Thanks to both sides’ use of a relatively new piece of technology – the aircraft carrier – this battle would be decided without the ships of either fleet ever coming within sight of each other.
At Midway, America’s carrier pilots destroyed Japan’s best ships and killed nearly four thousand men – the cream of Japan’s naval elite. It was a blow the Japanese would never recover from, making the outcome of the conflict in the Pacific virtually inevitable and releasing precious American military resources for the conflict in Europe.