50 Fun Facts About Battle of Midway

Who was president of the United States during the Battle of Midway?

Franklin D. Roosevelt. As the battle ended, a newspaper story revealed that the Navy had known Japan's plan in advance, and his administration tried to have the journalists prosecuted.

Which admiral commanded the Japanese Combined Fleet at Midway?

Isoroku Yamamoto sailed aboard the battleship Yamato several hundred miles behind his carriers, too far back for his big guns to play any part when the carriers were caught.

Who commanded the Japanese carrier strike force, the Kido Butai, at Midway?

Chuichi Nagumo chose to land his returning planes before striking the American carriers, and their dive bombers caught his ships with fuelled, armed aircraft crowding the hangars.

Who commanded the US Pacific Fleet during the Battle of Midway?

Chester Nimitz trusted his code breakers' forecast over doubters in Washington and sent all three of his carriers to lie in wait before the Japanese fleet arrived.

The four Japanese carriers sunk at Midway had all struck which American base six months earlier?

Pearl Harbor. Six carriers launched that raid, and after Midway only the two that had missed the battle were still afloat.

Which US destroyer was sunk alongside Yorktown while helping to salvage the crippled carrier?

Hammann. A torpedo broke her in two, and as she went down her own depth charges exploded among the swimming survivors, causing many of the roughly 80 deaths.

Which American raid in April 1942 helped push Japan into its attack on Midway?

The Doolittle Raid. Sixteen Army bombers flown off a carrier did little damage to Tokyo, but the shock convinced Japan it had to push its defensive line out to Midway, and soon.

Which island chain did Japan attack one day before Midway?

The Aleutians. American code breakers had already shown that this northern attack was not Japan's main effort, so the US carriers stayed where they were, waiting off Midway.

How did Navy code breakers in Hawaii secretly tell Midway to broadcast a fake distress message?

By undersea cable. A telegraph line had reached the atoll in 1903, and unlike radio it could not be overheard, so Japan's listeners caught only the uncoded plea that followed.

Which technology did the American fleet at Midway have that the Japanese fleet lacked?

Radar. Sets on Midway and aboard the American ships picked up incoming strikes early enough to get fighters into the air, while Japan's carriers could give their own fighters little warning.

Which American patrol plane, flying from Midway's lagoon, found the Japanese fleet before the battle?

PBY Catalina. The lumbering flying boats also made a night torpedo attack on a tanker, and theirs turned out to be the only American aerial torpedo to hit anything in the whole battle.

What fake shortage did Midway broadcast in the clear to confirm it was the Japanese target?

Water. The trick was aimed at doubters in Washington: when Japanese radio traffic reported that 'AF' was running short of it, the code breakers had their proof that AF meant Midway.

Which commander led the Navy code breakers in Hawaii who predicted the Japanese attack on Midway?

Joseph Rochefort. Rivals in Washington took the credit for his team's forecast and blocked the medal his admiral proposed, which was awarded only after his death, four decades on.

Which admiral replaced the ailing William Halsey in command of Task Force 16 at Midway?

Raymond Spruance gambled on launching at extreme range, knowing many of his planes might lack the fuel to return, to catch the Japanese carriers before they could strike again.

Who held overall tactical command of the American carriers at Midway from aboard Yorktown?

Frank Jack Fletcher. When his flagship was crippled he moved to a cruiser, decided he could not run a carrier battle from there and handed control to the junior admiral.

About how long did the navy yard in Hawaii take to patch up the damaged Yorktown for Midway?

About three days. Inspectors had reckoned on months of work, but the fleet's commander allowed the yard just three days, and its crews worked on her around the clock to meet the deadline.

In which battle, a month before Midway, had the carrier Yorktown been badly damaged?

Coral Sea. Japan believed Yorktown had been sunk there, so its planners expected to meet no more than two American carriers at Midway.

What was the nickname of the US carriers' rendezvous northeast of Midway?

Point Luck. The Japanese scouting line sent to watch the route from Hawaii took up station only after the American carriers had passed, so the ambush waiting there stayed secret.

Which Japanese carrier was the flagship at Midway, abandoned by its admiral for the cruiser Nagara?

Akagi took only one direct hit, but the bomb burst among fuelled, armed planes in her hangar and the fires could not be put out.

Which was the last Japanese carrier still fighting at Midway after the morning dive-bomber attacks?

Hiryu. Alone, she launched two strikes that crippled Yorktown, but a scout from that same carrier found her, and by evening she too was a burning wreck.

Which Japanese rear admiral chose to go down with his flagship, the last of Japan's carriers to sink at Midway?

Tamon Yamaguchi. That morning he had urged an immediate strike with whatever planes were ready and been overruled; that night he stayed aboard his burning flagship with her captain.

Which Japanese fighter cut down the slow, unescorted American torpedo bombers at Midway?

Mitsubishi Zero. In chasing the torpedo planes down to the wave tops, though, its pilots left the sky above their carriers open just as the American dive bombers arrived.

Who was the sole survivor of Torpedo Squadron 8's 30 aircrew in its attack at Midway?

George Gay. Shot down within sight of the Japanese carriers, he floated in the sea for some 30 hours while the battle raged around him before he was rescued.

Which US torpedo bomber proved obsolete at Midway and was replaced by the Avenger?

TBD Devastator. Of the 41 launched from the carriers, only six came back and not one scored a torpedo hit, so the Navy pulled the type from front-line service.

Which US dive bomber delivered the decisive blows against the Japanese carriers at Midway?

SBD Dauntless. Within minutes of their first dives its pilots had three carriers in flames, and late that afternoon they found and wrecked the fourth.

Which air group commander found the Japanese carriers at Midway by following a destroyer's wake?

Wade McClusky. Critically low on fuel over empty ocean, he chose to keep searching rather than turn back, and the lone ship hurrying to rejoin its fleet showed him the way.

Which Army heavy bomber attacked the Japanese fleet from Midway at high altitude without hitting a single ship?

B-17 Flying Fortress. Bombs dropped from that height missed every twisting ship below, but the Japanese fighters and guns could barely touch the bombers either.

Which lieutenant is credited with the single bomb hit that doomed Akagi at Midway?

Richard Best. When both Enterprise squadrons dived on the same carrier by mistake, he pulled out with just two wingmen and went for the untouched Akagi instead.

How were most of the burnt-out Japanese carriers at Midway finally sent to the bottom?

Scuttled by their own destroyers. The fleet's commander-in-chief at first held back the order for his navy's prized flagship, until he accepted that she could not be saved.

The 'Flight to Nowhere' at Midway describes which carrier's air group missing the Japanese fleet entirely?

Hornet. Her torpedo squadron's commander broke away from the formation and did find the enemy, only to lose all fifteen of his planes attacking without escort.

Which fighter tactic did outnumbered American Wildcat pilots first try in combat at Midway?

The Thach Weave. Jimmy Thach had devised it months earlier, and when a swarm of enemy fighters jumped his four escorts over the Japanese fleet he tried it for real.

The crippled Yorktown was under tow during the Battle of Midway when which kind of Japanese warship finally sank her?

A submarine. I-168 slipped through the ring of escorts and fired a spread of torpedoes; two struck the carrier and another sank the ship tied up alongside her.

Which US carrier, fresh from repairs on the West Coast, reached Hawaii just too late to fight at Midway?

Saratoga. Short of escorts, she could not sail until 1 June and arrived as the fighting ended, so she ferried replacement planes out to the two carriers that survived.

Which Japanese heavy cruiser was sunk by US dive bombers at Midway after colliding with Mogami?

Mikuma. The two cruisers rammed each other at night while swerving to avoid a feared torpedo attack, and could only limp away at a third of their speed until carrier planes caught them.

Before the war, Midway was a refuelling stop for which airline's transpacific flying boats?

Pan Am. From 1935 its Clippers stopped at the atoll on the long hop from San Francisco to Manila, until longer-ranged airliners made the halt needless after the war.

Midway Atoll lies roughly halfway between North America and which continent?

Asia. After Wake Island fell in December 1941, Midway was an American outpost guarding Hawaii, one Japan counted on the US fleet coming out to defend.

How did Japan's press report the Battle of Midway to the Japanese public?

As a great victory. The navy told the truth to the Emperor, but even the army's leaders were left believing for a time that the carrier fleet was still intact.

Since the Navy closed its base in the 1990s, Midway Atoll has been run as what?

A national wildlife refuge. The Navy closed its air facility in 1993, and its abandoned buildings now stand among nesting Laysan albatrosses.

Henderson Field, named for a Marine pilot killed at Midway, was the airstrip at the heart of which island campaign?

Guadalcanal. Lofton Henderson died leading Midway's Marine dive bombers, and two months later the Marines who seized a Japanese-built airstrip there gave it his name.

Which US Air Force base outside Oklahoma City is named for a general lost during the Battle of Midway?

Tinker. Clarence Tinker, an Osage from Oklahoma who commanded the Army's air force in Hawaii, chose to lead a long-range bomber strike himself on the last day and never came back.

Which film director was wounded while filming the Japanese attack on Midway?

John Ford. The Hollywood director, by then a Navy Reserve officer, kept filming from the island's power plant after he was hit, and his 18-minute documentary won an Oscar.

Midway Airport, renamed in 1949 to honour the battle, serves which American city?

Chicago. In the same year the city renamed its other airfield for Butch O'Hare, a Navy fighter pilot of the Pacific war, so both of its airports honour that naval campaign.

In which city is the museum carrier USS Midway (CV-41) docked?

San Diego. Named for the battle, the carrier was commissioned eight days after Japan surrendered, too late for the war she honoured, and then served for 47 years.

Who led the 1998 expedition that located and photographed the wreck of Yorktown?

Robert Ballard. The man who found the Titanic took veterans of both navies along, and located the carrier some three miles down with her paint still visible.

The research ship Petrel, which found two of Midway's sunken Japanese carriers in 2019, was bought and equipped by which technology billionaire?

Paul Allen. The Microsoft co-founder died a year before the find, but the crew he had funded located both carriers more than three miles down within days of each other.

Which actor played Admiral William 'Bull' Halsey in the 2019 film Midway?

Dennis Quaid. His Halsey spends the battle on sick leave, just as the real admiral did: a skin disease put him in hospital days before the fleet sailed.

Which director made the 2019 war film Midway?

Roland Emmerich. It was a long-held passion project, and because he struggled to find studio backing he raised the money himself, making it one of the costliest independent films.

Which pop star played aviation machinist Bruno Gaido in the 2019 film Midway?

Nick Jonas. The real Gaido once leapt into a parked dive bomber and turned its rear guns on a crashing enemy plane; shot down at Midway, he was captured and killed.

On which island of Midway Atoll did the wartime airfield and its three runways stand?

Eastern Island. The Japanese strike wrecked buildings across the atoll but left the runways usable, perhaps because Japan meant to be flying from them itself within days.

Which star played Captain Matt Garth in the 1976 film Midway?

Charlton Heston. The film's top-billed hero never existed: Garth was invented for the script, while co-stars Henry Fonda and Robert Mitchum played real admirals.