Battle of Midway

battle_name=Battle of Midway

Impact on war

Midway is called the turning point of the Pacific War. Although this is clear in hindsight, it may not have been obvious at the time. The IJN was still stronger than the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and won the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands later that year.

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What Midway meant became clearer as the war progressed. First there was the loss of four fleet carriers, and their highly-experienced crews. From this loss, the IJN never really recovered. On the other hand, the crew of Yorktown mostly managed to escape. This weakness would be most glaringly obvious in the latter half of 1942, when the U.S. Navy was reduced to a patched- up Enterprise as its only carrier in the Pacific, and the Japanese were unable to exploit their advantage, precisely because of the loss of the four carriers at Midway.

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The battle was another demonstration (after the Battle of Taranto and the attack on Force Z) of the superiority of naval air power over direct ship-to-ship combat.

Related Topics:
Battle of Taranto - Force Z

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