CHAPTER FROM HISTORY: Battles of Coral Sea and Midway
By S. Birjees Asghar
World War-II erupted in September 1939. Germany occupied France, Holland, Belgium, Poland and Norway in quick sweeps and was knocking at the doors of Britain by 1940. In the eastern theatre, Japan had occupied French Indo-China (present Vietnam) and Dutch East Indies (present Indonesia). The US was still a neutral power. But in 1940, Japan announced its area of interests on the Greater East Asian Co-prosperity sphere, which cut right across the US holdings in the Pacific and the Philippines.
Soon thereafter, the Japanese made a surprise attack on December 7, 1941, on the American naval base at Pearl Harbour in the Hawaiian Islands. Eight US battleships, three cruisers, two destroyers and 188 warplanes were destroyed with a great loss of life and material. The US carrier force was spared as it was out at sea. Within three days, USA and Japan were at war. Colossal sea battles were subsequently to rage in the Pacific theatre for the control of the strategic islands in the area. These battles have been termed as island “hopping.” For each hop, the adversaries had to throw in their mighty sea and air resources.
The Japanese took Guam, Wake Island and Hong Kong soon after the Pearl Harbour attack. Dutch East Indies lay in Japanese hands after the defeat of the Joint Dutch Anglo American naval forces under Admiral Doorman of the Royal Dutch Navy at the Battle of Java Sea in February 1942. In May 1942, the Philippines fell. The Japanese were now moving far South to Solomon Islands and Northern New Guinea. These were dismal early months for the allies in the Pacific theatre.
The first encounter between the United States Navy (USN) and Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) took place at the Battle of Coral Sea on May 7 and 8, 1942. Yorktown Task Force TF17, under Rear Admiral Fletcher, Rear Admiral Fitch’s Lexington Task Force 11 and Cruiser Task Force 44 were ordered to attack the IJN. Two days of air-bombing and aerial torpedoing sank Japanese carrier, Shoho, and damaged another one. American carrier, Yorktown, was badly damaged and Lexington was lost. This battle checked the Japanese advance short of New Guinea. But still the Japanese had seven carriers operational in the war theatre as against USN’s four. This imbalance was nullified at the Battle of Midway, which followed a month after the Battle of Coral Sea.
Midway is a short hop on left of the Hawaiis. It had to be taken by the Japanese to establish forward bases for attacking the Hawaiis. To lure the USN to the open seas, an armada of naval ships was tasked. The first striking force under Vice Admiral Naguno, who had earlier commanded the attack forces of Pearl Harbour, consisted of four aircraft carriers Akagi, Kaga, Hirya and Sorya, two battleships, three cruisers and eleven destroyers. Vice Admiral Kondo commanded Midway landing force of 5,000 in 12 transports escorted by one carrier and eleven destroyers. A diversionary force of two carriers, two cruisers and six destroyers was to attack American positions in the far North at Aleutian Islands. The Japanese rear guard force under Admiral Yamamoto consisted of nine battleships and a large number of cruisers and destroyers. A screen of 16 submarines was placed between Midway and Pearl Harbour.
In the campaign for the control of Midway, the Japanese had far stretched their fleet. On the other hand, US Fleet Commander Nimitz (later to be nominated by UN to supervise never-to-occur plebiscite in Kashmir) adopted the policy of concentrating his meagre resources rather than spreading them out. His plan was to eliminate the strong Japanese air power to reduce its initial punch. He would take on the Japanese carriers when their fighters and bombers were on attack mission.
On June 3, 1942, the Japanese invasion fleet was sighted 700 miles west of Midway. Land based army B-17 bombers attacked this force, but could not do much damage. On June 4, the Japanese forces were 185 miles North — West of Midway and were heading towards their target. At 6.25am, Midway was under heavy air attack from the Japanese. At 6.55am, US carriers Hornet, Enterprise and Yorktown launched their attack planes. The bombers from the Hornet could not find the Japanese carriers and flew on to Midway.
The Torpedo planes from the Hornet, however, sighted the Japanese Carriers at 10.45am with no fighter cover to oppose them. Torpedo planes from the Enterprise also joined and this force attacked the Japanese task force at sea skimming altitude. The Japanese anti-aircraft fire and Zero fighters heavily contested them. The wave of 41 Torpedo planes also joined the foray. A total of 45 US Torpedo planes were lost without inflecting a hit. But their heroic effort saved the day for USN as their attack had brought down the Japanese fighter cover.
Precisely at the moment the dive-bombers from Yorktown and Enterprise discovered by chance the Japanese fleet. Without opposition from fighter cover, they succeeded in attaining a hit on Japanese carrier Akago which was soon an inferno and out of battle, sinking the next day. Almost at the same time, the Akagi was hit and so were Kogo and Sorya. These carriers soon became burning wrecks.
Whilst Admiral Nagumo’s flagship was ablaze, he passed on his command to Rear admiral Yamaguchi in the carrier, Hirya. The US carrier Yorktown was attacked by the planes from Hirya and was put out of action.
The streak of luck in discovering the Japanese carriers by the straggler dive bombers, enabled the USN to achieve victory at the Battle of Midway which restored parity amongst the two powers in the Pacific to continue further battles of island-hopping and the American march towards Tokyo Bay.
