What was the battle of midway?

1942 on may 5, Japan was full of crowded people in urban and rural areas. They held colorful carp flags and kites to celebrate the annual "Boys' Day". The Imperial Chiefs of Staff in Tokyo chose this auspicious day, issued the 18th Order of the Navy, and approved the plan of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander-in-chief of the Japanese Joint Fleet, to attack Midway Island.

Midway Island is a ring coral island in the Pacific Ocean, 2500 miles from Tokyo and less than 1000 miles from the Hawaiian Islands in the United States. It is an important aviation base in the United States. Yamamoto advocated attacking and occupying midway island in order to lure the remaining Pacific fleet of the United States to midway island after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and then annihilate it in one fell swoop.

Japan's joint fleet has nearly 200 ships, including 1 1 battleship and 8 aircraft carriers, with 700 aircraft on board. The US Pacific Fleet, which suffered heavy losses in the Pearl Harbor Battle five months ago, can only concentrate on three aircraft carriers, seven heavy cruisers and 17 destroyers.

But after the successful attack on Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto got a little carried away. In the deployment of this attack on Midway Island, he forgot the principle that the navy should concentrate its strength, and divided his fleet into six small fleets, which weakened his advantage. In particular, the operational intelligence service of the headquarters of the US Pacific Fleet cracked the password of the Japanese navy in advance, and knew the target, time and details of the Japanese attack like the back of his hand.

As early as mid-May, the Operational Intelligence Service of the US Pacific Fleet Command found the word "AF" in the cables intercepted by Japan, which attracted the attention of intelligence personnel. On May 20, they intercepted another telegram, the content of which was the battle plan issued by the Japanese joint fleet to various units. There are many references to "AF" in it. It seems that "AF" refers to a place. After analysis, the operational intelligence agency thinks it may refer to midway island. But is this information accurate or not? Don't know yet.

Rochefort, the Lieutenant Colonel of the Operational Intelligence Department, thought hard and finally came up with a plan to prove that "AF" refers to Midway Island. He sent an order to Midway Island through the submarine telegraph system, asking the commander guarding the island to send an emergency wireless telegram in ordinary English, saying that the water supply distillation tower in Midway Island was broken. Major General Brock, commander of Sea Area 14, immediately called back and said that a water supply ship was on its way to the island for emergency water supply. This plan is really clever. Within 24 hours, the operational intelligence department intercepted the secret telegram sent by Japan from the radio station on the outer island, saying that "AF" was obviously short of water. Subsequently, the Japanese side issued an order in a secret telegram asking the troops to bring more water.

Admiral Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief of the US Pacific Fleet, immediately made a battle plan against Isoroku Yamamoto. In order to avoid direct confrontation with the superior enemy, we must weaken the enemy's strength with a war of attrition and attack every isolated enemy with submarines and bombers. Nimitz ordered the use of intelligence advantages to make up for the number disadvantages, so as to concentrate on defeating the Japanese assault troops. In order to ensure that the US aircraft carrier arrived at the right place at the right time, Nimitz ordered the Operational Intelligence Bureau to provide the exact time of the "AF" operation. However, after three days and three nights of intense decoding, the key dates hidden in these passwords have not been solved. On May 24th, at the operational meeting convened by Nimitz, rochefort, who had been busy all night the night before, racked his brains to decipher the five-digit code that the Japanese army could not cope with. His eyes were bloodshot and exhausted, but he proudly reported that attack force, a Japanese carrier aircraft, would attack Midway Island on June 4th. They will come from the northwest, bearing 325. They will be found by us at 0/75 miles from midway/kloc-at 6: 00 midway time.

In June 1942, 1, the Japanese joint fleet was all dispatched. On this day, overcast Japanese ships sailed eastward. The soldiers who set sail from Saipan are convinced that they will definitely occupy midway. They told the people who stayed on the island that if they received a letter from home, please forward it to "Hideshima", a new Japanese name for the upcoming Midway Island. Before leaving, Isoroku Yamamoto wrote to his mistress and said, "Now is a critical moment." As for the decisive battle he planned, he vaguely said in his letter: "I don't expect much from it." This is in sharp contrast to his self-confidence in front of his subordinates.

Yamamoto's decisive battle plan was messed up from the beginning. The 13 submarine that went to Pearl Harbor to intercept the American fleet arrived one day late. According to the schedule of the Japanese secret telegram attack, two American Express fleets had already been dispatched from Pearl Harbor and were quietly heading for the waters of Midway Island and entered a favorable position.

On June 3, the Japanese fleet entered the offensive position. The information that Yamamoto and others got at this time is that there are no American aircraft carriers in this sea area, and they are all in the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. In fact, this is a trick of American false information.

On the morning of 4th, Lieutenant General Na Yunzhong, the Japanese army in charge of the main attack, ordered the 108 aircraft on four aircraft carriers, namely Chicheng, Kaga, Dragonfly and Black Dragon, to be dispatched immediately to attack Midway Island. At this time, all 1 19 American planes on the island took off to meet and avoid bombing because they got information in advance.

After the first batch of planes left the mother ship, Nan Yunzhong ordered the second batch of planes to rise to the deck, put on torpedoes and prepare to attack American warships. At this time, the first batch of Japanese aircraft commanders who bombed Midway Island came back, and the report called for a second bombing of Midway Island. So Nan Yunzhong ordered the soldiers to unload the torpedo and replace it with a bomb. Suddenly, the deck was very busy. At this time, the Japanese reconnaissance plane reported that. Found 10 American ship located 200 miles northeast. This news surprised Nan Yunzhong, because he knew that such a large fleet had at least one aircraft carrier. So Nan Yunzhong ordered the plane on the deck to attack the American ship instead. In this way, we have to unload the bomb and install the torpedo. It happened that the first batch of planes that bombed midway returned, and the second batch of planes stopped on the deck and had nowhere to land. Nan Yunzhong ordered the flight deck to be vacated and the returning plane landed.

The fighter plane was delayed, and time passed by. Bombers taking off from American aircraft carriers went straight to Chicheng, Kaga and Black Dragon, and the bombs roared down. After eight large aircraft carriers were shot, the aircraft on board immediately caught fire and the bombs piled up on the deck exploded continuously. In an instant, shrapnel flew across the deck, causing an explosion deep in the hull, washing away the engine room and the rudder failed. Many planes on the deck either burned down or fell into the sea. Soon, these three behemoths turned into a pile of scrap iron and sank into the Pacific Ocean.

Nan Yunzhong is conducting on the flagship "Chicheng", which makes him stupefied. Urged by his subordinates, he left the burning flagship and transferred to a cruiser to report to Isoroku Yamamoto. At this time, Yamamoto was sitting majestically on his flagship "Yamato", which was the largest warship in the world at that time. The news of the fiasco gave him a bad stomachache. After a while, like a gambler who lost his eyes, he ordered all the fleets to concentrate on him, in an attempt to induce the American fleet to continue westward and destroy the American fleet with its own fierce artillery fire. But the commander of the American ship saw through Yamamoto's plan and didn't fall for it.

At noon on June 4th, the surviving aircraft carrier "Dragonfly" dispatched planes to seriously blow up the American aircraft carrier "Jockton", and the aircraft of the American fleet quickly took revenge and sank the "Dragonfly".

Japan's defeat is a foregone conclusion. In the early morning of the 5 th, Yamamoto issued an order: "Cancel the occupation of Midway Island!"

Japan lost four aircraft carriers, a heavy cruiser, 234 planes, hundreds of naval pilots and 2200 sailors in the naval battle of midway. In order to cover up the fact of their fiasco, the Tokyo General Staff Headquarters announced that Japan had "become the most powerful country in the Pacific" after the war on June 10 after broadcasting a loud naval March. Four days later, when the joint fleet returned to the station, Tokyo also held a lantern parade to celebrate this "victory."

Admiral Nimitz sent a car to attend the celebration at the headquarters of the US Pacific Fleet to pick up Lieutenant Colonel rochefort of the Operational Intelligence Bureau. The young officer is usually untidy. He spends too much time changing clothes. When he arrives at the meeting, he drinks all the champagne. Nimitz praised rochefort in front of all his subordinates and said: "The main credit for the victory of Midway Island should be attributed to this officer."

The naval battle of midway is a turning point in the Pacific War. Admiral Kim, commander-in-chief of the US Navy, said: "The Battle of Midway was the first decisive defeat of the Japanese Navy in 350 years. It ended Japan's long-term offensive and restored the balance of naval power in the Pacific. " Since then, Japan has gone from bad to worse in the Pacific War.