Battle of Midway
The turning point in the American Civil War was reached at bloody Antietam, Maryland, when Confederate forces were fought to a standstill. The Allies reached several turning points in World War II: the Battle for Britain, the Battle of the North Atlantic, and the Defense of Stalingrad. For America, her shining hour, her turning point in that war's Pacific Theater was reached at an island called Midway. Midway is located in the Pacific Ocean, about 2100 miles east of Tokyo and 1135 miles west of Hawaii. Midway is actually two islets, Sand and Eastern, with a lagoon about five miles across and is located just inside the southern reef. Sand Island is only 850 acres or so and its highest point is only thirty nine feet. Eastern is not half of what Sand is, but the Navy placed great strategic value on Midway. Since1903, a telephone cable had connected it with Honolulu, and this cable was used in the battle's preliminaries, leaving the level of radio traffic normal and there by foiling any enemy listeners. (1) The Battle of Midway started on the third of June, 1942 and lasted until the sixth of June, but the actual fighting in this battle only lasted one day. However, it could be argued that the real battle began the eighte
enth of April, when Army Air Corps Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle and his forces of sixteen B-25 Mitchell bombers were launched from the deck of the USS Hornet (CV 8), 668 miles off Tokyo for what was to be the famous "Raid Over Tokyo. The Japanese fighters were drawn down to sea level by attacking American torpedo bombers; all of them were lost in the battle. Considering the fleet that the Japanese were about to throw against the island, Midway stood good chances of becoming another war disaster. (6)The American ships were ordered to maintain radio silence and to communicate with each other only visually. This was the first time in history that anybody had ever tried flying B-25s off of a carrier. Spruance aboard the USS Enterprise (CV 6) and USS Hornet (CV 8), six cruisers, and six destroyers. , the Americans at Midway saw the Japanese fleet to the northeast. As they did in the Coral Sea, the Japanese split their forces into three distinct groups, each with specific missions. Task Force 16 was lead by Admiral Raymond A. A forth Japanese carrier, named Hiryu, retaliated with an air attacking on the USS Yorktown, sinking it. They Japanese decided that Midway had to be destroyed.
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