Battle of Midway Timeline

Torpedo Squadron 8 of USS Hornet launched an unescorted attack against the Japanese carriers; nearly all its aircraft were shot down, but their sacrifice drew Japanese fighters down to low altitude, setting up the American dive bomber success. John Ford later directed the eight-minute documentary Torpedo Squadron 8 describing their heroism.

Image source: VT-8

USS Yorktown was badly damaged by aircraft from Hiryū on 4 June 1942, then torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-168 and sank on 7 June 1942. In September 1999, a joint expedition between Nauticos Corp. and the US Navy searched for the wreck, which Robert Ballard's team located and photographed on 19 May 1998 at 16,650 ft (5,070 m) deep, remarkably intact with original equipment and paint still visible.

Hiryū, the fourth Japanese carrier, launched counterstrikes that crippled USS Yorktown before being located and attacked by American dive bombers on the afternoon of 4 June 1942. It sank the following morning, completing the destruction of Japan's carrier striking force.

Image source: Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryū

The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. It became the decisive turning point of the Pacific War.

Admiral Nagumo's flagship Akagi was struck by American dive bombers on 4 June 1942 and scuttled the following day. Wreckage of the carrier was finally located and confirmed by an expedition on 21 October 2019.

Sōryū was struck by multiple bombs from American SBD Dauntless dive bombers on 4 June 1942. Fires raged out of control and the ship was abandoned and sank, marking one of four Japanese carriers lost in a single day.

Image source: Japanese aircraft carrier Sōryū

The carrier Kaga was hit by bombs from USS Enterprise dive bombers on 4 June 1942 and sank later that day. Its wreck was discovered at 17,700 ft (5,400 m) deep, announced by the US Navy on 18 October 2019.

Morison noted in 1949 that Spruance was criticized for not pursuing the retreating Japanese, allowing their surface fleet to escape after the battle.

Image source: Raymond A. Spruance

With four carriers sunk at Midway, Saratoga would have been the only American carrier in the Pacific had the battle gone differently, as no new ones were completed before the end of 1942. Of Japan's remaining carriers, only Shōkaku and Zuikaku remained effective fleet carriers until Taihō was commissioned in early 1944; Ryūjō and Zuihō were light carriers, while Jun'yō and Hiyō were second-rate ships of limited effectiveness.

The American victory at Midway allowed the US Navy to maintain carrier parity in the Pacific before the first of the new Essex-class fleet carriers became available at the end of 1942, shifting the strategic initiative permanently to the United States.

For instance, cryptanalysis—whose success at Midway proved decisive—made possible the shooting down of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's airplane in 1943, removing Japan's most gifted naval strategist.

Image source: Operation Vengeance

Watanabe died when the destroyer Numakaze sank in December 1943; had he survived the war he would likely have been tried as a war criminal for his role in the mistreatment of prisoners connected to the Midway operations.

Clay Blair argued in 1975 that had Spruance pressed on, he would have been unable to launch his aircraft after nightfall, and his cruisers would have been overwhelmed by Yamamoto's powerful surface units, including the battleship Yamato.