![]() 7, 1941.) By contrast, the Kido Butai was the principal striking arm of the IJN, with an unblemished combat record. After all, the Japanese raid struck mainly at American battleships - platforms in the process of being superseded by carriers as the core of naval warfare. Midway hurt the IJN far worse than Pearl Harbor hurt the U.S. ![]() Japanese naval aviation suffered a hammer blow from which it never fully recovered. The fourth was a smoking ruin before the day was through. Aviators set three of four Imperial Japanese Navy, or IJN, carriers ablaze within a span of eight minutes. At a critical moment, dive bombers flying from the USS Enterprise, Yorktown, and Hornet swooped from Pacific skies on the morning of June 4, raining death on Japan’s Kido Butai, or carrier strike force. It culminated six months to the day after the Japanese sent the same fleet to pummel the American battle line at Pearl Harbor. Midway thus represents a warning as well as a cause for celebration.Ī quick recap: The battle took place northeast of the Midway Islands, about halfway in the Pacific between Asia and North America. If America were to be involved in a major naval battle in the Pacific today, it would likely be with a decaying fleet, against a more evenly matched opponent such as China, and the result could easily turn out differently. Navy was both fortunate in its Japanese foe during World War II and the beneficiary of farsighted political leadership at home. An inferior American force steamed into battle and won big, preparing the way for ultimate victory. There’s nothing wrong with ballyhooing the 75th anniversary of Midway. Navy reversed the six months of disaster that followed the Imperial Japanese Navy’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. That’s the June 1942 high-seas clash in the Pacific Ocean where the U.S. Otto von Bismarck once reportedly quipped that Providence favors “fools, drunkards, and the United States of America.” Exhibit A: the Battle of Midway.
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