Early on June 4, 1942, scout planes from American aircraft carriers spotted them - a huge Japanese fleet pushing east across the Pacific Ocean, headed for a tiny U.S. island called Midway. The Japanese hoped to surprise the Americans and finish off the U.S. Navy. They did not know that American code-breakers had cracked their secret messages and the U.S. was waiting.
What followed were four days of frantic battle fought entirely by planes flying off ships. Both sides launched waves of bombers and fighters from carriers hundreds of miles apart. The first American attacks went badly - torpedo bombers were shot down one after another. But high above, a group of U.S. dive bombers led by Wade McClusky arrived right when the Japanese were refueling their planes on deck. In just six minutes, three Japanese carriers - Akagi, Kaga, and Soryu - were turned into burning wrecks. A fourth, the Hiryu, was sunk the next day. Japan lost four of its biggest ships, hundreds of planes, and most of its best pilots in less than a week.
Before Midway, Japan had been winning across the Pacific. After Midway, it never won another big battle. Historians often call it the most important sea fight of the 1900s. Today the wrecks rest deep below the waves near a quiet ring of coral where seabirds nest. The little island that started it all is now a wildlife refuge - albatross chicks waddle across runways that helped change the course of World War II.
