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Lopsided Military Defeats and Humiliating Battlefield Setbacks

Khalid Elhassan September 17, 2024 35 min

Lopsided - Egyptian prisoners captured during the Six Day War — Egyptian prisoners captured during the Six Day War. Pinterest

23. The Battle That Changed the Tide of WWII in the Pacific

Lopsided - Midway Atoll, a few months before the battle — Midway Atoll, a few months before the battle. US Naval History and Heritage Command

At 10:25 AM, June 4^th, 1942, Japan was mistress of the Pacific. She had the world’s most powerful naval aviation force, had been running roughshod over her enemies while marching from victory to victory, and was in the driver’s seat, dictating the terms of the war in the Pacific Theater. By 10:30 AM, Japan had effectively lost WWII. The Japanese experienced probably the unluckiest five minutes ever experienced by any country in the history of warfare. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan went on a rampage, and won a series of stunning victories. However, Japan’s war strategy was to win a battle of annihilation, like the Battle of Tsushima in the Russo-Japanese War, then negotiate a favorable peace. Pearl Harbor was a success, but no Tsushima. So the Japanese planned an invasion of Midway Island to lure what was left of the US Navy to show up for a climactic showdown.

Assuming that the US Navy had only one or two aircraft carriers in the Pacific, the Japanese launched their operation with four fleet carriers. Unbeknownst to them, American cryptanalysts had cracked Japan’s secret codes and knew of the upcoming attack. The Americans also had more aircraft carriers in the Pacific than expected. One US carrier had been transferred from the Atlantic, and another, the USS Yorktown, which had been damaged in an earlier battle and was expected to take months to fix, was rushed back into service after 48 hours of repairs. Thus, the Japanese sailed out to meet three American carriers, the USS Enterprise, USS Yorktown, and USS Hornet, and an alert enemy waiting in ambush, rather than one or two carriers caught off guard.

The USS Yorktown being rushed through repairs at Pearl Harbor, a few days before the Battle of Midway. US Navy

The Japanese launched a carrier strike against Midway on the morning of June 4^th, 1942. They inflicted significant damage, but a second strike was necessary. So Japanese aircraft were recovered and readied. While doing that, the Japanese learned that American carriers were nearby. Midway was going nowhere, and the destruction of enemy aircraft carriers was more important. So the admiral in charge of Japan’s carrier strike force, Chuichi Nagumo, gave orders to switch bombs from ones intended for ground targets, to anti-ship bombs and torpedoes. While that was going on, the American carriers launched their own aircraft against the Japanese.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.