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Turning Point Of The Battle Of Midway

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By the end of 1941 Japan had control of most of the Pacific theater. It was not until after the attack on Pearl Harbor that the United States formally declared war on the Axis Powers. By the beginning of 1942, the United States Navy, switched from being in a defensive position to an offensive position and took the fight to the Japanese military in the Pacific. The Battle of Midway is considered the turning point in the Pacific Theater during WWII. However, the Battle of Midway may not have happened as it did if it were not for the men who tirelessly worked to break the Japanese JN-25 code. The ability to decipher the encrypted Japanese messages gave the United States Navy the upper hand in the Pacific theater and by the end of the war the Japanese …show more content…

Returning to their aircraft carriers to refuel and rearm the Japanese bombers noticed the U.S. fleet and prepared for their attack. Sent from the aircraft carriers were Devastator Torpedo Bombers and Dauntless Dive Bombers. The first to attack were the Torpedo Bombers, flying low to the sea the Japanese were able to defend their ship’s with ease. The Japanese destroyed 35 Torpedo Bombers, only 6 made it to their target destination which was one of the four Japanese aircraft carriers, but to their surprise none of their torpedo’s hit the intended target. Although the Torpedo Bombers did not hit their target their sacrifice was not in vain. High above the Dauntless Dive Bombers were closing in on their targets without any resistance. With just enough cloud coverage the Dive Bombers were able to approach their targets with ease. Within the first day the Japanese carriers Akagi, Kaga, and Soryu, were hit, set ablaze, and abandoned (). According to ..: Over the next two days, the US Navy and US forces on Midway continued their attacks, forcing the Japanese to abandon the battle and retreat to Japan. The Japanese lost approximately 4,800 men, four carriers, one cruiser, and hundreds of aircraft, while the United States lost approximately 307 men, one carrier, one destroyer, and over 100 aircraft.
The critical victory at Midway, which crippled Japan’s naval force was the turning point in the Pacific. The U.S. was finally able to stop the growth of the Japanese Empire and started to push back. Over the next three years the U.S. continued to decipher the JN-25 messages and by 02 September 1945 the Japanese surrendered ending World War II. Deciphering the Japanese code gave the United States the upper hand in the Pacific and without the efforts of the men at Station HYPO the war may have been much

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