Six months after Pearl Harbor, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched an ambitious operation to destroy America's remaining carrier strength and seize Midway Atoll. What followed was the most decisive naval battle of the Pacific War. Unknown to Admiral Yamamoto, American codebreakers had pierced the Japanese naval cipher, and a trap was being set.
Scroll down to follow the battle as it unfolded.
In a basement at Pearl Harbor, Commander Joseph Rochefort and his team at Combat Intelligence Unit (Station HYPO) worked around the clock to crack JN-25, the Imperial Japanese Navy's operational code.[1] By mid-May they had identified "AF" as Midway Atoll. To confirm, Rochefort arranged for Midway to broadcast an uncoded message about a water purification failure. Within days, Japanese intercepts mentioned that "AF" was short of fresh water.[2]
Admiral Nimitz now knew the target, the approximate date, and the composition of the attacking force. He had perhaps two weeks to set a trap.
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's plan was elaborate: seize Midway to extend Japan's defensive perimeter and lure the U.S. Pacific Fleet into a decisive engagement. The Combined Fleet would deploy over 200 ships in multiple groups spread across the Pacific.[2]
The plan's fatal flaw was its complexity. Forces were dispersed so widely they could not support each other. Yamamoto's Main Body, including the super-battleship Yamato, trailed 300 miles behind the carriers — too far to intervene if things went wrong.[1]
Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo's First Air Fleet — the Kidō Butai (Mobile Force) — departed from the Inland Sea with four fleet carriers: Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, and Hiryū, screened by 2 battleships, 3 cruisers, and 11 destroyers.[1]
These four carriers had attacked Pearl Harbor, Darwin, Colombo, and Trincomalee. Their air groups were the most experienced in the world. Nagumo carried 248 aircraft — but critically, he had lost many veteran pilots in prior operations and their replacements were less seasoned.[5]
A separate Japanese force under Vice Admiral Boshirō Hosogaya struck Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands on June 3. Yamamoto intended this as a diversion to draw American carriers north.[2]
Thanks to HYPO's intelligence, Nimitz refused to take the bait. He kept his carriers concentrated northeast of Midway, at a pre-arranged rendezvous he called "Point Luck."[4]
Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance commanded Task Force 16 with carriers Enterprise and Hornet, departing Pearl Harbor on May 28. Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher's Task Force 17, with the hastily repaired Yorktown (given 72 hours of repair after the Battle of the Coral Sea), followed on May 30.[2]
The two task forces rendezvoused at Point Luck, 325 nautical miles northeast of Midway, on June 2. Fletcher, as senior officer, assumed overall tactical command. The Americans had 3 carriers with 233 aircraft — against Nagumo's 4 carriers and 248.[6]
Ensign Jewell Reid, piloting a PBY Catalina from Midway, sighted the Japanese transport group approximately 600 miles to the west-southwest. He radioed: "Sighted main body."[4] This was actually the slower-moving invasion force, not Nagumo's carriers, which were approaching from the northwest under heavy weather cover.
The sighting confirmed that the Japanese timetable matched HYPO's predictions almost exactly.[1]
Nine B-17 Flying Fortresses from Midway attacked the transport group from 20,000 feet. Despite optimistic claims by the bomber crews, no hits were scored.[6] High-altitude level bombing against maneuvering ships would prove consistently ineffective throughout the battle — a lesson that validated the Navy's investment in dive bombers and torpedo planes.
Four PBY Catalinas equipped with torpedoes launched a daring night attack against the invasion force. In the darkness, one torpedo struck the oiler Akebono Maru, causing damage but not sinking her.[4] It was a minor blow, but it was the first American torpedo hit of the battle and demonstrated the aggressive posture of Midway's defenders.
At 04:30, Nagumo launched 108 aircraft against Midway: 36 Kate torpedo bombers (armed with bombs), 36 Val dive bombers, and 36 Zero fighters, led by Lieutenant Jōichi Tomonaga from Hiryū.[1]
Nagumo retained his second wave — armed with torpedoes and armor-piercing bombs — in reserve, in case American ships were spotted. This reserve-or-commit dilemma would become the crux of the battle.[5]
Midway's radar detected the incoming Japanese strike at 93 miles. Every operational aircraft on the atoll launched: Marine Fighting Squadron 221 (VMF-221) sent 25 fighters — mostly obsolete F2A Buffaloes — to intercept.[6]
The defenders fought bravely but were overwhelmed. Fifteen of 25 Marine fighters were shot down. Japanese bombs cratered runways, destroyed the powerhouse, and set fuel tanks ablaze. But the airstrip remained operational — a fact that would prove crucial.[3]
Lieutenant Tomonaga, assessing the damage from above Midway, radioed back to Akagi: "There is need for a second attack wave."[1] The island's defenses were battered but not silenced.
At 07:15, Nagumo made a fateful decision: he ordered the reserve aircraft on Akagi and Kaga to be rearmed from anti-ship torpedoes to high-explosive bombs for a second strike on Midway. This rearmament process would take approximately one hour — during which his flight decks and hangars would be cluttered with ordnance.[5]
Midway launched everything it had at the Kidō Butai in uncoordinated waves: six TBF Avengers and four B-26 Marauders carrying torpedoes attacked first, followed by Major Lofton Henderson's SBD Dauntlesses and SB2U Vindicators, then another flight of B-17s.[3]
The results were devastating — for the Americans. Five of six Avengers were destroyed. Two B-26s were lost. Henderson was killed, and half his squadron shot down. Not a single torpedo or bomb hit a Japanese ship.[6] But the persistent attacks forced Nagumo to maneuver defensively, consuming precious time.
The submarine USS Nautilus (SS-168) had been shadowing the Japanese force since early morning. At 07:10 she fired torpedoes at a battleship, missed, and was driven down by depth charges.[4]
The destroyer Arashi was detached to keep Nautilus down. This seemingly minor event would have enormous consequences: when Arashi eventually raced to rejoin the fleet at full speed, her wake became a signpost pointing directly at Nagumo's carriers.[1]
At 07:28, a delayed scout plane from the cruiser Tone — launched 30 minutes late due to a catapult malfunction — reported sighting American ships to the northeast. The initial report was vague: "ten ships, apparently enemy."[1]
Nagumo was caught in an impossible bind. His hangar decks were in mid-rearmament — bombs being swapped for torpedoes and back again. At 07:45 he halted the rearming and ordered: switch back to anti-ship torpedoes. But the Tone scout soon reported a carrier among the American ships.[5]
By 09:17, Nagumo had recovered his Midway strike and was turning north to engage the American fleet. His decks were crowded with aircraft being fueled and armed, loose ordnance stacked alongside. He needed just 30 more minutes to launch a properly coordinated strike.[1]
Three American torpedo bomber squadrons found the Kidō Butai and attacked in succession. Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8) from Hornet, led by Lieutenant Commander John C. Waldron, arrived first. Flying low and slow in obsolete TBD Devastators without fighter escort, all fifteen aircraft were shot down. Only Ensign George Gay survived, floating amid the wreckage.[3]
VT-6 from Enterprise attacked next, losing ten of fourteen planes. VT-3 from Yorktown followed, losing ten of twelve.[6] Not a single torpedo hit. The sacrifice seemed pointless — but it was not. The torpedo attacks forced the Japanese combat air patrol (CAP) down to sea level and pulled the screening destroyers out of formation, leaving the carriers without high-altitude defense at the critical moment.[1]
Lieutenant Commander C. Wade McClusky, leading 32 SBD Dauntless dive bombers from Enterprise, had flown to the expected Japanese position and found only empty ocean. Fuel running low, he made the battle's most consequential navigational decision: instead of turning back, he searched northwest.[2]
At 09:55 he spotted a lone destroyer racing northeast at full speed — Arashi, returning from her hunt for Nautilus. McClusky followed her wake like an arrow pointing straight to Nagumo's fleet.[1] Nimitz would later say that McClusky's decision "decided the fate of our carrier task force and our forces at Midway."[2]
At 10:22, McClusky's dive bombers screamed down on Kaga and Akagi from 14,500 feet. Simultaneously, Lieutenant Commander Maxwell Leslie's VB-3 from Yorktown dove on Sōryū. The Japanese CAP, drawn to sea level by the torpedo attacks, could not climb back in time.[1]
Kaga took four direct hits among fully fueled and armed planes on her flight deck. Akagi was struck by just one or two bombs — but one detonated among the torpedoes and bombs stacked on the hangar deck during rearming. Sōryū took three hits and was engulfed within minutes.[5]
In five minutes, three of Japan's six fleet carriers were reduced to blazing wrecks. The ordnance left scattered during Nagumo's rearming had turned each ship into a floating ammunition dump.[1]
Rear Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi aboard Hiryū, the sole surviving Japanese carrier, wasted no time. At 10:40 he launched 18 Val dive bombers and 6 Zero escorts under Lieutenant Michio Kobayashi, guided by a scout plane's contact report.[1]
At noon they found Task Force 17. Despite fierce anti-aircraft fire, three bombs hit Yorktown, knocking out two boilers and starting fires. The carrier went dead in the water, listing.[6]
Yorktown's damage control teams performed extraordinary work. Within two hours they had patched the flight deck, relit four boilers, and brought the carrier back up to 20 knots. Externally, she appeared fully operational — so much so that the next Japanese strike would mistake her for a different, undamaged carrier.[6]
Yamaguchi launched a second strike: 10 Kate torpedo bombers and 6 Zeros under Lieutenant Jōichi Tomonaga, who knew he had a damaged fuel tank and likely not enough fuel to return. He volunteered to lead anyway.[1]
The Kates split into two groups for an anvil attack. Two Type 91 torpedoes slammed into Yorktown's port side, jamming the rudder and knocking out all power. The carrier took on a severe list. Captain Elliott Buckmaster gave the order to abandon ship at 14:55.[6]
At 15:30, a scout from Yorktown located Hiryū. Spruance launched 24 SBD Dauntlesses from Enterprise (including refugees from Yorktown), plus 16 from Hornet.[2]
At 17:00, the Enterprise dive bombers caught Hiryū as she was preparing to launch yet another strike. Four bomb hits turned her flight deck into an inferno. Admiral Yamaguchi chose to go down with his ship.[1] All four of Nagumo's carriers were now burning or sunk.
Kaga sank at 19:25 on June 4, taking 811 men with her. Sōryū followed at 19:13, with 718 dead. Akagi, Nagumo's flagship, burned through the night; her crew was evacuated and she was scuttled by Japanese destroyers at dawn on June 5.[1]
Hiryū was found still afloat at dawn on June 5, her crew having abandoned ship during the night. Japanese destroyers fired torpedoes to scuttle her, but she drifted and finally sank later that morning.[5]
Yamamoto briefly considered a night surface engagement but abandoned the idea when it became clear that Spruance was prudently withdrawing eastward after dark. On June 5, Yamamoto ordered the general retreat of the Combined Fleet.[2]
During the pursuit on June 6, aircraft from Enterprise and Hornet caught the heavy cruisers Mikuma and Mogami, which had collided while evading a submarine. Mikuma was sunk and Mogami heavily damaged.[4]
On June 6, Yorktown was still afloat and a salvage party had reboarded her. The minesweeper Vireo took her under tow. But at 13:36 on June 6, the Japanese submarine I-168, which had been tracking the drifting carrier, fired a spread of torpedoes. Two struck Yorktown and one hit the destroyer Hammann, which was alongside providing power.[6]
Hammann broke in half and sank in four minutes with 80 dead. Yorktown lingered through the night, finally capsizing and sinking at 05:01 on June 7.[4]
The Battle of Midway cost Japan four fleet carriers, the heavy cruiser Mikuma, 248 aircraft, and approximately 3,057 men — including many of its most experienced pilots and maintenance crews. The United States lost the carrier Yorktown, the destroyer Hammann, 150 aircraft, and 307 men.[2]
The strategic balance in the Pacific shifted irreversibly. Japan, unable to replace its losses in carriers and trained aircrews, was forced onto the defensive. The Americans, with their industrial capacity now fully mobilized, would never look back.[1]
Admiral Nimitz summarized the victory: "Midway was essentially a victory of intelligence. In attempting to compensate for a grave inferiority in numbers, we undertook to exploit our advantage in information."[4]