Attempt to capture Midway mean peak of current Japanese wartime actions. After several months of continuous success, which quickly and easily crossed any resistance, were stopped and lost the strategic initiative, which was one of the sources of their victory. For the Allies, especially the United States, the battle ended a purely defensive phase of the war. (Ivan Hrbek, Jaroslav Hrbek - Krvavé oceány, Naše vojsko, 1994)
Article on Czech Wikipedia
Article on English Wikipedia| Scenario in dates: |
| April 14, 1939: |
United States - releases John Steinbeck´s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, deals with the hardship of the American population during the Great Depression. A year later, the novel will be awarded by the Pulitzer Prize and filmed with Henry Fonda as main actor directed by John Ford, a later US Navy member, and a direct participant in the Battle of Midway and landing in Normandy. Henry Fonda, on the other hand, will act as Admiral Nimitz in movie Midway from 1976. |
| December 7, 1944: |
In the Pacific - Japanese forces bomb Guam and Wake and Midway is bombarded by two Japanese destroyers. |
| March 4, 1942: |
Over Hawaii Islands - japanese Operation K, Kawanishi H8K neconnaissance flying boat first saw operational use on the night in a second raid on Pearl Harbor. Since the target lay out of range for the flying boats, this audacious plan involved a refuelling by submarine at French Frigate Shoals, some over 900 km (560 mi) north-west of Hawaii, en route. Two planes attempted to bomb Pearl Harbor, but, due to poor visibility, did not accomplish any significant damage. Althought the operationd oes not end with success, the two bombers return well and complete the longest (8000 km) bomber mission in contemporary history, overtaken by the Falkland War in 1982 (for comparison, the later US air raids on Japan from Marian Islands, Doolittle´s raid on Tokyo or, for example, a pendulum raid to Germany from England across Europe to the USSR, were conducted at about half the distance). During the operation, the Americans tapped a Japanese radio communication in which the Japanese use the AF code to identify the location as a landmark. Because there is no land other than the Midway Atoll in the area, they can pair this code-tagged object, which will later help them to uncover the Japanese intentions from the deciphered messages and gain a major advantage over the Midway battle. |
| May 5, 1942: |
From Tokyo - Imperial Headquarters orders the Japanese Navy to prepare for the invasion of Midway Island. |
| May 14, 1942: |
In Washington - The first indications of Japanese planning for an attack on Midway Island, in the Central Pacific, reach the code breakers. |
| May 25, 1942: |
From Hawaii - American submarines move into patrol positions as part of the countermeasures to the expected Japanese attack on Midway. |
| May 26, 1942: |
In Hawaii - US Task Force 16, with the aircraft carriers USS Enterprise (CV-6) and USS Hornet (CV-8), returns to Pearl Harbor. The Japanese believe that these ships are still active in the South Pacific. However, Commander William Halsey is hospitalized in a Hawaiian hospital with a disease characterized by its development in times of reduced immunity. Half a year of uninterrupted service on the bridge of the carrier Enterprise takes its toll and the admiral suffers shingles covered a great deal of his body and caused unbearable itching, making it nearly impossible for him to sleep. Bedding prevents him from commanding his fleet at the Battle of Midway, which he will later describe as the greatest disappointment of his career. |
| May 26, 1942: |
In the Inland Sea - Japanese Admiral Nagumo´s 1st Carrier Fleet sails for Midway. His task force contains the carriers Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu with two battleships, cruisers and destroyers as escort. |
| May 27, 1942: |
In the Central Pacific - The Japanese invasion fleet for Midway puts to sea from Saipan and Guam with troop transports carrying 5000 men. They are escorted by cruisers and destroyers. Likewise, the invasion force for the Aleutians sets sail in two groups from Ominato. |
| May 28, 1942: |
In Hawaii - Task Force 16 sails from Oahu for Midway with the carriers USS Enterprise (CV-6) and USS Hornet (CV-8) and escorts. Admiral Fletcher´s Task Force 17 follows after miraculously quick repairs to the USS Yorktown (CV-5). |
| May 28, 1942: |
In the Pacific - The rest of the Japanese forces directed at Midway set out. Admiral Yamamoto, commanding the operation overall, believes that, if the plan to invade the island succeeds, the American fleet can be forced into a decisive engagement and that their defeat will force a truce before American production can swamp the Japanese war effort. |
| May 30, 1942: |
At Hawaii - Four Japanese submarines arrive too late to intercept the American task forces destined for Midway. |
| May 31, 1942: |
From the United States - In an attempt to reinforce the Pacific Fleet, battleships USS Colorado (BB-45) and USS Maryland (BB-46) sail from San Francisco. |
| June 1, 1942: |
In the Pacific - Twenty-five American submarines from various forces assume stations around Midway. |
| June 1, 1942: |
From San Francisco - The aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) sails after repairs from torpedo damage. It will be too late to take part in the coming battle at Midway. |
| June 2, 1942: |
In the Pacific - The US carriers from Pearl Harbor join northeast of Midway. In total, the American force has approximately 250 planes, equal to the number in the approaching Japanese force. |
| June 3, 1942: |
In the Aleutian Islands - Japanese Admiral Kakuta´s light carrier force attacks Dutch Harbor as a diversion. The Americans, aware of the Japanese plans for the invasion of Midway do not react as predicted. |
| June 4, 1942: |
In the Pacific - The Battle of Midway. The Japanese initiate their assault on Midway Island with an air strike. The American defenders prove determined but ineffectual. However, Admiral Nagumo, commanding the Japanese forces, decides on the need for a second strike before landing the invasion troops. He is unaware of the US aircraft carriers in the area. By the time the Japanese realize the threat, it is too late. Torpedo bombers, from the American carriers, attack the Japanese carriers around 0930. Although they fail to do any damage, and suffer heavy losses, the Japanese defenses are disrupted by their strike. A second strike, by American dive bombers, arrives about 1030 -- at the same time that the Japanese carriers have completed reorganizing their strike priorities. Within minutes, the Japanese carriers Akagi, Kaga and Soryu are fatally hit, their decks loaded with aircraft ready to strike at the American carriers. The Hiryu launches a counter strike against the USS Yorktown (CV-5) which critically damages the American carrier. Late in the afternoon, aircraft from the USS Enterprise (CV-6) and USS Hornet (CV-8) strike the Hiryu, crippling it as well. All four of the Japanese carriers sustain damage which sinks or requires them to be scuttled within the next 24 hours. |
| June 4, 1942: |
In the Aleutian Islands - A group of light aircraft carriers of Admiral Kakuta conduct a second raid on the base of Dutch Harbor on the island of Amaknak. One Zero fighter from the Ryujo aircraft carrier damaged by anti-aircraft fire lands on the island of Akutan. The 19-year-old pilot, flight petty officer first class Koga, does not survive the emergency landing, but the aircraft itself is only slightly damaged, which will have far-reaching consequences for the war in the Pacific after its discovery by the Americans. |
| June 5, 1942: |
In the Pacific - The Battle of Midway. Admiral Yamamoto initially decides to continue the night engagement and sends his remaining surface forces searching eastward for the American carriers, but the Japanese surface forces fails to make contact with the Americans because Spruance had decided to briefly withdraw eastward, and Yamamoto orders a general withdrawal to the west. After dawn, Spruance tries to attack Jamamot´s ships, but despite intense air reconnaissance, he is unable to locate them. The loss of the main portion of the Japanese carrier fleet and their aircraft pilots in the battle on June 4th has robbed the Japanese of the initiative in the naval battle in the Pacific. Also of importance is the use of code-breaking by the Americans to intercept Japanese planning. Prior knowledge of Japanese intentions at Midway allowed the Americans to prepare a trap. |
| June 6, 1942: |
In the Pacific - the Battle of Midway ends. Slowly towed aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5), damaged badly on June 4th, is torpedoed by a Japanese submarine I-168. The sub sinks also escorting USS Hammann (DD-412) destroyer, and these two vessels are the only losses on the American ships in this battle. US bombers, meanwhile, are attacking the retreating Japanese task force slowed by a mutual night collision between the sister heavy cruisers Mikuma and Mogami. Mikuma is sunk, Mogami survives despite serious damage. |
| June 6, 1942: |
In the Aleutian Islands - The Japanese land a small force on Kiska Island. After overcoming the resistance of a ten-member crew of the US Navy´s meteorological station, two Americans are dead, seven captured and one, Chief Naval Officer William C. House, escapes. He will flee from Japanese search teams for another 50 days before being forced to give up due to starvation and the freezing conditions. For the first time since the British-American War in 1812, enemy troops occupy the home territory of the United States. |
| June 7, 1942: |
In the Aleutian Islands - The Japanese take Attu Island. Without resistance, 45 Aleutians (two natives) and two white Americans, a meteorological observer and radio amateur Charles Foster Jones and his wife, are captured. Jones is immediately killed after refusing to fix the radio he previously destroyed to prevent the occupying troops from using it. |
| June 7, 1942: |
United States - As soon as the last shots of the Battle of Midway died down, a bomb of a different kind explodes on the front page of the American newspaper Chicago Tribune. A detailed article about the battle reports that the US Navy knew in advance what the Japanese fleet would do. Japanese vessels involved in the battle and the strategy it followed are explicitly named. Any reader can deduce key secret information - the Americans have broken the Japanese naval code. Fortunately, the report will not reach the Japanese, thanks to the fact that the perpetrators will be denied a court case that would attract attention. The way in which the war correspondent, Stanley Johnston, obtained secret reports will never be clarified. |
| June 10, 1942: |
Panama - After serving in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, the aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-7) transits the Panama Canal to the Pacific. Accompanied by the battleship USS North Carolina (BB-55), the cruisers USS Quincy (CA-39) and USS San Juan (CL-54) and six destroyers to join this sail to the US Pacific Fleet. Now after the loss of USS Yorktown (CV-5) at Midway again operates four American fleet aircraft carriers in the Pacific theater. |
| June 19, 1942: |
Pacific - After two weeks drifting in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the USS Ballard (DD-267) pickes up 35 Japanese seamen from a lifeboat from the aircraft carrier Hirju sunk in the Battle of Midway. |
| July 10, 1942: |
Aleutian Islands - US reconnaissance plane PBY Catalina discovers the wreck of the Japanese A6M2 fighter during the Akutan island accidental crossing. This is a plane of Petty Officer Koga, who emergency landed on the island on June 4 after a raid on Dutch Harbor, an assault on distraction in the Battle of Midway. Although Koga did not survive the landing, Americans find his plane almost intact, which will have far-reaching consequences for the entire Pacific war. An extremely valuable prey will soon be explored, put into an airworthy state, and will be a source of priceless informations for design own planes and development of strategy and tactics to combat this fighter and enemy air forces. For the Japanese this is an event that intensifies their defeat at Midway. |
| July 21, 1943: |
United States - The construction of the new Montana-class battleships, 72,000-ton giants, which was suspended after the Battle of Midway, when was definitively proved that this type of vessel is obsolete and outdated, is definitively cancelled. The program of construction of US battleships is thus concluded by the Iowa class. |
| July 27, 1943: |
Bismarck Archipelago - in the Steffen Strait between the islands of New Ireland and New Hanover, the American submarine USS Scamp (SS-277) sinks the famous Japanese submarine I-168, which had previously sunk the disabled aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5) and the destroyer USS Hammann (DD-412) at the Battle of Midway. |
| August 6, 1943: |
In the Solomon Islands - In Vela Gulf there is an encounter engagement between 6 American destroyers and 4 Japanese destoyers carrying troops and supplies to Kolombangara. Three of the Japanese vessels are sunk, Arashi, Hagikaze and Kawakaze. Arashi is most famous for its involvement in the Battle of Midway when after attack to submarine USS Nautilus (SS-168) she in an attempt to catch up with the main Japanese force created a long wake, which acted as a direction arrow to the American aviators, guiding them to the Japanese carriers. |
| July 6, 1944: |
Mariana Islands - On Saipan Island, Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, who was the commander of the Japanese aircraft carriers at the beginning of the war during almost all major operations, including the Pearl Harbor attack and defeat at Midway, committs suicide by revolver shot. |
| April 27, 1945: |
Admiralty Islands - In Seeadler Harbor, a Japanese B5N torpedo bomber attacks a target reported by the reconnaissance as an American aircraft carrier. However, it is a floating dry dock ABSD-2. The torpedo hits one of its pontoon sections, which is immediately repaired. The dock commander is Joseph J. Rochefort, a former head of the cryptanalytic department, which, by deciphering Japanese radiomessages, provided the US Navy with key informations for winning the Battle of Midway. |
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Pátek, Zdeněk, Martin Stluka: Vought SB2U Vindicator (V-156), HPM No. 12/1993 a 1/1994
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