Chapter 99 Midway
On May 20, 1942, the German Southern Army Group launched the Crimean Campaign, in which the German army once again annihilated nearly 150,000 Soviet troops from three armies. At almost the same time, the German Northern Army Group completely surrounded Leningrad, leaving the city's military and civilians, who had no time to retreat due to bureaucracy, in a desperate situation with no reinforcements outside and no food inside.
General Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov was ordered to fly to Leningrad, and he managed to organize the soldiers and civilians in the city to hold out. However, food was his Achilles' heel. Under the policy of giving priority to soldiers, ordinary Soviet people were left with only two choices: eat or be eaten. On June 4, 1942, the Battle of Midway broke out.
Midway Island is only a small Pacific island with an area of only 4.7 square kilometers. However, it is 2,800 nautical miles away from San Francisco, USA and Yokohama, Japan. It is actually located midway on the Pacific route between Asia and North America. This special geographical location determines its extremely important strategic position. In addition, the island is the gateway and outpost of the US military in Hawaii. Therefore, it is a strategic location that both Japan and the United States must fight for.
From a certain perspective, the Japanese army fell into confusion in strategic choices after their victory in the early stages of the Pacific War. Should they go west to India? South to Australia? Or east to Hawaii? The Japanese army debated endlessly, and only the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet, Isoroku Yamamoto, insisted on completely defeating the main force of the US Pacific Fleet.
Yamamoto's insistence did not gain unanimous approval from the Japanese military high-ranking officials. Coincidentally, at this time, Doolittle's air raid on Tokyo shocked the whole of Japan.
Under the secret manipulation of Emperor Hirohito, Isoroku Yamamoto's operational plan to destroy the US aircraft carriers was unanimously approved, so the Japanese army quickly formulated a battle plan to attack Midway Island.
However, the previous Battle of the Coral Sea caused the Japanese Shokaku to be damaged and needed repairs, and the Zuikaku aircraft carrier lacked a carrier-based aircraft crew. As a result, the two ships were forced to stay at the Japanese naval base in Truk and were unable to participate in the Battle of Midway, which seriously weakened the Japanese combat power.
Even more unfavorable was that the U.S. Naval Intelligence Agency had cracked the Japanese secret code with the assistance of relevant British and Dutch units , confirming that the Japanese army would launch an attack on the "AF position".
The U.S. military then confirmed through a series of means that the "AF position" was Midway Island. So on the one hand, the U.S. military stepped up the deployment of land-based fighters on Midway Island. On the other hand, Admiral Nimitz, then commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet, mobilized all three aircraft carriers including the Yorktown, Enterprise, and Hornet, as well as seven heavy cruisers including the New Orleans, one light cruiser, 17 destroyers, and 19 submarines to form the 16th and 17th Task Forces to fight.
In this way, the Japanese army blindly engaged in the battle without knowing themselves or the enemy.
In the early morning of June 4, Japan's first wave of attack aircraft, consisting of 36 dive bombers, 36 horizontal bombers and 36 fighters, began to take off simultaneously from four aircraft carriers and set out to attack Midway Island under the leadership of Captain Nagatomo Fumiichi.
Vice Admiral Nagumo, who commanded the Japanese First Mobile Fleet, then ordered reconnaissance planes to search the sea areas to the east and south, and the second wave of attack planes were brought to the flight deck to prepare to meet the US fleet.
However, the take-off of two reconnaissance planes of the heavy cruiser Tone was delayed by half an hour due to a catapult failure, and the engine of one reconnaissance plane of the Chikuma also malfunctioned and had to return midway (this plane was supposed to be searching the sky over the U.S. task force), thus laying the seeds for the destruction of the Japanese fleet.
At dawn on June 4, a Catalina reconnaissance aircraft dispatched from the U.S. Midway Island base reported the discovery of a Japanese aircraft carrier. Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance, commander of the 16th Task Force, issued an order to attack the Japanese aircraft carrier without informing the commander-in-chief of operations, Rear Admiral Frank Fletcher.
At 7 o'clock in the morning of that day, the first wave of attack aircraft led by Captain Wenichi Nagatomo was preparing to return. Due to the stubborn resistance of the U.S. military, the air strike was not effective. Therefore, Captain Nagatomo clearly told Vice Admiral Nagumo that a second wave of air strikes must be launched.
However, Captain Nagatomo did not know that at this time, the U.S. Navy's sea-based aviation force had already taken off from three aircraft carriers, and the first batch of 117 fighter planes had already headed straight for the Japanese aircraft carrier group.
At 7:10, the first batch of 10 US torpedo bombers took off from Midway Island and appeared above the Nagumo fleet.
American planes formed a single line and attacked the Japanese aircraft carriers.
Under the interception of Japanese fighter planes and the fierce artillery fire of Japanese ships, 7 planes were quickly shot down.
Tomonaga's report and the attack of American planes made Vice Admiral Nagumo believe that Midway's defense was still strong, so he decided to change the planes originally prepared to deal with American ships to carry out a second bombing of Midway.
At this time, the deaf Vice Admiral Nagumo still did not realize that the US fleet was right next to him.
At 7:30, just as the Japanese naval aviation ground crew were busy sending the planes equipped with torpedoes down the hangar and unloading the torpedoes and replacing them with high-explosive bombs for ground attacks, Vice Admiral Nagumo finally received a report from the reconnaissance plane on the cruiser Tone.
The reconnaissance plane , which took off half an hour late, discovered 10 US warships on the sea about 240 nautical miles from Midway Island.
Vice Admiral Nagumo was caught in a dilemma. He had to order the reconnaissance planes to continue to find out whether the enemy fleet had aircraft carriers, while at the same time ordering a pause in the replacement of ammunition for torpedo planes.
Just as Nan Yun was waiting for the reconnaissance results of the reconnaissance plane, the alarm sounded again in the air.
More than 40 US B-17 bombers and dive bombers took off from Midway Island and swooped down on Nagumo's fleet.
Since the American bombers had no fighter escort, they were quickly repelled by the Zero fighters sent by Nagumo.
At 8:15, the Tone reconnaissance plane finally confirmed the existence of an aircraft carrier in the discovered American fleet. Vice Admiral Nagumo had no choice but to order all ships to stop loading bombs and send the planes back to the hangar to be refitted with torpedoes.
At this time, there was chaos on the deck of the Japanese aircraft carrier. In order to gain time, the unloaded bombs were piled on the deck.
To make matters worse, 15 minutes later, the first wave of attack planes that raided Midway Island returned and flew over the Japanese fleet. In addition, the fighter planes protecting the aircraft carriers also needed to land and refuel. Nagumo was actually in a dilemma.
In response to this, Rear Admiral Yamaguchi, commander of the 2nd Aircraft Carrier Squadron, suggested to Nagumo to "immediately order the attack force to take off." The second batch of assault aircraft had not yet been equipped with torpedoes, and if the attack was launched immediately, there would be no fighter escort.
Moreover, the runway on the ship was occupied by taking-off aircraft, so the first wave of attack aircraft with empty fuel tanks would fall into the sea.
It was based on the above considerations that Nagumo finally decided to postpone the attack time, first recalling the planes that attacked Midway Island and intercepted US bombers, and then reorganizing the troops to attack the US task force.
But time waits for no one. At 9:25, while the fully fueled Japanese escort fighters were still taking off, a formation of 15 American Avenger torpedo bombers launched from the Hornet appeared above the Nagumo fleet.
Fortunately for the Japanese, the torpedo bombers were running low on fuel and had no fighter escort.
In a nearly suicide attack, all 30 American pilots Except for one who survived, all of them were killed.
Within the next 5 minutes, 28 US fighter planes took off from Enterprise and Yorktown and followed one after another, attacking Soryu and Hiryu.
However , the U.S. military's actual combat capability was not up to standard at this time. Under the combined attack of the Zero fighter and the anti-aircraft artillery of the Japanese fleet, it lost 20 torpedo bombers, but none of the torpedoes it dropped hit the target.
At 10:20, when the flight deck of the Japanese aircraft carrier was busy refueling and ammunition for the escort fighters in shifts, 33 Dauntless dive bombers led by Major Clarence McCluskey took off from the Enterprise and appeared over the Nagumo fleet. At this time, the Japanese escort aircraft were either driving away and preventing American torpedo bombers at low altitude or refueling. For a time, a fatal loophole appeared in the defense circle of the Nagumo fleet.
Major McCluskey seized this opportunity. At 10:24, when the first Japanese rotation escort aircraft had just taken off urgently, 33 Dauntless dive bombers were divided into two waves and headed straight for the two Japanese aircraft carriers Akagi and Kaga.
The 17 Dauntless dive bombers that arrived later from the Yorktown headed straight for the Soryu aircraft carrier.
Almost in an instant, the three Japanese aircraft carriers turned into three fireballs. The planes piled on the deck, as well as the fuel and ammunition caused a huge explosion, and the flames shot straight into the sky. In just 5 minutes, the three Japanese aircraft carriers were completely destroyed. Although Major General Tamon Yamaguchi, commander of the 2nd Air Fleet who succeeded Nagumo in command, commanded the Hiryu to counterattack the American fleet twice, this was just the last gasp of the Japanese in this battle.
Although the Yorktown was eventually destroyed, the Hiryu did not escape the attack of the US military. At 19:00 that afternoon, the destroyed Japanese aircraft carriers Soryu and Kaga sank one after another. At 2:55 on June 5, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, rejected the plan proposed by his chief of staff, Colonel Kuroshima, to concentrate all ships to bomb and land on Midway during the day to save the defeat, and ordered: "Cancel the occupation of Midway."
He also stated, "I take all the responsibility alone, and I will go back and apologize to His Majesty the Emperor." At 3:50 a.m., the Japanese army was forced to abandon the destroyed Akagi aircraft carrier. In order to prevent the aircraft carrier from falling into enemy hands, Yamamoto ordered the Nowake destroyer to launch a torpedo to sink it.
At 5:10, the irretrievable Hiryu aircraft carrier was sunk by a torpedo fired by a Japanese destroyer.
