February 1st, 1942.
It's been almost two months since the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces.
To the Japanese soldiers and sailors manning their posts on the Marshall and Gilbert Islands,
the Americans have practically been knocked out of the fight in the first round.
Nobody expected any less, the Americans are soft.
They have no stomach for war.
A few thousand feet above their heads, the Japanese begin to hear the sound of approaching
thunder through the clouds.
Sudden panic grips them as they realize that's no thunder- it's the roar of dozens of American
Devastator torpedo bombers and Dauntless dive bombers.
Launching from the decks of the USS Yorktown and the USS Enterprise, America's war against
the Japanese Imperial forces has officially begun.
Two separate carrier forces have been dispatched to strike at the Marshall and Gilbert Island
chains.
Accompanying each of the two carriers are cruisers and destroyers, who open up on shore
facilities with their guns.
Planes from the Yorktown and Enterprise bomb Japanese positions and strafe Japanese planes
caught on the ground.
By the end of the day three warships will be sunk, with several others damaged, and
18 Japanese aircraft destroyed on the ground or shot out of the sky.
The Americans will lose fourteen aircraft and suffer heavy damage to one cruiser- but
though it's minor, the day ends in victory for the Americans, and shock to the Japanese.
The American navy was supposed to take years to recover from Pearl Harbor, not months.
The USS Enterprise, affectionately known by her crew as 'the big E', steams back towards
Pearl Harbor and en-route is assigned to lead the newly formed Task Force 16.
None of the thousands of sailors know it yet, but as the convoy of cruisers, destroyers,
and the USS Enterprise steam off into the west Pacific, they are sailing into the pages
of naval history.
The task force steams for Wake island.
The island was lost shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, despite the heroic defense
put up by the tiny Marine garrison and naval aviators.
Unable to match the Japanese surface fleet's might, a relief task force steaming for the
island had been recalled at the last minute, and now the US denies the Japanese navy use
of the island by establishing a submarine blockade.
The Japanese on the island are now on starvation rations, relief unable to reach them.
The Enterprise will make sure that the Japanese on Wake island remain isolated, and its aircraft
strafe and bomb the Japanese garrison, putting its airfield out of commission.
To ensure that the Japanese are unable to repair the air field, the island will be periodically
attacked by passing ships.
With the US Navy still rebuilding, the big E can't afford to get into a showdown with
the main Japanese fleet- but she will help ensure that Japan feels the sting of war,
just like the American soldiers, sailors, marines, and civilians on Pearl Harbor did.
Joining with the USS Hornet, the Enterprise sails deep into hostile waters until it's
only 650 miles from the Japanese mainland.
The task force has sailed in complete radio silence, the mission so top secret only a
handful of military and government personnel aware of the task force's location.
Fighters from the Enterprise have been screening the convoy's movement the entire time, wary
of being discovered and attacked by the Japanese- but the strict secrecy has kept the small
fleet safe from prying eyes.
Aboard the Hornet, US Army B-25 medium bombers roar to life.
These planes have been specially modified to be as light as possible, stripping away
most of their defensive armaments and reinforcing armor.
Nobody has ever launched such a massive plane from an aircraft carrier, but the big bombers
are the only plane the US has that can reach the intended target: Tokyo, Japan.
America is striking back, right at the beating heart of the Japanese empire.
The big planes lurch forward one by one.
Barely reaching take off speed before running out of deck, the first B-25, piloted by Lt.
Colonel James H. Doolittle, lifts up into the air.
With a cheer from the assembled sailors, the rest of the planes lift off.
Hours later, the planes drop high explosive and incendiary bombs over their assigned targets
in and around Tokyo.
The surprised Japanese barely manage to get more than a handful of fighters into the air,
of which three will be shot down, with the loss of no American aircraft.
Though the raid caused little more than superficial damage to Japanese forces, it shook Japanese
civilian's confidence in the ability of its military leadership to protect the home islands
from attack.
Even more importantly, it caused morale to soar back home, rallying Americans back from
the crushing defeat at Pearl Harbor.
But the Big E was done playing escort or picking fights with small Japanese outposts.
It was time to go toe to toe with the best Japan had to offer.
American intelligence had just uncovered Japanese plans to invade and take Midway island.
Led by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese forces needed to draw American carriers into
an all-out fight and end their threat once and for all.
While strategically unimportant to the Japanese, Midway island was properly assessed by Yamamoto
of being of crucial strategic importance to the Americans.
Without its airfield and naval facilities, the US Navy would be hard pressed to launch
combat operations deep into the western Pacific.
Yamamoto's plan was simple: attack Midway and lure out the two surviving American carriers,
the Enterprise and the Hornet.
With the island just outside of the range of American air forces in Pearl Harbor, if
the US wanted to hold it it would have to commit its remaining aircraft carriers.
With the Lexington and Yorktown sunk at the Battle of the Coral Sea, mopping up what was
left of American resistance in the Pacific should be a piece of cake.
The Americans were aware of the key components of Yamamoto's plans, and rushed to put together
a force capable of fighting off up to five carriers.
Unknown to the Japanese, the Yorktown had in fact not been sunk, though needed an estimated
several months of repairs to be battle worthy again.
Admiral Chester W. Nimizt gave the repair crews three days, and in an incredible feat
of human endurance, the crews restored the Yorktown to battle-capable state within the
allotted time, with further repairs continuing even as she steamed towards Midway.
The USS Hornet, a still badly damaged Yorktown, and a force of 7 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser,
15 destroyers, 16 submarines, and 127 aircraft stationed on Midway itself would be led into
the teeth of the Japanese Navy by the Enterprise herself.
Opposing the American defenders was a force of 4 carriers, 2 battleships, 6 heavy cruisers,
1 light cruiser and 14 destroyers, with a reinforcing fleet just a few days behind the
main fleet consisting of 2 light carriers, 5 battleships, 4 heavy cruisers, and 2 light
cruisers.
The Battle of Midway would be America's own Thermopylae, and despite the odds the Big
E was itching for a proper stand-up fight at last.
At 9 am on the 3rd of June, a sole American patrol aircraft spots the Japanese occupation
force, mistaking it for the main force.
Nine B-17s are immediately dispatched to attack the Japanese ships, but run into a transport
group instead and decide to attack.
They are immediately met by heavy enemy anti-aircraft fire, severely degrading the accuracy of the
American bombers.
Despite several bombing runs, not a single Japanese ship is hit, and the American planes
limp back to base.
An auspicious start to the American defense of Midway.
At 4:30 AM the next day, a force of over a hundred Japanese planes lumbers towards Midway.
They are spotted an hour later by American patrol aircraft, who also manage to spot the
location of two of the Japanese carriers.
The Americans have to make a very difficult choice- they have an opportunity to attack
the Japanese carriers and potentially cripple the Japanese navy, but to do so their bombers
will have to fly unescorted as the escort fighters are desperately needed to defend
the island itself.
A choice is made, and the American bombers take to the sky without their escorts.
By six am, the battle for Midway has officially begun.
Japanese planes tear through the sky, their escort fighters met in the air by six American
F4Fs and 20 F2As.
The F2As are all but obsolete as they engage in battle with modern Japanese zeros, which
are at the time, the most advanced fighter in the world.
In mere minutes 15 of the American planes have been downed, though they've managed to
down five of their own.
The Japanese bomb the air fields, hangars, and defensive fortifications, but while the
American fighters are getting knocked out of the sky, US anti-aircraft gunners are deadly
accurate, forcing many Japanese aviators to miss their targets.
The attack is forced to break off, and the returning pilots radio the rest of the fleet
that at least one more air attack would be necessary to prepare Midway for invasion.
As the Japanese attack is returning, the American attack on the Japanese carriers is in full
force.
52 American dive bombers and torpedo planes descend on the Japanese forces, but are met
by the carrier group's combat air patrol.
A fierce battle ensues in the sky above the carriers, with the Japanese inflicting terrible
losses on the Americans.
One American B-26, seriously damaged by anti-aircraft fire and possibly out of control, aims straight
for the bridge of the Akagi, where Admiral Nagumo is leading this battlegroup.
At the last moment though the plane cartwheels out of control and crashes into the ocean
harmlessly.
No Japanese vessel suffers more than superficial damage.
Things are not going well for the already vastly outnumbered Americans.
While under attack, Japanese Admiral Nagumo receives a contact report from a scout plane
searching for the US fleet.
The plane however is unable to determine the size or exact composition of the fleet, and
Nagumo orders the plane to approach at all risk and determine if the American carriers
are present.
He is under orders to make the destruction of the surviving American carriers his top
priority, after which mopping up any defense on Midway, or the rest of the Pacific, was
simply a matter of time.
As the scout plane struggled to determine if American carriers were present, completely
unbeknownst to the Japanese was the fact that the American carriers had already launched
their own attacks, spearheaded by torpedo and dive bombers from the USS Enterprise.
The Americans operate under radically different doctrine than the Japanese, and are operating
on the gamble that the Japanese carriers would be caught trying to recover planes from the
attack on Midway, making them critically vulnerable.
While Japanese doctrine states that planes are to be held in reserve until an attack
can be fully constituted, the Americans decide that it's more important to keep the Japanese
occupied and thus hamper a counter-attack.
Thus they launch their fighters, bombers, and torpedo planes piecemeal, each small attack
element flying to the enemy as fast as possible.
It'll mean higher casualties, and it's a massive gamble that US aviators will pay for dearly.
Dive bombers from the Hornet mistake the enemy contact report and fly at a heading of 265
degrees, rather than the 240 degrees reported by the scout plane, completely missing the
Japanese forces.
Disagreeing over the heading, the group's torpedo bombers break off and head off on
the correct heading.
The strike has been launched at the very edge of the plane's maximum ranges though, and
ten of the planes are forced to turn back and ditch, never reaching their targets.
American Devastators however follow a correct heading and make contact with the Japanese
fleet.
Their fighters however had lost contact with their escort, ran low on fuel, and were forced
to turn back to the Enterprise for refueling.
This leaves the Devastators without any air cover, but knowing that the Japanese carriers
must be destroyed before they can in turn destroy the outnumbered American fleet, the
devastators fly into the teeth of fierce Japanese resistance to deliver their torpedoes.
Twenty minutes later, more torpedo attack aircraft from the Enterprise join in the action.
Swift and agile Japanese zeroes pounce on the unescorted torpedo planes though, tearing
through them with devastating consequences.
Over half of the attacking force is shot out of the sky, without a single hit on an enemy
vessel.
The Battle of Midway is very quickly turning into a losing proposition for American forces.
However, one pilot's gamble would change the course of the war in the Pacific.
Confusion has thrown two of the Enterprise's dive bomber squadrons way off course, and
they are running low on fuel.
Air Group Commander C. Wade McClusky Jr. faces a tough choice: continue the search of turn
back for the Enterprise before his aircrew is forced to ditch their planes.
War material is still in short supply after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and subsequent
losses in the Coral Sea- the US Navy could ill-afford to be ditching perfectly good planes
and potentially losing their crews as well.
Despite these considerations though, McClusky decides to continue the search for the Japanese
carriers.
By sheer luck, McClusky's air group spots the wake of the Japanese destroyer Arashi,
which is steaming at full speed to rejoin the carriers after chasing off an American
submarine earlier in the morning.
Like a giant homing beacon, the aircraft follow the big ship's wake straight to their target,
and suddenly fully laid out before and below them is the Japanese fleet.
The combat air patrol which had just devastated the first American attack, inflicting horrendous
losses, is out of position and low on fuel and ammo, chasing an attack wing from the
Yorktown that had just arrived on target as well.
On carriers Kaga and Akagi, Japanese aircraft from the Midway attack are being recovered
and re-armed for an attack on the US carriers.
The decks are clogged with men, planes, bombs, and fuel, and overhead three American strike
groups have just arrived from three different directions.
It's time for payback.
The Japanese put up a desperate screen of anti-aircraft fire, but with their Zeroes
miles away, the American planes are almost completely unopposed.
An order is given for the attacking aircraft to split into two groups, one attacking the
Kaga and the other the Akagi.
However a miscommunication leads to both groups descending on the Kaga, which is only corrected
at the very last moment with dive bombers pulling out of their attack run and re-targeting
the Akagi.
The Kaga suffers multiple direct hits, the dive bomber's 500 pound bombs smashing into
her deck.
One of the bombs hits right in front of the bridge, instantly killing all of the Kaga's
senior officers.
Another rips open her flight deck, exposing the hangar below.
Japanese machine gunners desperately try to fend off the attack but to no avail, themselves
gun downed by strafing American planes.
The attack on the Akagi is less successful, with the torpedo planes and dive bombers only
scoring glancing blows.
However, one bomb manages to hit the midship elevator and penetrate through to the hangar
below, which is full of aircraft and fuel.
The explosion starts a fire that within hours engulfs the entire ship.
At the same time the Enterprise's attack is exacting deadly revenge on the Akagi and Kaga,
Yorktown's bombers strike at the Soryu.
Several hits ignite huge stores of gasoline, setting off the same bombs and torpedoes being
loaded onto Japanese planes and meant to destroy the American carriers.
In the span of an hour, Japan has just lost three of its largest aircraft carriers.
Admiral Nagumo is found in a state of shock, and forced to leave his sinking ship by aides.
The battle was not over however.
The lone surviving Japanese carrier, Hiryu, launches its own counter-attack against the
Americans.
The Japanese aviators follow the returning American planes to the Yorktown, and are immediately
met by fierce anti-aircraft fire.
The attack manages to score several direct hits on the Yorktown, blowing a hole in her
deck and crippling the ship.
However, within an hour damage control parties are able to patch her up so efficiently that
a second wave of Japanese aircraft actually believe the ship to be a brand new American
carrier.
The second attack brings the Yorktown to a standstill, severely crippling the ship.
Despite heavy losses, the triumphant Japanese counter-attack returns home to report that
two American carriers have been sunk.
With the belief that only the USS Hornet and Enterprise were operational, the news is a
huge morale boost to the beleaguered Japanese sailors, who have just lost three of their
own carriers.
They'd be in for the shock of their life when hours later, the all-too-familiar roar of
American strike aircraft began to fill the sky above them.
Launching Zero fighters, the Hiryu puts up a fierce defense against the combined attack
wave of Enterprise and Yorktown dive and torpedo bombers.
The American aviators however fight through the Japanese defenders and screens of anti-aircraft
fire, and doggedly remain on target despite heavy fire.
Several bombs rip through the Hiriyu, setting off fierce blazes that consume the ship.
Her crew desperately tries to salvage the ship, but as the fire grows out of control
the crew is evacuated to a support ship.
Rear admiral Tamon Yamaguchi and Captain Tomeo Kaku choose to go down with the ship rather
than face the dishonor of their defeat.
Expecting to rout American forces and destroy the US's remaining carriers, in the span of
24 hours the Japanese have lost 4 of their carriers, 1 heavy cruiser, and thousands of
their most experienced aviators.
By comparison, the US lost only the Yorktown which survived the Battle of Midway only to
be torpedoed by a Japanese sub on her way home for repairs.
For the USS Enterprise, this would be but the first of many combat commendations that
would eventually make her the most decorated ship of World War II, but the Big E's war
was far from over.
Japanese carrier forces had been crippled, but its navy remained a formidable foe.
After a month of well-earned rest and relaxation, the sailors and pilots of the Enterprise would
set out to sea once more, this time to turn back yet another Japanese assault and continue
her job of destroying the Japanese carrier force.
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