THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY
June 2022 marks the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Midway, perhaps the most decisive naval battle of World War II. Fought largely between American and Japanese carrier-based aircraft, the engagement resulted in a crushing US Navy victory that put paid to Japan’s hopes of further Pacific expansion. Moreover, the destruction of the core of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s aircraft carrier force was a crippling blow from which it never fully recovered.
The Battle of Midway took place six months after Japan had entered World War II, when it had inflicted huge damage on the US Navy through the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. The attack was followed by a succession of Japanese victories as territories across South East Asia and the Pacific were invaded and rapidly occupied. These swift successes gave Japan a feeling of invincibility, later termed ‘victory disease’, which was to play a part in the debacle that followed.
A key component of
