1942 – World War II: The Battle of Midway begins. Japanese Admiral Chūichi Nagumo orders a strike on Midway Island by much of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The Japanese Combined Fleet under the command of Isoroku Yamamoto suffered a decisive defeat by two carrier strike groups of the U.S. Pacific Fleet near Midway Atoll, about 1,300 miles northwest of Oahu. Yamamoto had intended to capture Midway and lure out and destroy the U.S. Pacific Fleet, especially the aircraft carriers which had escaped damage at Pearl Harbor. Before the battle, Japan desired to extend its Pacific defense perimeter, especially after the Doolittle air raid of Tokyo in April 1942, and to clear the seas for attacks on Midway, Fiji, Samoa, and Hawaii. A related Japanese attack on the Aleutian Islands began one day earlier, on 3 June. The Japanese strike force at Midway, known as the Kidō Butai, was commanded by Chuichi Nagumo. Yamamoto's plan for the operation, which depended on precise timing and coordination, was undermined by its wide dispersal of forces, which left the rest of the fleet unable to support the Kidō Butai effectively. On 4 June, the Japanese began bombing Midway and prepared to wait for the Pacific Fleet to arrive from Pearl Harbor to defend the island. Unknown to Yamamoto, U.S. code breakers had determined the date and location of his planned attack, enabling the Americans to prepare their own ambush; Chester Nimitz, commander of the Pacific Fleet, had sent a large force under Frank Jack Fletcher to the Midway area before the Japanese had arrived. Land-based planes from Midway and carrier-based planes from the U.S. fleet surprised and attacked Nagumo's force. All four Japanese fleet carriers—Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, and Hiryū—present at the battle were sunk, as was the heavy cruiser Mikuma. Japan also lost 3,000 men, including many well-trained and difficult-to-replace pilots. The U.S. lost the carrier Yorktown and the destroyer Hammann, while the carriers Enterprise and Hornet (under the command of Raymond Spruance during the battle) survived the fighting without damage. The Battle of Midway, along with the Guadalcanal campaign, is widely considered a turning point in the Pacific War. After Midway and the attrition of the Solomon Islands campaign, Japan's ability to replace its losses in materiel and trained men became rapidly insufficient, while the Americans' massive industrial and training capabilities increased over time. Historian John Keegan called the battle "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare."
