Battle of Midway (1942): Midway strike · 553

The 4-7 June 1942 carrier battle that wrecked Japan's first-line carrier force and shifted the Pacific war. The Battle of Midway (4-7 June 1942) was a carrier duel in the central Pacific, six months after Pearl Harbor. Admiral Yamamoto sought to draw out and destroy the US Pacific Fleet by seizing Midway Atoll. Station HYPO in Hawaii had broken enough of the JN-25 system to know the objective -- the famous "AF" water-trap.

On 4 June, US dive bombers from Enterprise and Yorktown caught Japanese carriers with armed aircraft on deck. Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and, later, Hiryu were lost. Yorktown was crippled and sunk on 7 June. Japanese dead are usually given around 3,000; US dead a few hundred -- a lopsided butcher's bill for a few hours of dive-bombing.

Midway did not end the Pacific war; Guadalcanal and 1944 still lay ahead. It ended Japan's run of carrier initiative. English-language memory -- helped by the 1976 and 2019 films -- treats it as the Pacific's Stalingrad: a turn, not a finish. Korean readers should pair it with Tsushima (1905): two decisive naval days that recast who could project power in these waters.