the Americans by surprise as had been the case at Pearl Harbor attack six months before. Tokyo further hoped that by capturing Midway, it could lure the U.S. fleet into a decisive confrontation that Imperial Japanese Navy felt it would almost certainly win. Instead, the United States, having uncovered the enemy’s plans, was ready. It was the Japanese who were taken by surprise.

Midway marked a stunning reversal of the fortunes of war in the Pacific. From the time of the Pearl Harbor attack until Midway, the Japanese had held the initiative in the Pacific. For months, the Americans were forced to fight a defensive war while Japan continued its march of conquest across the Pacific and the Far East. In the first half of 1942, Japanese forces would seize Burma (Myanmar), the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) the Malayan peninsula, and the Philippines. Midway changed everything.

Following Japan’s defeat, initiative in the Pacific War shifted to the Americans who soon went on the offensive. Midway also bought time for the United States, which it used to continue mobilizing for total war. Specifically, it afforded the U.S. precious months to complete new Essex-class carriers. And the breathing room purchased at Midway, ultimately laid the foundation for the American island hoping campaign that kicked off in November 1943 at Tarawa and Makin in the Gilbert Islands and would end with the capture of Okinawa in 1945.

Any telling of the American triumph in the Pacific begins with the American upset victory at Midway. Here are 10 facts about this decisive battle.

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Midway made the carrier king

The Battle of Midway signalled the arrival of a new era of naval warfare: the “carrier battle” in which the two opposing surface fleets struck at each other using their own aircraft and never coming within visual range of each other. Both Midway and the May, 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea proved that the carrier had indeed replaced the battleship as the most important naval vessel of the Second World War. It’s a reality that continues to this day.

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It was a classic case of the “hunter” becoming “the hunted”

By the time of Midway, the Japanese aircraft carrier striking force, Kido Butai, had achieved overwhelming success in the war. Beginning with the Pearl Harbor attack, and later with raids in the Indian Ocean, the task force had inflicted crippling losses against Allied shipping. The Japanese naval high command expected the Midway operation to be another easy victory. The Japanese had underestimated their enemy’s ability to counterattack and thus unknowingly sailed into an American trap. In fact, Japanese forces were totally surprised by the presence in the waters off Midway of three American aircraft carriers.

Japan had the Zero, but America had the Dauntless

In 1942, the Mitsubishi A6M Zero was the finest carrier-based fighter in the world, but America had the best dive-bomber: the Douglas SBD Dauntless, and that was more important. The superiority of the SBD was proven at Midway when American pilots flying them scored direct hits that destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers and a large cruiser.

Both navies were still recovering from the fight at the Coral Sea

Two Japanese carriers that should have been available for Midway had been knocked out of action at the Battle of the Coral Sea just a month earlier. The Shokaku had been damaged by American dive-bombers, while the carrier Zuikaku‘s air group suffered heavy losses. This meant that the Japanese striking force, which usually sailed with six flattops, would only have four on hand at Midway. America too had suffered damage to its carriers at Coral Sea. The USS Lexington was crippled there and later had to be scuttled. Such would not be the case for the USS Yorktown. Struck by a Japanese bomb on May 8, the vessel was repaired and ready to fight when the Japanese fleet arrived at Midway the following month. The Yorktown would bring the number of American carriers at Midway to three.

Code-breaking was vital

Code breaking played an absolutely critical role in the American victory at Midway. In the months following Dec. 7, the U.S. Navy’s top-secret cryptanalysis operation at Pearl Harbor, managed to partially break the Japanese naval code, JN 25. The breakthrough gave naval intelligence warning that an enemy fleet was heading towards Midway, it consisted of aircraft carriers and supporting vessels, and that it would arrive in Midway waters on or around June 3. Without this code breaking coup, it’s hard to imagine anything other than a complete Japanese victory. In fact, advance knowledge of the enemy’s intentions informed every aspect of the American battle plan. Interestingly, the outpost at Midway itself enjoyed secure communications with the outside world. An underwater telephone cable connected the islands with Oahu, giving the United States a completely protected means of communication before and during the battle.

Cutting-edge tech turned the tide

Along with code breaking, the use of radar offered a huge advantage to the Americans. U.S. carriers, and even some of their supporting vessels, were equipped with the new technology. None of the Japanese ships in the Kido Butai striking force were equipped with similar equipment. Radar allowed the American fleet to track incoming Japanese aircraft early on and to prepare defensive measures accordingly. The Japanese ships, on the other hand, were completely dependent on human lookouts for air defence. This is how American dive-bombers from the USS Enterprise and USS Yorktown were able to get into attack position above the Japanese fleet undetected.

Experience also helped win the day

USS Enterprise Air Group Commander Wade McClusky was 40 years old at the time of Midway; most of the pilots who flew with him were in their 20s. Including the Aleutians phase of the battle, more than 20 of McClusky’s classmates from the Annapolis Class of 1926, including Lofton Henderson and Maxwell Leslie, also participated in the battle.

A legendary director captured the battle as it unfolded

Hollywood filmmaker John Ford, famous for classics like Stagecoach and The Grapes of Wrath, was part of the U.S. Navy’s wartime motion picture division in 1942 and happened to be on Midway when the Japanese attacked. Armed with a 16-mm camera, Ford filmed the action from seaside dugouts and gun batteries as Japanese planes pounded U.S positions across the island. He was even wounded. Ford later worried that military censors would ban him from making his footage public. But after seeing an advanced cut of Ford’s Midway documentary, President Roosevelt ordered it released to the American public. “I want every mother in America to see this film,” FDR reportedly said after seeing it.*

The fight was won by the pilots

Midway remains the greatest victory in the history of U.S. naval aviation. It is therefore ironic in this most decisive carrier air battle that neither of the two American task force commanders, Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher and Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, was a pilot.

Midway changed the course of World War Two

Before the battle was over, American dive bombers would destroy four Japanese aircraft carriers and a heavy cruiser. Even though the American flattops USS Yorktown and destroyer USS Hamann were lost in the action, the Battle of Midway was an utterly decisive victory for the Americans and a crushing defeat for Japan. Along with Trafalgar in 1805, the Battle of Midway was the most decisive naval battle in modern history. Just like Napoleon’s navy following Lord Nelson’s famous victory, Japan never recovered from its defeat at Midway. In the months that followed, the IJN was on the defensive and would never again mount as serious a threat as it did in early 1942.

(* With files from NH Mallett and MilitaryHistoryNow.com)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: David Rigby is a historian and the author of the new book Wade McClusky and the Battle of Midway. His previous works include:  Allied Master Strategists: The Combined Chiefs of Staff in World War II (Naval Institute Press, 2012), which was awarded the 2012 John Lyman Book Prize in U.S. Naval History and No Substitute for Victory: Successful American Military Strategies from the Revolutionary War to the Present Day (Carrel Books, 2014). He lives in Acton, Massachusetts.