June 4–7: “Battle of Midway”
Pacific Ocean, off Midway Island atoll
[Four now–legendary protagonists: (Overall) American Fleet Admiral Nimitz’s carrier strike force (with Rear Admiral Fletcher in operational command of the American strike force itself from aboard the American Flagship Yorktown) “breaks–the–back” of (over–all) Japanese Fleet Admiral Yamamoto’s carrier strike force (Vice Admiral Nagumo in operational command of the Japanese strike force itself from the Japanese Flagship).
With both major battle fleets starting with roughly equal firepower due to Nimitz’s adroit marshalling of U.S. naval resources, basically, Fletcher then out–foxes Nagumo and checkmates him. Coming just 6 months after Pearl Harbor, the battle broke the temporary, but quite threatening, naval superiority which the Japanese navy had achieved with the Pearl Harbor attack. The Japanese lost 4 of the 6 carriers in its strike force as against one lost by the Americans…
The battle exposed the relative hollowness of the importance of the Japanese destruction of battleships at Pearl Harbor, inasmuch as aircraft carriers, not battleships, now projected power and defined dominance. With rough naval parity now achieved – and the American economic giant awakened – and with its related industrial military complex now ramping–up with a vengeance – the die was cast.
It would be three years and three months until V–J Day (Victory–over–Japan Day) September 2, 1945, but the Rising Sun was now irrevocably doomed… to set.
In–the–interim, Japan would cut a swath of destruction, abuse and death spanning thousands of miles across Manchuria and Asia.