There are and will be moments in history where everything changes, sometimes in a week, sometimes in a day, and even, sometimes, in a few moments. One key event that changes the trajectory of history. Writers of alternative history look for these moments to speculate on what might have happened if things had gone the other way; I've done it myself.
One of these events happened on this day in 1942. On June 3rd, 1942, Japan's navy was ascendent in the Pacific. The Imperial Navy had gone from victory to victory with few setbacks. The United States' industrial might was not yet on a war footing, and the U.S. Navy had an inventory of old ships and mostly obsolete aircraft. However, on June 4, 1942, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) suffered a blow from which it never recovered. Although fighting continued for three more years, from that day on, America was headed for victory.
That event was the Battle of Midway.
Before the war, nobody paid much attention to Midway. It's part of the Hawaiian Islands chain, about a thousand miles from Pearl Harbor. After Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto looked at Midway as a stepping-stone; if Japan could take Midway, they would be that much closer to striking American bases and ships in Hawaii and could threaten the American West Coast.
In 1942, Midway had a modest ground garrison, three runways, and a seaplane dock for the Navy PBY Catalinas that flew reconnaissance missions. There was a squadron of U.S. Army B-17s, as well as Marine F4F Wildcat and F2A Buffalo fighters, neither of which was a match for the Japanese Zeros.
Japan had made a feint towards Alaska's Aleutian Islands to distract from the drive towards Midway. The main Japanese force headed for Midway consisted of four fleet carriers: Akagi, Hiryu, Kaga, and Soryu, which were accompanied by 7 battleships, 15 cruisers, and 42 destroyers, under the direct command of Admiral Chūichi Nagumo. On June 4th, Japanese aircraft bombed Midway Island, while B-17s from Midway launched an ineffective raid against the Japanese fleet. The Marine fighters on Midway went up and engaged the incoming Japanese, but paid a terrible price for the light damage they did.
To the northeast of Midway was the American fleet, consisting of three carriers, the Enterprise, the Hornet, and the Yorktown. The Yorktown's presence there was something of a miracle, as the ship had been badly damaged in the Battle of the Coral Sea and had retreated to Pearl Harbor. The repair crews estimated it would take three months to get the carrier fit to go back out; Admiral Nimitz calmly said, "You have three days." In three days, Yorktown was headed north to join the other two carriers, under the command of Admiral Raymond Spruance.
Then came Admiral Nagumo's fatal mistake. The American fleet had not yet been sighted; at 7:15 AM, Nagumo ordered a second wave of aircraft to be armed with bombs to attack Midway Island again. Then, 30 minutes later, a Japanese scout plane reported sighting American ships. The first wave of Japanese aircraft was still returning to the fleet, low on fuel. Nagumo ordered his reserve to be outfitted with torpedoes to attack the American ships, the returning planes to be recovered, after which the reserve force would be launched.
Consider what this meant: The Japanese carriers had planes on deck and in the hangar bays. Bombs and torpedoes were scattered about the hangar decks. Then, while all this was going on, American fighters and bombers from the American carriers had sighted the Japanese fleet.
At 9:20 AM came the first American attack by carrier-based aircraft, those being TBD Devastator torpedo bombers from the Hornet. The Devastators were obsolete, slow, poorly defended, and the American torpedoes were flawed. Of the TBDs from the Hornet, not one returned, and only one man survived, Ensign George Gay, who, while floating in the water, had a front-row view of what happened next. At 10:20, TBDs from the other two carriers attacked with similar results. In the end, only six TBDs survived to return to their carriers. But one of the groups was accompanied by the more capable F4F Wildcat fighters, and so the Japanese group's screening Zeros came screeching down to low altitude to attack.
Then arrived the SBD Dauntless dive bombers from Enterprise. Lieutenant Commander Wade McClusky had taken his group of Dauntlesses to follow the track of a lone Japanese destroyer, correctly assuming that the destroyer was racing to catch up to the main fleet. At 10:22 AM, the Dauntlesses stooped on the Japanese fleets like falcons, delivering multiple bomb hits to the Kaga and Akagi. Moments later, Dauntlesses from Yorktown smashed the Soryu. In moments, all three Japanese carriers were infernos, as the American aircraft smashed their bombs through wooden flight decks into hangar bays loaded with fueled aircraft, bombs, and torpedoes.
One Japanese carrier was undamaged, and after the American planes withdrew, the Hiryu's attack force followed the American aircraft back to Yorktown. The first Japanese attack by dive bombers left the American carrier badly damaged. A second attack by torpedo bombers left the Yorktown badly damaged by two torpedo hits. The ship was eventually abandoned and later sank.
The American Navy responded once more on June 4th. The Hiryu had been spotted by patrol planes. Dauntlesses from all three American carriers located the last Japanese carrier at 5:00 PM and, as they had the other three, reduced it to a flaming wreck. The American forces then withdrew to the east to protect the two remaining carriers, as what remained of the Japanese fleet limped back towards Tokyo.
In one day, Japan had lost four fleet carriers, a heavy cruiser, and more than 300 front-line naval aircraft. Three of those carriers were lost in the space of a few moments, on the morning of June 4th. The Americans lost the Yorktown, a destroyer, and 150 aircraft.
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Before Midway, Japan had the initiative. Before Midway, the war seemed to be going Japan's way. After Midway, everything had changed. The Americans had the initiative. The American Navy had a huge morale boost from the victory. The loss of four Japanese carriers was a devastating blow for the IJN; Japan's Admiral Yamamoto knew that he would have to fight the war with what he had, while facing the enormous industrial might of the United States. By 1945, wags were commenting that you could very nearly walk from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo by stepping from deck to deck of all the American warships.
I've left a lot of detail out of this account. Explaining everything that happened in the days around this battle would fill a book. But it was the sinking of the Japanese carriers that turned that tide; that was the decisive moment of the war in the Pacific. The war went on for three more years, ships and men were lost, battles were fought and won, and while America suffered some setbacks, after Midway, the outcome was never truly in doubt. The Battle of Midway was the turning point.
Writers of alternative history look for turning points like this. Imagine what would have happened had that battle gone differently; if the American fleet had been smashed, all the carriers lost, and the Japanese fleet had gone on to occupy Midway. But that's not what happened; what happened was the entire course of a major war, World War 2 in the Pacific, changing in a matter of minutes. And it happened 83 years ago today, June 4th, 1942.
The famous American film director John Ford was on Midway when it was attacked on June 3rd; you can see his account of that battle here.
