The Japanese fleet carriers- Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, and Hiryū, part of the six-carrier force that had attacked Pearl Harbor six months earlier-were sunk, as was the heavy cruiser Mikuma. cryptographers were able to determine the date and location of the planned attack, enabling the forewarned United States Navy to prepare its own ambush.įour Japanese and three American aircraft carriers participated in the battle.

The plan was undermined by faulty Japanese anticipations of the American reaction and poor initial dispositions. They hoped to lure the American aircraft carriers into a trap, clearing the seas for Japanese attacks on Midway, Fiji, Samoa, and Hawaii. In response to the Doolittle air raid on Tokyo, the Japanese leadership planned a 'barrier' strategy to extend Japan's defensive perimeter. Military historian John Keegan called it 'the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare', while naval historian Craig Symonds called it 'one of the most consequential naval engagements in world history, ranking alongside Salamis, Trafalgar, and Tsushima Strait, as both tactically decisive and strategically influential'. Spruance defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy under Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto, Chūichi Nagumo, and Nobutake Kondō north of Midway Atoll, inflicting devastating damage on the Japanese fleet. The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place 4–7 June 1942, six months after the Empire of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. ~307 killed, including 3 killed as prisoners

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