The Japaneses, rather than attacking the Hawaii islands, targets with their Mi-go operation the Midway island which is far enough of Oahu so that the planes based there can't come to help but important enough so that the Americans will want to fight for it with their fleet even if they can't get any cover. So the Japaneses have the better of the situation since they have more battleships and more carriers, they also have more ready planes since they have 272 airplanes on 4 carriers while the Americans have 233 on 3 carriers and 115 other american old planes on the Midway island. The american airplane of the moment is the Grumman Wildcat which is slower vertically and horizontally than the japanese Zero.
On June 4th 1942 admiral Nagumo which leads 4 carriers (Hiryu, Akaga, Kaga and Soryu) with their 272 airplanes, 2 light carriers (Zuiho and Hosho) with 41 airplanes, 2 battleships (one of which is the giant Yamato (64 000 tons)), 5 cruisers, 8 destroyers and transport/supply ships comes near Midway.
The plan of Yamamoto, onboard the Yamato -the admiral-ship- is to attack Midway on June 4th and so force the Americans to battle with their fleet around the 7th. To be sure three submarine groups are positioned along all roads from Pearl Harbor to Midway so that the american fleet will be spotted as soon as it sails to help Midway. The plan is very clever but Yamamoto doesn't know that the Americans can decode their messages and so they already know of the attack and thus the reenforcement are already at Midway -so the fleet will never pass in front of the watching submarines.
On their side the Americans fear a decoy. Vessel captain J. J. Rochefort so thinks of a plan to be sure of the japanese target: every possible target is ordered to signal a problem in one of its installation (which is unique to each place). For Midway the problem was a break in the sea water converter and a few days later the military japanese radio was saying that the target had water convertion problems! Thus as soon as May 15th the Hawaii islands were in red alert for a high risk of landing and so they were reenforced.
The Americans have no battleships to bring against the Japaneses and they have only 3 carriers since the British were not able to give them one in time since there carriers were in South Africa. So the Americans create 2 Task Forces for the operation: Task Force 16 with the carriers Enterprise and Hornet, 6 cruisers and 10 destroyers under the orders of Raymond A. Spruance (who is succeeding to vice-admiral Halsey who is at the hospital) and the Task Force 17 under the orders of counter-admiral Fletcher with 2 cruisers, 5 destroyers and the carrier Yorktown which has been repaired (damaged at the Coral Sea Battle) in 48h at Pearl Harbor (with the help of 1400 engineers) rather than the supposed 2 months. The 2 Task Forces leaves the harbor on May 28th and 30th; long before the japanese submarines are in position. When the japanese fleet is spotted the two groups are positioned North-East of the island and are ready to carry out their mission: if you are in inferior numbers, you have to inflict greater damage to the enemy.
June 1st while the japanese fleet is sailing toward its target in the center of the formation the admiral-ship Yamato -the only ship with long enough antenna to intercept the enemy radio messages since the carriers don't have any to make the aircraft landing easier- intercepts 180 messages of which 80 are urgents (much more than normal). These high rates can means that the Americans are in an alert situation and so maybe they know about the operation… but Yamamoto doen't want to break the radio silence to warn Nagumo who is 1000km in front because that would have warn the Americans also.
June 3rd around 9h an american Catalina hydroplane is patrolling and spots the japanese fleet at 1300km of Midway. The Americans send a squadron of Flying Fortress in the night to bomb the fleet but they only hit a tanker.
June 4th another Catalina drove by Jack Reid spots 11 ships at 700 miles of Midway which he follow by hiding in the clouds. After a few hours the pilot can report that the group is coming directly to Midway at a speed of 20 knots.
At dawn (4h30) of June 4th 1942 admiral Nagumo who is now at 450km North-West of his objective orders that the 4 carriers (Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu and Soryu) be put under the wind so that the 36 fighters, 36 diving bombers and 36 bombers can take off. He also send 7 hydroplanes to recon the area for an eventual enemy fleet. But one of the hydroplane has problems with his catapult onboard the cruiser Tone and so he take off only 30 minutes later.
The first meeting happens between the 26 Wildcats of the island and the 36 Zero from the carriers. The Japaneses easily shoot down the Americans but a second wave is necessary to destroy the defenses of the island. So Nagumo has to transform 98 of his torpedo-bombers which were waiting for the american fleet into bombers to make the second wave attack. While the crew on the bridge is transferring the torpedoes for bombs the airplanes from Midway makes their counter-attack: 39 torpedo bombers attack the fleet and 28 of them are shot down without doing any damage to the japanese ships. Midway also send is squadron of Flying Fortress but they drop their bombs at 6500m over their target and don't hit anything. But seeing that the island has still many airplanes, Nagumo has to send fighters to cover the second wave.
At 7h28 admiral Nagumo receive a message telling him that the hydroplane from the cruiser Tone (the one who left late) has just spotted enemy ships at 370km North-North-West. An hour after the pilot confirms the presence of at least one carrier. So Nagumo has to wait the return of the second wave to get all his power and then go to meet the enemy fleet while his planes are fueled and ammunitioned back. Thus at 8h55 the japanese fleet is turning North to meet the enemy fleet. The crew on the bridge once again have to change the bombs for torpedoes, putting the bombs aside until they have time to store them.
Around 9h30 the first american air wave from the fleet appears in the sky. 15 torpedo-bombers leaded by corvet captain Waldron from the Hornet and having lost their escort fighters comes low. 50 Zeros take off to meet them and after a few minutes no american is left in the sky: only one pilot survive on the 30 men. Few time later another torpedo-bombers group (26 airplanes) from the Enterprise and Yorktown comes but they are also all destroyed without even hitting one ship.
At 10h Nagumo is happy: he has shot down 83 airplanes and lost only 6. In half an hour his attack of 54 torpedo-bombers and 36 diving-bombers would be ready to destroy the american fleet.
On the other side the Americans are planning their attack since they have spotted the japanese fleet at 370km South-West. At 7h while Nagumo is launching is second wave of attack, 117 airplanes from the Task Force 16 (with the Enterprise and the Hornet) take off while 37 airplanes from the carrier Yorktown (Task Force 17) were waiting 8 o'clock to take off. Many historians think that admiral Spruance had calculated his attack so that he would attack while the japanese aircrafts are fueling, but he himself has said that it was pure luck: luck play a big part in a war. The 117 american airplanes were going toward the position calculated position of the japanese ships but these last had turned and so the planes had to turn right. A few squadrons were lost in the move: the squadron led by Waldon which sacrificed itself alone against the enemy but its attack was not unuseful since while the planes were shot down the Japaneses didn't look up where the diving bombers Douglas SBD Dauntless were coming from 6000m and anyway the Zeros were to low to make an interception. So the bombers attacked and maked big damages since the bridges of their targets were full of bombs and torpedoes transferring.
The admiral-ship carrier Akagi explode and its communications are damaged and so at 10h46 Nagumo evacuates it. Around 18h the fires are out of control and so commander Aoki orders the evacuation of ship and the crew is rescued by 2 destroyers (Nowaki and Arashi) from where the commander ask to Yamamoto the authorisation to sink the carrier. Yamamoto refuses at 22h25 and so commander Aoki returns on the carrier, attaches himself to the anchor and wait until the ship sinks. During that time the american corvet captain MacClusky leads his squadron and attacks the carrier Kaga which is hit by 4 bombs and becomes a single giant fire. For his part frigate captain Leslie damages so much the carrier Soryu that at 10h40 the ship was immobile and in fire from end to end.
So the Japaneses are left with the carrier Hiryu which send its 43 airplanes in two waves to meet the Task Force 17. 18 diving bombers Val spot the Yorktown and hit it with 2 bombs before being all shot down by the american fighters. At 12h20 the Yorktown has to reduce his speed because it has too much damages and it is then that the japanese torpedoes-bombers appear and sneak between the DCA fire to hit the ship twice more on the same side. The ship is heeling dangerously and so its commander orders the evacuation and the carrier is towed (the Japaneses at that moment thinks that they have sunken the only two american carriers in the Pacific). The carrier Hiryu gets back 15 of its planes around 16h30 but they are followed by 24 bombers Dauntless under the orders of corvet captain MacClusky (who had before bombed the Kaga) and so at 17h the aircrafts onboard the Hiryu were all on fire and the bridge was unusable. While the sun was going down admiral Spruance directs his ships East to avoid any direct contact with the enemy (who would destroy him with his battleships Haruna and Kirishima). By 19h30 the 2 carriers Soryu and Kaga are under the sea. June 5th in the morning Nagumo is authorised by Yamamoto to torpedo the carriers Akagu and Hiryu. The commander of the last, counter-admiral Yamaguchi, attaches himself to the commanding post to perish with his ship. Not despaired yet Yamamoto tries to join the two light carriers to the battleships and follow the americans: he wants to intercept them during the night, but Spruance retreat toward Pearl Harbor towing the Yorktown.
On June 5th at 14h55 Yamamoto finally cancels the operation even if he had the mightiest battleship force and so the fleet retreats. But the american airplanes make many raids during the day and in the night they track the heavy cruisers Mogami and Mikuma which finally collided with each other and that disabled the Mogami for a year and sunk the Mikuma (June 6th around noon). In the afternoon of June 6th the japanese submarine I-168 commanded by Tanabe was coming back from canoning Midway in the night of 4th and spots the Yorktown towed toward Pearl Harbor. Tanabe positions his ship and with two torpedoes he sunk the carrier and also the destroyer Hammann.
This is the end of one of the biggest battles of the second World War. It blocks Japan from doing what it wants and allow the Allied to concentrate their forces against Deutsh. This battle reestablishes the arms balance in the Pacific and so put the Japanese on the defense. 307 Americans died and 147 airplanes were shot down against 3500 Japaneses and 332 aircrafts (with 4 carriers). But the big difference is that the japanese pilots who died there were the best. A question is left: what would have happened if the hydroplane of the Tone had left in time, he would have seen the american ships before the second wave took off and all would have been otherwise…
Introduction Chronology Biography Links Glossary
This page hosted by 
Get your own Free Home Page