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Some of History’s Most Unexpected Plot Twists

Khalid Elhassan February 22, 2021 35 min

Basset Hound - American Foxhound — George Washington riding after his hounds during a hunt. Journal of the American Revolution

Aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, depicting the battleship USS West Virginia sunk and burning, with the battleship USS Tennessee in the background. History on the Net

19. The Most Momentous Five Minutes in the History of Warfare?

At 10:25 AM on the morning of June 4, 1942, Japan was mistress of the Pacific, had the world’s strongest naval aviation force, and was dictating the terms of war. By 10:30 AM, Japan had effectively lost World War II. That dramatically unexpected turnaround makes those five minutes some of the most momentous five minutes in the history of war. They reversed the momentum in the Pacific War, where Japan had gone on a rampage after her attack on Pearl Harbor left the American fleet there smoking and sinking mess.

Japan wanted a battle of annihilation, like Tsushima, followed by a negotiated favorable peace. Pearl Harbor was a success, but no Tsushima. So the Japanese figured an invasion of Midway Island might lure what was left of the US Navy into showing 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 the Japanese, American cryptanalysts had cracked Japan’s secret codes and knew of the upcoming attack.

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.