THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY pivotal moments in american history Series Editors David Hackett Fischer James M. McPherson David Greenberg James T. Patt erson Richard Labunski Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil James Madison and the Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy Struggle for the Bill of Rights Maury Klein Sally McMillen Rainbow’s End: Th e Crash of 1929 Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women’s Rights Movement James McPherson Crossroads of Freedom: Howard Jones Th e Batt le of Antietam Th e Bay of Pigs Glenn C. Altschuler Elliott West All Shook Up: How Rock ’n’ Roll Th e Last Indian War: Changed America Th e Nez Perce Story David Hackett Fischer Lynn Hudson Parsons Washington’s Crossing Th e Birth of Modern Politics: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, John Ferling and the Election of 1828 Adams vs. Jeff erson: Th e Tumultuous Election of 1800 Glenn C. Altschuler and Stuart M. Blumin Joel H. Silbey Th e GI Bill: A New Deal for Veterans Storm over Texas: Th e Annexation Controversy and the Road to Civil War Richard Archer As If an Enemy’s Country: Th e British Raymond Arsenault Occupation of Boston and the Origins of Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle Revolution for Racial Justice Th omas Kessner Colin G. Calloway Th e Flight of the Century: Charles Th e Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Lindbergh and the Rise of American Transformation of North America Aviation CRAIG L. SYMONDS T H E B AT T L E O F M I D W AY 1 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Th ailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2011 by Craig L. Symonds Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitt ed, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Symonds, Craig L. Th e Batt le of Midway / Craig L. Symonds. p. cm.—(Pivotal moments in American history) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-19-539793-2 1. Midway, Batt le of, 1942. 2. World War, 1939–1945—Naval operations, American. 3. World War, 1939–1945—Naval operations, Japanese. I. Title. D774.M5S93 2011 940.54′26699—dc22 2011010648 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper For my grandson, Will Symonds This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Maps ix Editor’s Note xi Introduction 3 1 CinCPac 6 2 Th e Kid ō Butai 25 3 Th e Brown Shoe Navy 44 4 A merican Counterstrike 64 5 S eeking the Decisive Batt le 88 6 P ete and Jimmy 111 7 Th e Code Breakers 133 8 Th e Batt le of the Coral Sea 152 9 Th e Eve of Batt le 176 10 Opening Act 198 11 Nagumo’s Dilemma (4:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.) 218 12 Th e Flight to Nowhere (7:00 a.m. to 11:20 a.m.) 245 13 Att ack of the Torpedo Squadrons (8:30 a.m. to 10:20 a.m.) 266 14 Th e Tipping Point (7:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.) 288 15 Th e Japanese Counterstrike (11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.) 309 16 Denouement 337 Epilogue 357 A cknowledgments 3 67 APPENDIX A American and Japanese Aircraft Carriers 369 APPENDIX B American and Japanese Aircraft 373 APPENDIX C American Order of Batt le at Midway 375 APPENDIX D Japanese Order of Batt le at Midway 379 APPENDIX E How Much Did the U.S. Know of Japanese Plans? 387 APPENDIX F Th e Flight to Nowhere 389 Notes 393 A Note on Sources 429 Bibliography 435 Index 443 MAPS 1. American Counteratt ack, February 1, 1942 68 2. Th e Kid ō Butai in the Indian Ocean, April 3–10, 1942 94 3. Japanese Strategic Options, Spring, 1942 98 4. Th e Batt le of the Coral Sea, May 7–8, 1942 157 5. Th e Aleutians, June 3–5, 1942 200 6. Operation K, March 2–5, 1942 208 7. Th e Japanese Search Patt ern, June 4, 1942, 4:30–8:00 a.m. 223 8. Th e Att ack on Midway and the American Counteratt ack, June 4, 1942, 7:00–9:00 a.m. 233 9. Th e Flight to Nowhere, June 4, 1942, 8:00–11:00 a.m. 257 10. Att ack of the Torpedo Squadrons, June 4, 1942, 9:30–9:45 a.m. 277 11. Th e Tipping Point, June 4, 1942, 10:20–10:30 a.m. 299 12. Att ack on the Y orktown , June 4, 1942, 12:00–2:40 p.m. 322 13. Death of the Kid ō Butai, June 4, 1942, 3:45–6:00 p.m. 334