HONOLULU – John Besson had no way of knowing going into the Battle of Midway 65 years ago that it would change the course of World War II.
Six months after Pearl Harbor, the U.S. had only three aircraft carriers, including one hastily repaired just a few days before, and outmoded aircraft to take to the fight. The Japanese Imperial Navy descended on the atoll with four aircraft carriers and the world’s most modern and agile fighter plane, the Zero.
“You didn’t know. You went to your battle station and wondered what was going to happen,” said Besson, at the time a 29-year-old assistant engineer on the USS Pensacola.
On Monday, Besson, now 94, gathered with other veterans on the remote atoll about 1,300 miles northwest of Honolulu to commemorate the U.S. upset victory that turned the tide of the war. The day marks 65 years since the 1942 battle that lasted June 4 to 7.
Japan’s navy wanted to take over the strategically important atoll to protect its homeland from U.S. air raids and prevent the U.S. from interfering in its campaign to dominate the Asia-Pacific. Victory would have given Japan control over the patrol plane base there and possibly cleared the way for an invasion of the main Hawaiian Islands and attacks on the West Coast.
Japanese Imperial Navy Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto’s plan called for sending aircraft carrier planes to bomb U.S. Marines and soldiers defending the island. Then, he would send in his amphibious invasion force to overrun the atoll.
But U.S. Navy intelligence got word of the attack and its details weeks in advance by deciphering coded Japanese radio communications.
The U.S. Pacific Fleet’s commander, Adm. Chester Nimitz, had his ships ambush the Japanese fleet before they could carry out their plan. U.S. dive bombers and torpedoes sank all four aircraft carriers, mostly within the first 24 hours of battle. The U.S. achieved such a decisive victory the Americans were able to go on the offensive in the Pacific for much of the rest of the war.
Today Midway is part of a wildlife reserve run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
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