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20. World War II’s Most Dramatic Five Minutes (Part 1)
Few countries have ever suffered as dramatic and sudden a setback as Japan did during a fateful five-minute stretch on June 4th, 1942. At 10:25 AM that day, Japan was mistress of the Pacific, had the world’s strongest naval aviation force, and was dictating the terms of the war. By 10:30 AM, Japan had effectively lost WWII. Japan had gone on a rampage after its sneak attack the previous December against the US fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor, and won a series of stunning victories. However, those wins did not seal the deal, and what Japan really wanted was a decisive engagement like the 1905 Battle of Tsushima, in which the Japanese annihilated the Russian fleet and effectively won the Russo-Japanese War. Pearl Harbor and subsequent victories had been successes, but none of them had been a Tsushima.
So the Japanese figured an invasion of Midway Island might lure what was left of the US Navy into showing up for a climactic showdown. Assuming that the US Navy had only 1 or 2 aircraft carriers in the Pacific, the Japanese launched their operation with 4 fleet carriers. However, American code breakers had cracked Japanese secret communications and knew of the upcoming attack. Moreover, the Americans had more carriers in the Pacific than expected. One had been transferred from the Atlantic, and another that had been damaged in an earlier battle and was expected to take months to fix, was rushed back into service after 48 hours of repairs. Thus, the Japanese would meet 3 US carriers, and an alert enemy waiting in ambush rather than one caught off guard.