June 7, 1942, The Battle Is Over
Background Sound: "God Bless America"
- USS Yorktown sinks after a long struggle. Yorktown remained stubbornly afloat. By 0530 on the 7th, however, the men in the ships nearby noted that the carrier's list was rapidly increasing to port. As if tired, the valiant flattop turned over at 0701 on her port side and sank in 3,000 fathoms (5,500 m) of water, her battle flags flying.
- U.S. Task Force 17 breaks up. Some ships join Task Force 16 and others return to Hawaii.
Note: The concept of a task force was originally introduced by the United States Navy around the beginning of 1941 , as a way to increase flexibility. At the time, ships were collected in divisions , which in turn were collected in numbered squadrons , which comprised a numbered fleet . A task force could be built out of ships from different divisions and squadrons, without having to go through the paperwork entailed by permanent reorganization, and easily dissolved when it was no longer useful. The task force concept worked very well, and by the end of World War II about 100 task forces had been created.
The Results
At the end of the Battle of Midway, all four Japanese carriers involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor had been sunk, while the United States lost the carrier Yorktown. The Japanese lost 256 of their finest aircraft, and more than 200 of their most experienced pilots and several thousand sailors perished. The Japanese Navy never fully recovered and its expansion into the Pacific had been stopped. American naval power in the Pacific was restored. The American victory at Midway was the turning point of the Pacific campaign of World War II.
This major defeat for Japan came six months after the beginning of open warfare against the United States. That is almost exactly the maximum amount of time that Admiral
Isoroku Yamamoto
predicted he would have the advantage over the enemy before the tide would turn in its favor.
The Prediction
| "I shall run wild considerably for the first six months or a year, but I have utterly no confidence for the second and third years." |
| Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
Imperial Japanese Navy |
Admiral Yamamoto's prediction proved remarkably prescient. Three days short of six months after Japan's incomplete but nonetheless stunning victory at Pearl Harbor the American navy decisively defeated the Imperial fleet at Midway. Phase One of the Pacific War, the Japanese Blitzkrieg, ended and Phase Two, the build up for an Allied counter offensive, began. At this point, when the fortunes of war turned, this paper will examine several seemingly insignificant incidents, which greatly influenced actions at Pearl Harbor, Midway and consequently, the war's eventual outcome.