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The Battle of Midway took place on June 4, 1942.[2] The US Navy not only successfully repelled the Japanese Navy's attack on Midway Atoll in this battle, but also gained the initiative in the Pacific Theater. Therefore, this battle can be said to be a turning point in the Pacific Theater.

Battle of Midway

Even before the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Japanese Empire had already designated Midway Island as its next target. This would not only retaliate for the US Air Force's air raid on Tokyo (some senior Japanese generals at the time believed the attack had originated from Midway Island), but would also open the door to the Hawaiian Islands, preventing the US military from attacking Japan from Hawaii. The Japanese Navy intended to use this opportunity to lure the remaining US Pacific Fleet ships to Midway Island and annihilate them in one fell swoop. To achieve this goal, the Japanese Navy deployed nearly all of its forces, committing the majority of its forces. The fleet even surpassed the Combined Fleet at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history. This was the largest strategic offensive of the Japanese Navy in World War II. However, due to the diversionary effect of the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Combined Fleet was unable to deploy two aircraft carriers—the damaged Shōkaku and the undermanned Zuikaku—which severely impacted the operation.

If the Japanese Navy achieved its objectives, the West Coast of the United States would be directly threatened by the Japanese Navy. With the remainder of the US Navy deployed in the North Atlantic, the US would be unable to effectively counterattack the Japanese Navy in the Pacific in the short term. Japan was well aware of the US military potential. If the US's vast industrial production capacity were fully committed to the war effort, Japan would have little hope of victory. Therefore, Japan hoped to force the US to negotiate and quickly end the war with the US before such a situation arose.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt appointed Chester Nimitz to replace Kimmel as commander of the US Pacific Fleet. He told Nimitz, "Go to Pearl Harbor to clean up the mess, and then stay there until the war is won." Nimitz, appointed to the post in a moment of crisis, quickly assembled a fleet consisting of only four aircraft carriers and their escorts. This fleet attacked Japanese forces on islands in the central Pacific and then implemented a shocking plan: the bombing of Tokyo.

US aircraft carriers hit by Japanese torpedoes during the Battle of Midway

United States: 1 aircraft carrier (USS Yorktown), 1 destroyer (Hammann), 147 aircraft (mostly shot down), 307 killed.

Japan: 4 aircraft carriers (Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu), 1 heavy cruiser (Mikuma), 332 aircraft (including spare aircraft, about 280 were destroyed in aircraft carriers, and only 52 were shot down), 3057 people killed.

War controversy

After three hours of fierce fighting, the Japanese defensive barrier seemed impenetrable, prompting the Japanese to reassign their 93 bombers and torpedo planes. But at 10:22 a.m., a breach in this impenetrable barrier finally emerged. The carrier Hiryu suddenly broke away from its box formation and headed north, but the remaining three carriers remained in a tight group, firing back from their takeoff points. Their flight decks were a scene of calamity: pilots excitedly revved their engines, piles of bombs lay in disarray, officers and enlisted personnel scurried nervously, and high-octane fuel hoses snaked beneath their feet. It would take only five minutes to launch a sortie and prepare to destroy the American carriers in one fell swoop.

The Zeros were flying at low altitude, chasing the low-flying American torpedo planes. This left the Japanese carriers without fighter patrols to cover their high-altitude attacks. At this moment, 36 Dauntless dive bombers from the USS Enterprise, led by Lieutenant Commander Wade McCluskey, and from the USS Yorktown, led by Lieutenant Commander Maxwell Leslie, suddenly broke through the clouds and, with blood-curdling screams, attacked the 17 dive bombers from the Japanese carriers below. This statement and plot has been quoted in many later films, but the actual situation is different. [3]

The non-existent "5 minutes of destiny"

The Battle of Midway, published by Japan's Asagumo Publishing House, has fundamentally denied the "five minutes of destiny" statement.

"When the Nagumo fleet was hit, the reloading (bombs for torpedoes) of the First Air Battle had not yet been completed, and the attack team was preparing to take off. Although it is common to say that the first fighter was hit when it slid out of the deck, it is certain that this The fighter jets are fleet direct cover aircraft and not escort aircraft for the attack fleet of the US task force."

According to the lookout on the Akagi's bridge, at the moment of the attack, there was not a single attack aircraft on the Akagi's flight deck. There were only three Zero fighters. One of these appeared to be a cover aircraft for the Second Attack Group, but it's impossible to determine exactly, as the escort fighters for the Second Attack Group were mostly overhead, covering the fleet. The other two were likely direct-attack aircraft that had just landed to refuel.

According to pilot testimony, the pilot of one of the Zero fighters that took off at the time spotted a swooping American aircraft and immediately jumped aboard. It has been confirmed that before the Akagi was hit, there were only three Zero fighters on the deck, all without pilots. The pilots of the 97th carrier-based attack aircraft of the 2nd Attack Squadron were in the waiting room, awaiting takeoff.

In fact, the casualties suffered by Akagi and other aircraft carrier pilots were not large, which also proves that they should not have been in the cockpit of the aircraft at that time, because if they were in the cockpit of the aircraft neatly arranged on the deck, they would be shot in a very short time after being shot. The planes that explode one after another will kill their pilots in large numbers.

There is no accurate statement as to whether the deck of the Kaga aircraft carrier was already filled with aircraft from the 2nd Attack Team at the moment it was hit, but there is testimony that the 97th carrier was hit while on the lift.

苍龙中弹瞬间，有证词说“甲板上有10架左右舰攻”。这可能是第1攻击队返回的舰攻刚刚降落，或者是为第2攻击队准备的“99俯冲轰炸机”。不管怎么说，都不能证明第2攻击队还有5分钟就能起飞。

Furthermore, if the 1st and 2nd carrier battles were hit within the "five minutes of fate," then the undamaged Hiryu should have launched all of its second strike group's aircraft within five minutes. However, in reality, Hiryu's second strike group began taking off 30 minutes after all three carriers were hit. This shows that Hiryu definitely didn't have five minutes left to launch its strike group.

At least one conclusion can be drawn - when the three aircraft carriers were hit, it would take at least 3 minutes for Soryu and Hiryu's second attack team to take off, while Akagi and Kaga would need more time.

According to the testimony of Lieutenant Akagi Koto, "There are still 5 minutes, probably 5 minutes, before the attack fleet in the hangar can complete the work of replacing bombs with torpedoes, and then the aircraft will be lifted to the deck through elevators. , arrange it at the take-off position, complete the test run, and then take off, which takes at least 30 minutes."

At that time, the 1nd aviation staff officer of the 2st Air Fleet (the first staff officer was Major Genda), when answering questions from the post-war committee, said "the five minutes of fate are all nonsense."

Even if there are "30 minutes of fate" or "60 minutes of fate," there is absolutely no "5 minutes of fate." This is probably a unique way of thinking for the Japanese. "5 minutes of fate" represents the projection of the Japanese subjective wish that "we could have won" or "it was just a little bit of bad luck."

Some Japanese students and officers repeatedly raised the "five minutes of fate" to prove their point, but the committee had investigated their combat positions in the Battle of Midway and their answers to questions such as whether they were witnesses. In fact, their positions and their answers to questions about whether they were witnesses determined that they could not support the "five minutes of fate" theory.