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Naval History
NAVAL HISTORY
FREE SAMPLE ISSUE
FREE SAMPLE ISSUE
Dear Fellow History Buff,
As Japanese aircraft returned from pummeling the American base at Midway,
spotters on Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo's flattops saw something they had not
expected — U.S. aircraft, Navy TBF and Army B-26 bombers.
Up until that moment, the Japanese plan had been going smoothly. Thanks to
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the mastermind behind the attack on Pearl Harbor, the
Japanese had returned to the North Pacific with overwhelming force to finish off the
U.S. fleet.
What Yamamoto did not anticipate was U.S. Naval intelligence breaking the
Japanese Navy's operation code, allowing three U.S. carriers to sneak out of Pearl
Harbor undetected and to prepare an ambush.
Unfortunately, the first wave of unescorted U.S. bombers that attacked the
Japanese carrier fleet was no match for the faster A6M2 Zero Fighters. It was a Turkey
Shoot. Only one plane survived. Successive waves of attackers, including low-flying
torpedo bombers, were similarly wiped out.
However, in what is now called "the Miracle at Midway," three squadrons of U.S.
dive bombers had set off with the wrong coordinates and lagged behind. When the
American planes finally broke through the clouds and stumbled upon the carriers, it
could not have been at a worse moment for the Japanese.
Their flight decks were strewn with torpedoes, bombs, fuel hoses and planes
lined up one after another, being refueled and rearmed.
Forty SBD Dauntless dive bombers began their devastating attack and, in short
order three Japanese carriers were spewing smoke and rendered inoperable.
In a span of just six minutes, the trajectory of the war and the history of
the world was changed forever.
If you salute our nation's great naval engagements ...
