It was a crushing defeat for the Japanese, who lost all four of their aircraft carriers and thousands of men. What followed was an epic clash, the tranquil tropical region transformed into a thundering inferno of dive bombers and torpedo bombers. There was just one problem for the Japanese: American codebreakers had intercepted and cracked their communications about the assault, meaning the US was able to deploy a defensive fleet to meet the invaders. 'the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare.' A fearsome armada of aircraft carriers, battleships and warplanes was dispatched on this mission, which threatened to establish Japanese dominance over the Pacific theatre of the war. It was here that, six months after the shock attack on Pearl Harbor which thrust the US into World War Two, Japanese forces tried to go further by invading the American military base on Midway Atoll. On 4 June 1942, the titanic Battle of Midway began to unfold in the centre of the Pacific Ocean.
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