Battle Of The Midway Research Paper

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The Battle of the Midway Islands took place early June 1942 and is considered one of the most decisive battles of World War II and is often regarded as a turning point that completely changed the course of the war in the Pacific. It heavily damaged the Japanese navy and allowed the allies to move into an offensive position. During the Second World War, one of Japan’s main goals was to remove the United States as a Pacific power and thus leaving Japan free to conquer territory in East Asia. After the events Pearl Harbor, the Japanese aimed to sink the remaining US fleet. Confident in their advantage in numbers and quality, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto wanted a final naval showdown and sent the bulk of the Japanese fleet. He planned to confuse the Americans with a diversionary attack to draw the enemy north, only to launch the main attack on the smaller strategic target the Midway Island, an Allied airbase some 1900 km away from Hawaii, in order to draw the Americans into an ambush. However, due to an U.S intelligence breakthrough – the solving of the Japanese naval codes – the Americans were aware of the Japanese plans. Weeks before the battle, American intelligence was aware of…show more content…
After their initial attacks, the Japanese aircraft headed back to their carriers to rearm and refuel. It was planned that the carriers were to first strike Midway and then engage the American fleet when it eventually arrived, however the Japanese had not expected that the American fleet would already be in position. With both tasks of seizing the island and attacking the American fleet, they were trying to simultaneously prepare a second wave of bombers to finish off Midway and trying to launch more planes to sink the now-sighted U.S. naval forces when the Americans began their
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