JN-25 / AF
The broken code and the Midway water-trap that confirmed the target. A named operational object of Battle of Midway (4-7 June 1942).
Three US carriers (one freshly patched) versus four Japanese fleet carriers plus a surface arm that never closed.
Land-based Midway air was a nuisance and a bait, not the killing force.
Systems
Kido Butai
Nagumo's carrier striking force -- four fleet carriers at Midway.
Chester W. Nimitz's command
Gambled three carriers on HYPO's read -- the quiet decisive admiral of the US story.
Isoroku Yamamoto's command
Planned a complex trap; lost the initiative he had seized in December.
Midway strike
1942-06-04-am: Japanese first wave on the atoll; US searches outbound.
Four carriers gone
Kido Butai's first team wrecked.
Meters
Geographic / demographic scale
28
Peak intensity
70
How long it defined a period
8
Tech or method shift
72
Borders, regimes, law, alliances
68
Film, school, ritual density
74
Hotspots
Japanese run
Dec 1941-May 1942: Pearl Harbor to Coral Sea. Named as historical geography of Battle of Midway, not as a targeting list.
Intelligence race
Late May 1942: HYPO, AF, Nimitz's gamble. Named as historical geography of Battle of Midway, not as a targeting list.
The day
4 June 1942: Five minutes that English books never tire of. Named as historical geography of Battle of Midway, not as a targeting list.
Pursuit and Yorktown
5-7 June: Hiryu gone; Yorktown down. Named as historical geography of Battle of Midway, not as a targeting list.
Solomons
After June: A long war with a new balance. Named as historical geography of Battle of Midway, not as a targeting list.
Materials
Chronology (4-7 June 1942)
Battle of Midway is bounded as 4-7 June 1942. 1942-05 opens the usual narrative (Coral Sea); 1942-08 closes it (Guadalcanal).
Theatre: Midway Atoll, central Pacific
Place is evidence. Midway Atoll, central Pacific is where Battle of Midway happened -- a map for readers, not a guide for repeating it.
Human-cost band
about 3,000 Japanese and about 300+ US dead, usual published band Keep the figure as a range. Spectacle integers are not a census.
Dive bomber
The aircraft type that decided 4 June -- named, not instructed. A material of the Battle of Midway vocabulary, dated to 4-7 June 1942.
Historical 1942 decks, not a modern carrier ORBAT or a strike-planning guide.
Air-group training time is the hidden force structure.