BATTLE OF MIDWAY
On Wednesday 20th May, 1942, Allied listening stations around the Pacific picked up a lengthy coded radio signal from Admiral Yamamoto to his fleet. The message was relayed to Pearl Harbor and deciphered by the US Combat Intelligence Unit ('Hypo'). It revealed that the Imperial Japanese Navy was about to mount a powerful attack on the tiny mid-Pacific atoll of Midway, 1 100 miles north-west of Pearl Harbor. This was to coincide with a diversionary attack on the Aleutians, far to the north. Soon, using other intercepted messages, 'Hypo' intelligence officers were able to add dates and times to the places: Dutch Harbour in the Aleutians would be hit on 3rd June, Midway the next day.
How was it possible for the Americans to pinpoint Midway as the main objective? It was the culmination of a remarkable intelligence exercise. 'Hypo' had warned early in the year that a strike somewhere in the Hawaiian Islands was on the cards. On 12th May, four days after the Battle of the Coral Sea, they discovered the Japanese code name of the target: 'AF'. But where was 'AF'? The evidence pointed to Midway, but it was not conclusive. An officer at 'Hypo', Captain Jasper Holmes, then suggested a way to check. The US air base on Midway was ordered to send an uncoded radio signal that the island was having trouble with its water distillation plant, Soon afterwards the Japanese were signalling that 'AF' had water problems. The Americans now knew for certain where the Japanese blow would fall.
The C-in-C Pacific, Admiral Chester Nimitz, was now aware, from deciphering of enemy signals, that the Japanese fleet was intent on throwing down a challenge, which, in spite of local American inferiority, had to be accepted. The proceeding Battle of Midway ranks among one of the truly decisive battles in history. In one massive five minute action, Japan's overwhelming superiority in naval air strength in the vast Pacific Ocean was wiped out.
More than half the Japanese fleet-carrier strength, together with their irreplaceable, elite, highly trained and experienced aircrews were eliminated; resulting in the Japanese naval air arm being thrown on the defensive from then on. The early run of victories which Yamamoto had predicted had come to a premature end. Now a period of stalemate was to begin, during which American industrial muscle would overpower their Pacific enemy, which Yamamoto had also foreseen.
On 26th May 1942, the aircraft-carriers Enterprise and Hornet of Task Force (TF) 16 had steamed into Pearl Harbor, to set about, in haste, the various operations of refuelling and replenishing. The next day the Yorktown with blackened sides and twisted decks, bearing the scars of her bomb-damage in the Coral Sea battle, berthed in the dry dock. Yorktown had been so badly damaged that the Japanese believed it was sunk, and thus, they would face only two American carriers.
One thousand four hundred workmen swarmed aboard to begin repairs. Under normal circumstances, two months of work would have been necessary for maintenance. But, with the knowledge that the Japanese were heading for Midway, Nimitz ordered the Navy Yard to make emergency repairs in the utmost speed. Work was to continue, night and day, without ceasing, until the ship was at least temporarily battle worthy. The men of the dockyards completed this in less than 46 hours.
Therefore, on 28th May, TF 16, consisting of the Enterprise flying the flag of Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance with the Hornet, six cruisers, nine destroyers, and two replenishment tankers following, left Pearl Harbour. The next day the Yorktown, as TF 17 left harbour under the command of Rear Admiral Fletcher, accompanied by two cruisers and five destroyers headed to rendezvous with TF 16, 350 miles north- east of Midway.
The Americans had been forced to make changes in their command structure. Rear- Admiral Fletcher continued to fly his flag in the Yorktown as commander of TF 17, but Halsey had fallen ill and the command of TF 16 passed to Rear-Admiral Spruance. Although not an aviator Spruance had commanded the screen under Halsey and backed up by Halsey's highly competent air staff he was to prove an able task force commander.
The main objective of the Japanese was to extend Japan's newly conquered eastern sea frontier so that sufficient warning might be obtained of any threatened naval air attack on the homeland. Doubts on the wisdom of the Japanese plan had been voiced in various quarters; but Yamamoto, the dynamic C -in-C of the Combined Fleet, had fiercely advocated it. He had always been certain that only by destroying the American fleet could Japan gain the breathing space required to consolidate her conquests. A belief which had inspired the attack on Pearl Harbor. Yamamoto, believed rightly, that an attack on Midway was a challenge that Nimitz could not ignore. It would bring out the US Pacific Carrier Fleet where Yamamoto, with superior strength, would be waiting to bring it to action.
While the Japanese leaders, after a string of dazzling victories, were debating where they should strike next, their minds had been made up for them. Lt. Colonel James Doolittle's raid on Tokyo with B-25 bombers, on 18th April, had put the sacred person of the Emperor in danger. The mortified generals and admirals decided that every gap in Japan's defensive perimeter must be plugged and Midway was such a gap.
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