The Battle of Midway
Taylor Herndon
June 4, 1942
Six months after Pearl Harbor Japan launched the first strike with a 108 aircraft, on Midway an American base in the Pacific Ocean, this caused a significant amount of damage to the U.S. When the U.S. Struck back they did little to no damage on the Japanese, they lost 65 of their own aircraft in the attempt. Before the first strike was even sent that morning the U.S. had sent planes for scouting missions, they had received a report that the planes had picked up around 5:30 am. The Japanese were 200 miles west-south-west the American base was attack at 6:16 am. The Japanese main target was power plants and oil installations.
June 5, 1942
The next day just 90 miles west of Midway were Kruita's cruisers which were startled by a U.S. submarine. One of the cruisers tried to escape by turning around it hit its Mikuma one of its sisterships, Mikuma's fuel tank then opened into the sea. At dawn steaming 15 knots was Task Force 16 they rested waiting to recieve a report from the Midway planes, finally at 0700 they received the a message saying that there was many unidentified ships earlier that morning. So Task Force 16 seeped up to 25 knots because the Japanese were landing on Midway about an hour later a Midway-based PBY repoted a damaged carrier. As the morning went on the Japanese weren't as likely to land at Midway.
June 6, 1942
Late on June 5, 1942 and early June 6, 1942 the Task Force 16 steamed west- northwest a position 340 miles northwest of Midway by dawn. One of the scout planes found the enemy retreating, at 0510 "Enterprise" launched multiple SBD's to search westward then at 0645 "Hornet" SBD reported an enemy ship 45 minuets later a messaged was received saying two heavy cruisers and two destroyers were in the same position earlier. Around 1235 I-168 was within 500 yards of a carrier the sonar equipment was almost completely destroyed which enabled I-168 to fire four torpedoes, one torpedo missed, one caught an amid ship breaking it in half, the other two ended up hitting Yorktown's battered port side.
June 7, 1942
This was the last day of The Battle of Midway at 0458 the selvage crew couldn't over come the amount of damage that had been down. The enemy's ships "Yorktown", "Enterprise", and "Hornet" had sank and the this had meant that the war was over. Even with the head start Japan had they still lost. The U.S. won but they still lost only 340 men and 140 aircraft while the Japanese lost over 3,000 men, 228 aircraft, and two leaders.
Conclusion
The Battle of Midway happened just six months after the U.S. was attacked by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The battle began with a surprise attack on the U.S. by the Japanese the Japanese had a good lead on the U.S. for about the first day of the battle. After the first day the U.S. took over and won the Japanese ended up losing many more men then the U.S. as well as aircraft.
Cites
Trueman, C. (2000-2013) Battle of Midway. Retrieved from www.historylearningsite.co.UK/battle_of_midway.htm
(1996-2014) The Battle of Midway Begins. Retrieved from
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-battle-of-midway-begins
Brading, R. (1997) The Air Battle of Midway. Retrieved from
http://www.centuryinter.net/midway/air_battle.html
Shepherd, J. (1998-2006) Battle of Midway. Retrieved from