On this day in 1942, a battle in the Pacific changed the course of World War II. The Battle of Midway was fought between American and Japanese fleets
Battle of Midway
Following the attack on Pearl Harbour, Japan planned to attack the US outpost on Midway Island.
When the US defends the island, Japan’s forces would ambush and destroy the American ships.
Did Japan succeed?
Breaking codes
Not really. US had broken the Japanese codes in early 1942. So it knew of the attack in advance and sent its fleet to surprise the Japanese. Thirty-seven Douglas Dauntless bombers took off from the USS Enterprise and attacked the two Japanese aircraft carriers.
History returns?
US has to fight a peer for control of the sea since the Battle of Midway, Peter W Singer, an expert on defence issues told Bloomberg. He was responding to a question on the threat America faces with China’s “carrier-killer” missiles
‘None of them came back’
Just within minutes, the Japanese ships were set ablaze. And within six hours, other two carriers in the Japanese fleet were also destroyed. But what made the battle more noble was that the Devastator planes were known to be obsolete, writes Washington Post’s opinions editor, James Downie. The pilots and gunners knew they were sitting ducks, yet they went ahead and “none of them came back”