FIFTY DAYS THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY
Doolittle’s Raid and the Battles of Coral Sea and Midway
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor. Eighteen ships and over three hundred aircraft were destroyed or severely damaged. There were over three thousand casualties on that fateful day.
For the first four months of the war, the Japanese could do no wrong. They followed the attack on Pearl Harbor with an equally devastating attack on the American forces in the Philippines. By the middle of March 1942, Japan controlled several million square miles of land and sea from Tokyo as far east as the Marshall and Gilbert Islands, and as far south as the northern part of New Guinea and south of Java and Sumatra. Even Australia was threatened.
In April, the Americans struck back. Following the Pearl Harbor debacle, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was looking for a way to hit back at Japan. He found that in the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber and Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle of the United States Army Air Corps. After a crash course on short takeoffs at Eglin Field, Florida, Doolittle and sixteen B-25s took off from the deck of the aircraft carrier Hornet, on April 18, 1942, and bombed Tokyo and other major industrial centers in Japan. The planes then flew on to China where the crews either bailed out or crash landed. Although three men were killed and eight more were captured, Colonel Doolittle and the majority made it to freedom and back to America. For his achievement, Doolittle was promoted to Brigadier General and awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
In terms of damage, Doolittle’s Raid produced little destruction. However, it was a shock to the Japanese who had thought their homeland to be impervious to American bombing, and it was a big morale booster to the American armed forces who had suffered defeat after defeat.
Even before the Doolittle Raid, the Japanese were looking to expand their empire southward. The allied base at Port Moresby, on the southern end of New Guinea, is barely 100 miles, and was all that stood between Japan and Australia. On May 3, 1942, the Imperial Japanese Army launched a three-pronged attack to capture Port Moresby. The first objective was to land on Tulagi in the Solomon Islands, to establish a seaplane base, with which to patrol the eastern part of the Coral Sea. This was accomplished on May 3. At the same time, an invasion force was en route from the Japanese base at Rabaul, on the island of New Britain, to attack Port Moresby. This force consisted of fourteen transports protected by the light carrier Shoho and several cruisers. In addition to this, there was a fast carrier strike force featuring the carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku, veterans of the attack on Pearl Harbor, steaming southeasterly from the Japanese base on Truk, in the Carolina Islands. Vice Admiral Takagi was in command of this force and his job was to swing around the Solomon Islands to the east and destroy any American forces that might try to interfere with the Japanese operations in the Coral Sea.
The Japanese did not know, however, that the Americans had deciphered several of their codes and were intercepting the messages. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, or CINCPAC, sent Task Force 17 under the command of Rear Admiral (2 stars) Frank Jack Fletcher to rendezvous with Task Force 11 and Task Force 44 in the Coral Sea. This gave Fletcher, a Medal of Honor and Navy Cross recipient[1], the carriers Yorktown and Lexington along with several cruisers to stop the Japanese. In the ensuing Battle of the Coral Sea on May 7 and 8, the Japanese light carrier Shoho and several transports were sunk. The Americans, however, lost the Lexington, a fleet oiler, the Neosho, and a destroyer, the Sims. In addition to this, the Yorktown was badly damaged. On the basis of ships sunk, it was a tactical victory for the Japanese. But the Japanese carrier Shokaku was damaged and the Zuikaku lost so many planes that they were forced to withdraw. Without support, the invasion on Port Moresby was called off. Although it was a tactical defeat for the Americans it was a strategic victory since they stopped the Japanese from capturing Port Moresby. Even more important than this, the Japanese lost the use of two of their top line carriers for several months. This would ultimately cost the Japanese very dearly.
Even before Coral Sea or the Doolittle Raid, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander in Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet, had been trying to get approval to invade Midway. He wanted to draw out the American carriers, that had eluded him at Pearl Harbor, and destroy them before America could rebuild the fleet that was destroyed at Pearl Harbor. As a result of the Doolittle Raid, Yamamoto was finally given permission to attack Midway.
Midway is a tiny atoll sitting out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean about 1,000 miles from Pearl Harbor. It is actually a part of the same chain of underwater volcanoes that make up the Hawaiian Islands. Yamamoto figured that an attack on Midway would force the American carriers to come out where he could destroy them.
Once again Yamamoto came up with an overly complex plan, this one using eight separate groups, to try to take a simple objective. His plan was to have a northern force attack the Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska on June 3, 1942. This, he believed, would cause the American carriers to rush to their defense thereby putting them out of position when his main force struck at Midway on June 4. A fast carrier strike force, featuring the carriers Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu, left Japan on May 27. Behind them came his Main Body of battleships and cruisers. From the Marianas Islands came the invasion force with over 5,000 soldiers. In total forces, Yamamoto had 8 aircraft carriers, 11 battleships, 24 cruisers, 58 destroyers and a large number of other vessels. Against him Nimitz had no battleships, only 3 carriers, 8 cruisers, and 17 destroyers along with a small amount of support ships. Yamamoto was also counting on surprise.
Yamamoto got his surprise although it was the other way around. Since the Americans were monitoring his messages they were not fooled when his forces hit the Aleutian Islands.
Admiral Nimitz was faced with an almost impossible task. He knew that a very large Japanese fleet was bearing down on Midway but all he could muster were the carriers, Enterprise, Hornet and Yorktown. The Yorktown was still damaged from her action at Coral Sea less than one month earlier. But once again he sent out a force under the combined command of Admiral Fletcher. They sailed to a spot named “Point Luck” about 200 miles northeast of Midway where they could intercept the Japanese fleet no matter which way it came.
At 0430 on June 4, 1942, the carrier strike force under command of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, commander of the Pearl Harbor attack, was in position to launch an aerial strike against Midway. Although he sent over one hundred planes to Midway, and they did considerable damage, the planes failed to knockout the runways on Midway. As Nagumo prepared to launch a second strike, he was attacked by planes from Fletcher’s carriers. Although they suffered heavy losses (one entire squadron, Torpedo Squadron Eight, VT-8, of the Hornet lost all fifteen planes and 29 out of 30 men) the planes managed, in five minutes, to put three carriers out of action. Later that day they were able to find the fourth flattop and put her on the bottom of the ocean with the others. In one of the most lopsided and totally unexpected victories of the war, the American forces sank four Japanese carriers, one cruiser and also damaged one cruiser with only the loss of one carrier, the Yorktown, and one destroyer, the Hammann.
Many historians have said that the Battle of Midway was the turning point of World War II. From this point, Japan would be on the defensive for the rest of the war. However, Doolittle’s Raid and the Battle of the Coral Sea also had a great impact on the outcome of the Battle of Midway. It was because of Doolittle’s Raid that the Japanese prematurely attacked Midway, and the damage to the carrier Shokaku along with the loss of aircraft to Zuikaku cost Nagumo the services of two of Japan’s finest carriers at Midway. With six carriers against the Americans three the, the outcome probably would have been considerably different.
[1] Then Lieutenant Fletcher, was awarded the Medal of Honor for actions during the occupation of Veracruz, Mexico in 1914. He received the Navy Cross, the nation’s second highest award for valor while commanding the destroyer USS Benham in 1918.
