Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Battle of Midway

Starting point is 00:00:00 In June 1942, American and Japanese naval forces squared off in what was a decisive naval battle in the war in the Pacific. The fleets, dominated by aircraft carriers, met just off the coast of a remote coral atoll in the Pacific Ocean known as Midway Island. The battle was unlike any battle before or sense in naval history, and it turned out to be the turning point in the war in the Pacific. Learn more about the Battle of Midway and how it changed the course of the war and the history of naval warfare on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed.

Starting point is 00:00:54 It effectively turned day into night and how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. The Japanese Empire experienced a series of stunning victories in late 1941 and early 1942. In addition to the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and Hawaii, they also managed to take Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, British Malaya, now Malaysia, and the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. On April 18, 1942, the Americans struck a blow deep into Japanese territory with the Doolittle raids, which were a one-way bombing mission over Tokyo.

Starting point is 00:01:36 The actual damage was minimal, but the raid had a huge psychological impact. The raid showed the vulnerability of Japan to American bombing raids. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the commander-in-chief of the Japanese Navy, advocated an approach of dominating the islands in the Central Pacific to prevent the Americans from using these islands as bases. He also sought to eliminate the American aircraft carrier force, which was the biggest threat as they were capable of projecting power the furthest. Yamamoto's predictions about aircraft carriers quickly proved true in May 1942 at the Battle of the Coral Sea off the northeast coast of Australia.

Starting point is 00:02:10 There, the Japanese met an American fleet and engaged in one of the first major battles of aircraft carriers in history. The two fleets were never within eyesight of each other, and the battle was fought entirely with aircraft. The Japanese were attempting to take the city of Port Moresby and Pawpen, New Guinea, which could then be used for subsequent attacks on Australia. The battle was considered a tactical victory for the Americans insofar as the Japanese canceled the attack on Port Moresby, but it was not a decisive victory. Both sides had similar losses, and on the sea it was mostly a draw. The Japanese lost one aircraft carrier, the Shoho, and the Americans lost one carrier, the Lexington. Each side also had carriers that were damaged, the Japanese carrier Shokaku and Zikaku, and the American carrier, Yorktown.

Starting point is 00:02:56 After the battle, Yamamoto determined that the place to spring a trap on the Americans would be the remote island of Midway. Midway was named because of its location, approximately Midway between North America and Asia. It is the last island in the Hawaiian archipelago and its American territory. However, the island is far enough away from Hawaii that it couldn't be supported by aircraft directly out of Oahu. Yamamoto selected Midway as the place to launch a surprise attack on the Americans, not because it was necessarily of great strategic value, but because he felt the Americans would defend it

Starting point is 00:03:29 at all costs and would commit all the aircraft carriers it could to the battle. What Yamamoto didn't know was that the Americans had largely broken the code used by the Japanese Navy, known as JN25B. From the decrypted communications, they knew the Japanese were planning something big at a location referred to as A-F. Despite decrypting the code, the Americans didn't know for certain what A-F was referring to. They thought it was probably Midway Island, but they weren't sure. So they had the radio operator on Midway send out a false, uncoated message, indicating that the water purification system had broken down and that they were low on water. Within 24 hours, Japanese messages began being transmitted, indicating that the location AF was low on water.

Starting point is 00:04:14 The Americans now knew exactly where the operation was going to take place. Moreover, they knew exactly how many ships the Japanese had. They also knew that the main Japanese fleet had split their forces into four groups that were so far apart from each other that they couldn't easily provide each other's support. And from the Dakota Japanese messages, they knew the attack on Midway was going to take place around June 4th. The Americans brought three fleet carriers to the battle. The term fleet carrier was used to distinguish large aircraft carriers from smaller escort carriers. The American carriers were the Hornet, the Enterprise, and the Yorktown. Yamamoto assumed that the Yorktown was damaged from the

Starting point is 00:04:53 Battle of the Coral Sea and wouldn't be available. However, unbeknownst to him, the repairs on the Yorktown took only two days in Pearl Harbor before the carrier was back in action. The Japanese had four fleet carriers available, thinking that they would outweighed. number the American carriers 2 to 1. Their two carriers damaged in the Coral Sea were not available. The four Japanese fleet carriers were the Kaga, Akagi, Hiriyu, and Soriu. Perhaps most importantly, the Americans had 233 aircraft on their three carriers, and the Japanese had 248 on their four carriers. But the Americans also had an additional 127 aircraft based on Midway Island itself. The battle technically began on June 3rd when an American PBY and 15th,

Starting point is 00:05:36 Fibious aircraft came across the Japanese fleet that was headed to Midway. They dropped their bombs but didn't hit anything. They thought it was the main battle fleet, but it actually wasn't. There was also a diversionary attack on the Aleutian Islands on June 3rd as well. These attacks on American territory were intended to distract the Americans and remove a potential bomber base that was in range of the Japanese mainland. Early on June 4th, the main Japanese attack on the island began. 108 aircraft were sent to Midway in an attempt to destroy the aircraft on the island as well as their landing strips.

Starting point is 00:06:10 The Americans, as it turned out, had another secret weapon beyond breaking the Japanese code. Radar. Radar stations had been installed on Midway and on several ships in the American fleet. This gave the Americans a decisive advantage, as they would know where and when the Japanese planes would be attacking from and could scramble their fighters to engage them before they arrived. American fighters from Midway were sent up to engage while 41 unescorted torpedo bombers were sent after the Japanese carriers. The torpedo bombers were destroyed in minutes as they approached the carriers, and they inflicted no damage to any Japanese ship. The American forces on Midway

Starting point is 00:06:48 suffered tremendous losses, but there was surprisingly little damage done to the infrastructure on the island, which was the actual point of the mission. Most of the attacks on Midway itself were conducted in the early morning. The Japanese were informed that another attack on Midway was necessary. Japanese Vice-Admiral Chuichi Nagumo began preparing for a second attack on Midway, changing the ordinance from torpedoes to land bombs. While they were preparing, they received word of American carriers to the east of Midway and planes that were headed their way. This forced the Japanese to again change their preparation to defend against an attack on their carriers. As a result of the transition, they had bombs, fuel, and fully loaded aircraft all

Starting point is 00:07:27 over their decks. The American attack was hardly a coordinated affair. The American Admiral Raymond Spurrance decided to start throwing planes at the Japanese rather than wait for a coordinated attack. The intent was to harass the Japanese enough that it would be difficult for them to launch an attack against the American fleet. The Japanese carriers were actually spotted by Air Group Commander C. Wade McCluskey Jr. from the USS Enterprise. Despite being in the air for almost two hours, he decided to initiate an attack. According to the American Admiral, Chester Nimitz, McCluskey's decision to attack, quote, decided the fate of our carrier task force and our forces at Midway. The first wave of dive bombers from the Enterprise took out the Caga and

Starting point is 00:08:09 the Akagi, both of which were laden with ordnance and fuels. The Soryu was hit by dive bombers from the Yorktown. Three of the four Japanese aircraft carriers were sunk in a short period of time, leaving only the Hiru. The Hiru managed to retaliate hitting the Yorktown, seriously damaging her, but not sinking her. However, the remaining American planes went out again after landing back on their aircraft carriers, including planes from the Yorktown, which were now flying from the Enterprise. They managed to find the hear-you and hit her with multiple bombs from dive bombers. Pilots Dick Best and Dusty Klyse managed to both hit two different Japanese aircraft carriers, becoming the only pilots to have ever achieved such a feat. Admiral Spruance decided to cease

Starting point is 00:08:50 pursuit on the evening of the fourth as to not jeopardize their victory. The battle continued for several days with the Americans in pursuit of the remaining Japanese ships. However, most of the damage had already been done. On June 5th, the Japanese scuttled the Hiryu and the Akagi, which were technically still afloat, but were dead in the water. A Japanese submarine hit the Yorktown on June 6th, which had been listing at 23 degrees, and it finally sank on June 7th. The amount of knowledge we have regarding the Battle of Midway is actually quite extensive, and I could easily spend an hour or more on the topic. There are many videos, books, and articles on the subject which go into depth on the details of the actual battle if you're interested.

Starting point is 00:09:29 The takeaway, however, is that a little over six months after Pearl Harbor, the Americans managed a stunning naval victory over the Japanese, despite still having a numerically inferior Navy. Within the span of a month, Japan had lost half of the aircraft carriers that had started the war with. Moreover, the loss of all four aircraft carriers at Midway also meant the loss of all 248 aircraft on the carriers and all of the pilots who were the elite of the Japanese Navy. In addition to the four aircraft carriers, the Japanese also lost a heavy cruiser, with another heavy cruiser and two destroyers damaged. The total loss of life on the part of the Japanese was over 3,000 men. In addition to the loss of the Yorktown, which had been abandoned

Starting point is 00:10:11 before it sank, the Americans lost a destroyer and 150 planes. A total of 307 men were killed. While the Battle of Midway was a devastating loss for the Japanese Navy, it wasn't a knockout punch. They still had five aircraft carriers in the Pacific, including those damaged and subsequently repaired, which was still more than the Americans had. They also still had a substantially larger surfaced and submarine fleet than the Americans did. However, it did mark a major turning point in the war. It halted Japanese advancement in the Central and Western Pacific. Had the tables been turned and the Americans had lost their carrier fleet,

Starting point is 00:10:47 They would have had only a single aircraft carrier, the Saratoga, and there would have been nothing to stop Japanese expansion into Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Alaska, and Australia. From a military history standpoint, the Battle of Midway marked the beginning of the era of aircraft carriers and of air superiority. Battleships, which had been the prestige ships of any Navy for over half a century, simply couldn't compete with the reach and accuracy of an aircraft carrier. The real impact of Midway wasn't felt until 1943. when U.S. production of naval vessels really ramped up. Japan simply couldn't match the industrial output of the Americans,

Starting point is 00:11:24 something that Admiral Yamamoto, who had studied and traveled extensively throughout the United States, knew firsthand. By the end of the war, including the aircraft carriers commissioned at the start of the war, the United States had 33 fleet carriers with an additional 78 escort and light aircraft carriers. Japan, in contrast, only managed to launch a few aircraft carriers after Pearl Harbor, all of which were converted from other military or commercial vessels. Because of the extremely deep waters where the battle occurred, for decades nobody could identify where the battle actually took place.

Starting point is 00:11:57 However, in 1998, Robert Ballard, the same man who discovered the Titanic and the Bismarck found the Yorktown in 16,650 feet or 5,070 meters of water. The Kaga and the Akagi were subsequently found in deep water in 2019. The Battle of Midway was, one of the most important battles of the Second World War and arguably the most important battle in the Pacific Theater. It remains one of the most studied and celebrated battles in naval history, illustrating the significance of effective communication, code breaking, and tactical

Starting point is 00:12:31 execution. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. Today's review comes from Laura Lou Timbuktu over on Apple Podcasts in the United States. They write, Uniquely Wonderful Listen. I finally entered the Northwest Montana chapter of the Completionist Club. I didn't have to wave my arms to turn on the lights because there were a couple of guys from Truck Driver University just passing through. I found the Huckleberry ice cream in the freezer and left my paperwork on the counter. I just want to thank you for the fun and intellectually stimulating listen.

Starting point is 00:13:06 I am using the information responsibly. Well, thanks, Laura Liu. It's always nice to see Montana being represented in the Completionist Club. I hope you enjoy the show while hiking up in the Flathead Country. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostergram, you two can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Battle of Midway

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