Aircraft Carriers

Midway - The Turning Point

    Following the embaressements of The Doolittle Raid and the halt of their southern progress at The Coral Sea, Japan was looking to deal a heavy blow upon the American Naval Fleet. Admiral Yamamoto, the head of the Japanese fleet, lead an armada of 165 ships, four of which were aircraft carriers, towards the Island of Midway.(1) Due to a combination of increased patrols and some crucial military intelligence breakthroughs, the American Navy had become aware of the advancing Japanese forces and prepared for a strike. Admiral Nimitz moved a fleet of American ships to the waters near midway to fortify the island. When Nimitz felt like he was ready to confront the Japanese he gave the word. On June 3, 1942 American bombers deployed Midway Island and launched a surprise attack on the advancing fleet.(2)

        After the intial air raid the remainder of the battle was fought with fighter planes and dive bombers. The U.S. and Japan launched wave after wave of torpedo planes and dive bomber planes at each other. The American forces, despite the fact they were outnumbered, kept the pressure on the Japanese ships. After one raid when the Japanese fighter were called back to the carriers to rearm and refuel the Americans found an opportunity to strike. While fighter planes are refueling the carriers that they sit on become extra prone to attack. When another wave of American fighters began to assault the carriers they spotted the aircraft carriers and launched an attack. The fighter planes strafed the decks of the ship's, lighting the fuel and bombs that were being reloaded onto the planes.(2) The result was devastating for the Japanese aircraft carriers. Fuchida, a survivor of the attack recalled the destruction later. “There was a huge hole in the flight deck just behind the midship elevator...Deck plates reeled in grotesque configurations. Planes stood tail up belching livid flames and jet black smoke.”(3) Three carriers were sunk and another crippled so badly that it sunk the next day. Yamamoto decided to retreat on June 8, giving America the victory in the most important battle in the war up to that point.

        The Battle of Midway showed that a “new and decisive form of naval warfare”(4)(Miller 39) was taking hold. Naval warfare was shifting from battleships to Carrier Task Forces. Carrier task forces had become a key part of the way the U.S. Navy and Japanese Navy fought naval warfare. For Japan, there ability to fight with carrier task forces was lost when they suffered the destruction of four carrier at midway. For America, however, the Battle of Midway proved that the war against Japan was winnable, and the aircraft carrier was going to allow them to do it. Following the Battle of Midway, it was America’s time to control the war. “From this point on in the war, just six months after Pearl Harbor, the Imperial Japanese Navy was thrown back on the defensive by America’s new secret weapon, the carrier task force.”(5)