THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY ISLAND

Presented by Claire Cappelle

Midway Island

Back Story•Previous battle: The Battle of Coral Sea (American Victory)•Yorktown Aircraft damaged from previous battle•Commander-in-Chief (Japan): Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto•Commander-in-Chief (USA): Admiral Chester W Nimitz

Before the Battle

Japan United States

Wanted to Capture Midway Island as a base for taking the rest of the Pacific Islands

Planned to take Midway on June 3

Wanted to meet at Midway to destroy US Fleet

War Planners Careless

US Naval Officers found out Japanese were planning to bomb Midway Island

Adm Nimitz carefully planned planes carefully according to the code that was broken

Force led by Rear Admiral Raymon Sprunace

A fighter plane in the midst of the Battle of Midway

Information

Task Force 16 led by the Enterprise left on May 28

Japan had 6 aircraft carriers, 11 battle ships, 13 cruisers and 45 destroyers

US had ¼ supplies of Japanese Aircrafts (US)

USS Enterprise USS Hornet USS Yorktown (Damaged from previous

battle)

Morning of June 4

USS Enterprise, USS Hornet, and USS Yorktown main aircrafts, led by USS Enterprise

Japanese launches air attack with 108 planes

US saw planes on Radar & went into position

US failed on brutal Japanese attack Japanese destroyed most American

torpedoes Skies became very dark because of

constant shooting

USS Yorktown is being attacked by a Japanese torpedo.

Afternoon

Japanese destroyed USS Yorktown but Nimitz places the rest of the ships correctly

Skies were set up for American dive-bombers

American aircraft caught Hiryu and damaged it

3 main flyers dropped bombs and torpedoes on 3 of four Japanese carriers

Within 5 minutes US killed 3 of 4 Japanese ships

VT-8 TBF at Midway Island

After Five Minutes…

All Japanese torpedoes shot Japan lost ½ of its carrier force Japanese greatly damaged Midway,

but could not capture the field Japanese lost its frontline aviators

and 250 aircraft Japanese retreated and reversed the

tide of the war: Japan was on the defense

Battle of Midway Memorial

The Importance of the Battle of Midway Japanese code broken Displayed that the USA could win

something Proved the stamina of the USA Japan could not advance further

Midway Island Today

Significance of World War II Japan was now on the defensive side Japan’s best naval officers were

wiped out Japan was not able to advance

anymore USA was the one who Japan watched

out for

Sources

American History Textbook

http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/worldwari1/p/Midway.htm

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battle_of_midway.htm

Battle of Midway: World War II in Color shttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v4I6RGRW50

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/midway.htm

http://www.answers.com/topic/battle-of-midway

Images:

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/g410000/g414423.jpg

http://cdn.dipity.com/uploads/events/eb15affd35163a2f1e9a65bbdb7f42f8.jpg

http://history-world.org/ww2mapsnazi.jpg

http://www.wikipediaondvd.com/wp-0.5/img/f/p/p.png

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/fileadmin/historyLearningSite/guad.jpg

http://www.usmilitary.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/naval-battle-of-midway.jpg

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/g10000/g17063.jpg

http://www.boerner.net/jboerner/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/MidwayMemorial.jpg

http://www.travelwithachallenge.com/Images/Travel_Article_Library/Midway-Atoll/Midway-Atoll.jpg