Battle of Midway

Script:

Hoping to mirror the success of his surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto’s attack plan called for a three-phase assault on Midway, while a fourth phase would include an attack on the Aleutian islands off the coast of Alaska, intended to divert American naval assets away from Midway, just as his three-phase attack plan went into motion. Led by Vice Admiral Chuiichi Nagumo of the First Carrier Striking Force, Phase One called for an air attack on Midway Atoll, launched from the first-line aircraft carriers, the Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu and Soryu. After the destruction of Midway’s defenses, Phase Two, led by Vice Admiral Nobutake Kondo, would include a land invasion by Kondo’s 5,000-man army, intended to crush any remaining American forces on the ground. 

Fully expecting American reinforcements ordered in from Pearl Harbor, to fill the void left by Yamamoto’s diversionary tactics along the Aleutian chain, Phase Three would include a second strike by Nagumo’s forces, in concert with Yamamoto’s own fleet of battleships, carriers and destroyers, waiting to close in for the kill some 600 miles to the west, with the hope of overwhelming American military might—a move that would hand the Empire of Japan a decisive victory at Midway, along with a geographic stronghold in the Pacific that could even threaten the west coast of the United States.

Despite the thoroughness of Yamamoto’s plan, what he could not know was that the Americans had successfully broken the Japanese navy’s cipher code. Led by Commander Joseph Rochefort of the U.S. Navy’s Combat Intelligence Unit, working from their windowless basement offices at Pearl Harbor, by March of 1942, Rochefort’s unit had spent long hours and months on Japan’s naval code, which by the time of Yamamoto’s attack, the unit had completely mastered Japan’s secret code. Led by Admiral Chester Nimitz, commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, when the deciphered Japanese playbook landed on his desk, Nimitz quickly drew up a plan of attack, which relied heavily on a fight from the air, while his carriers would remain well out of striking distance of the Japanese Navy.

In response to Yamamoto’s planned offensive at Midway, Nimitz sent two carrier groups into action, with Admiral Frank J. Fletcher of Task Force 17 given command of all tactical decisions aboard his flagship, the USS Yorktown. The second carrier group, Task Force 16, was led by Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance, including the aircraft carriers Enterprise and Hornet, and while Yamamoto firmly believed he had the Americans cornered by his plan, Nimitz’ two carrier groups would successfully lay a trap on the Japanese Navy.

Unbeknownst to Yamamoto, when his strike on the Aleutian Islands began as planned on June the 3rd, his forces encounter a small contingent of American navy warships blocking their path, and as Yamamoto’s Phase One forces approach Midway, he receives disturbing intelligence that American carriers might be somewhere near Midway, and while Yamamoto at first wants to inform Nagumo of the possibility of enemy ships in the area, Yamamoto chooses to maintain radio silence due to suspicions that the Americans would be listening in on all Japanese radio traffic.

At 09:25, as U.S forces on Midway prepare for the pending Japanese attack, Ensign Jack Reid flies his PBY Catalina on a reconnaissance flight despite conditions of heavy fog, at last spotting what he thinks to be Japan’s main fleet, which in reality proves to be Vice Admiral Kondo’s Phase Two invasion force. In response to Reed’s radio message, nine B-17 heavy bombers are dispatched from Midway, attacking Kondo’s ships without any direct hits, yet marking the first military engagement of the Battle of Midway. Adhering to Japan’s policy of radio silence, Kondo fails to notify Nagumo of the bomber attack, leaving the later admiral unaware of the American’s impending ambush.

On the morning of June the 4th, Nagumo launches 108 aircraft from his flight decks, including A6M Zero fighters, D3A Val dive bombs and B5N Kate torpedo bombers, unaware that the Americans have already launched 15 B-17 bombers from Midway, followed by four separate groups of aircraft intent on attacking the Japanese fleet, including six Navy Grumman TBFs, four Army B-26 Marauders, sixteen Marine SBD-2 Dauntless and eleven Marine SB-2U Vindicators. 

Meanwhile on Midway, air raid sirens blare at 05:56 on the morning of June 4th, after incoming Japanese planes are spotted, obliging ground and air forces to engage the enemy at 06:16, with squadrons of F2S Buffalos and F4F Wildcat fighters. Despite the American’s counter offensive, American fighters are badly outnumbered, leading to substantial damage on the ground, including hangars, runways, a hospital and a power plant during Japan’s 27-minute attack. Breaking radio silence after Phase One of his plan at 7:05, Nagumo receives word from his Phase One attack pilots that a second air assault will be necessary to completely incapacitate the American’s infrastructure on Midway, forcing him to delay any decision as he weighs the consequences of yet another air attack instead of engaging the enemy in a naval battle. 

Before he can decide, torpedoes rain down on his fleet from American squadrons launched earlier in the morning from Midway, leaving him shocked by the reality that the Americans knew his position before he ordered his Phase One air attack. Still indecisive over how to proceed, the American submarine Nautilus closes on his fleet from behind, prompting Nagumo to order his planes to Midway for a second attack at 7:15 A.M.

Thirteen minutes after Nagumo orders his attack, a Japanese scout plane spots ten American warships off on an intercept route, and as American pilots continue to attack his fleet, he orders his crews to stop arming bombs intended for Midway, but instead to prepare his aircraft for naval warfare by arming his planes with torpedoes.

Meanwhile across the battlefield, Admiral Spruance launches 116 aircraft from the flight decks of Enterprise and Hornet, while the Yorktown prepares to launch even more fighters against the enemy. At 8:20, Nagumo receives confirmation of an American aircraft carrier in the area, and while he is badly shaken by the unforeseen American trap, he can’t initiate offensive maneuvers until he has successfully retrieved his bombers still on a return flight from Midway. Yamamoto also receives the report of an American carrier in the area, yet in a decision that will prove costly for the Japanese, he does not interfere with Nagumo’s apparent delay in attacking the American carrier group. Finally recovering his bombers from the Midway raid, Nagumo orders his fleet toward the position of the one known American carrier group, just as the first squadron of Devastator dive bombers arrives from the Hornet, followed by eleven from the Yorktown. Lacking any fighter escort, of the 26 Devastators involved in the attack on Nagumo’s fleet, only six will return to their carrier decks.

The mass downing of American bombers injects a heady sense of confidence into the Japanese fleet, yet as Nagumo refuels and rearms his fighters, 26 American Dauntless dive out of the sun to bomb the Kaga. 

Led by Lt. Commander Wade McCluskey, his squadron of Dauntless are the first to launch off the Enterprise at 7:06 A.M., but when they reach the supposed location of the Japanese fleet, all they find is an open ocean devoid of enemy warships. Dangerously low on fuel and unable to contact his superiors due to an order of radio silence, McCluskey weighs the odds of either returning immediately to the Enterprise or taking one last stab at the enemy with what little fuel he has left. McCluskey makes a choice that Admiral Nimitz would later call “one of the most important decisions of the battle,” turning northwest to follow the path he thinks the Japanese would take towards the American fleet—an almost instinctual decision that was about to determine the course and outcome of the battle.

McCluskey’s bombs make multiple hits on the Kaga, one exploding a gasoline truck near the bridge that kills the entire command staff, while other hits leave the Kaga dead in the water. Minutes after McCluskey’s attack, fighters and bombers from the Yorktown focus on the Soryu, inflicting three hits on the ship’s port side that ignites the ship’s magazine, setting off a chain reaction of explosion and fires that engulf the entire ship. The same squadron from the Yorktown then sets their sights on Nagumo’s flagship, the Akagi, decimating planes as they wait to take off, in what one Japanese sailor would later describe as “a burning hell.”

Forced to transfer from to the light cruiser Nagara from the burning Akagi, Nagumo breaks radio silence to update Yamamoto about the devastating news of the American’s attack, informing his commander that only the Hiryu remains in operational condition, due to the fact that the Hiryu was well ahead of the other Japanese carriers in his group. Realizing he’s losing the fight, Nagumo launches eighteen dive bombers and six fighters from the Hiryu, only to get battered by a swarm of American fighters. After the Americans break off the dogfight at noon, fourteen remaining Japanese planes descend on the Yorktown, setting the ship ablaze within minutes. Damaged but still functioning, Admiral Fletcher hands over his command of the battle to Admiral Spruance aboard the Enterprise, before transferring to the heavy cruiser Astoria.

Still wanting to stay in the fight, Nagumo launches a second wave of fighters from the Hiryu, which are intercepted fifteen minutes away from the Yorktown by more American fighters. Whittled down to five surviving Japanese torpedo bombers, the planes land two hits on the Yorktown, which soon lists 26 degrees to port—so much so that Yorktown’s port flight deck nearly touches the water—until Yorktown Captain Elliot Buckmaster gives his abandon ship order at 14:55.

The Hiryu has cost the Americans dearly, prompting Admiral Spruance to order all available dive bombers to attack the Hiryu, some 72 miles out from the Yorktown. In response, forty unescorted Dauntless dive bombers lift off from the Enterprise and Hornet, which dives repeatedly on the Hiryu until the ship floats dead in the water, at the same time ending the Battle of Midway with a crushing blow to the Japanese. While several small clashes would follow over the next couple of days, the American’s victory at Midway proves to be a turning point battle in the war of the Pacific, ending Japan’s expansionist aggression to one of defensive pull back as the Americans continue their press for the home islands of Japan. 

The battle would prove costly for both combatants, yet Japan’s losses would prove much more devastating and impactful as the Americans by now were outpacing Japan’s ability to produce its weapons of war. The Americans suffered casualties of one fleet carrier, 150 aircraft and 307 fatalities, while the Japanese lost four fleet carriers, one heavy cruiser sunk, one heavy cruiser and two destroyers severely damaged and 248 aircraft, at a cost of 3,057 Killed in Action. While their defeat at Midway badly drained morale from the Japanese military, America’s victory at Midway highlighted the indispensable power of code-breaking and tactical foresight, while energizing the American public back home, making the Battle of Midway, a turning point moment in the Allies push for Tokyo.