Midway: The Six Minutes That Won the Pacific
Because American codebreakers knew the plan, three minutes of dive-bomber strikes sank four Japanese carriers and flipped the Pacific War.
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Six months after Pearl Harbor, Japan planned to lure the U.S. fleet into a trap at Midway Atoll. But American cryptographers had broken the Japanese code and knew the time and place.
On June 4, U.S. dive bombers caught three Japanese carriers at the worst moment decks crowded with fueled, armed aircraft. Three were destroyed in minutes; a fourth fell later that day.
Japan lost four fleet carriers and hundreds of veteran aircrew. The balance of naval power in the Pacific shifted irreversibly.
"Japan's best carriers, loaded with armed and fueled planes, died in minutes. The empire never recovered its reach."
Midway ended Japan's offensive momentum and destroyed the core of its carrier fleet. The United States, with its industrial might, seized the strategic initiative and began the island-hopping campaign that would reach Japan's home islands.
The Full Story
The Codebreakers' Edge
Station HYPO in Hawaii read enough of the Japanese cipher to deduce Midway was the target. The U.S. fleet waited in ambush rather than sailing into one.
The Decisive Strike
A narrow window saw U.S. Dauntless dive bombers arrive as Japanese combat air patrol was below. The resulting fires doomed the carriers Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu.
The Tide Turns
Japan could not replace its lost carriers or pilots at the rate America could build them. From Midway onward, the Allies advanced across the Pacific.