Midway

Midway island group (2 sq mi/5.2 sq km), central Pacific, c.1,150 mi (1,850 km) NW of Honolulu, comprising Sand and Eastern islands with the surrounding atoll. Discovered by Americans in 1859, Midway was annexed in 1867. A cable station was opened in 1903. In 1935, Midway became a commercial air station of Pan American Airways, and in 1941 a U.S. naval base was opened. The last navy facilities on the island closed in 1993. In 1996 the islands were transferred from the U.S. Navy to U.S. Dept. of the Interior, which manages them as a national wildlife refuge. The battle of Midway (June 3-6, 1942), one of the decisive Allied victories of World War II, occurred nearby. The battle, fought mostly with aircraft, resulted in the destruction of four Japanese aircraft carriers, crippling the Japanese navy.

mid·way / ˈmidˌwā; -ˈwā/ • adv. & adj. in or toward the middle of something: [as adv.] Father Peter came to a halt midway down the street | [as adj.] midway profits roared from $130 million to $160 million. ∎  having some of the characteristics of one thing and some of another: [as adj.] a midway path is chosen between the diverging aspirations of the two factions | [as adv.] the leaves have a unique smell midway between eucalyptus and mint. • n. an area of sideshows, games of chance or skill, or other amusements at a fair or exhibition: the kids head straight for the midway.

Midway, Battle of (1942), a decisive naval battle of World War II.Disappointed with the results of his attack on the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of Japan's combined fleet, planned to capture Midway, a defended American atoll 1,100 miles northwest of Pearl Harbor. He hoped to lure the U.S. Pacific fleet into battle and destroy it. Such a success could have opened the prospect of invading Hawai'i and perhaps, he hoped, ending the war. The preliminary air attack on Midway was scheduled for 4 June 1942 and the invasion on 6 June. Warned of the forthcoming attack by U.S. cryptanalysts who had penetrated the Japanese Navy's communications, Admiral Chester Nimitz, commander of the U.S. Pacific fleet, strengthened Midway and quietly stationed three aircraft carriers nearby.

The Japanese air attack on Midway's air base on 4 June devastated most of the base's aircraft. But U.S. planes, attacking from nearby carriers, destroyed all four of the Japanese aircraft carriers, with all their airplanes and many of their pilots. Japan's losses in carriers and pilots proved irreplaceable; the American losses did not. Having saved Midway, and perhaps Hawai'i, from invasion, the United States took advantage of the Japanese losses to go on the offensive in the South Pacific—an offensive that ended with Japan's surrender in August 1945. The Battle of Midway was a crucial turning point in the Pacific war.

Bibliography

John B. Lundstrom , The First South Pacific Campaign: Pacific Fleet Strategy December 1941–June 1942, 1976.
Gordon W. Prange,, Donald M. Goldstein,, and and Katherine V. Dillon , Miracle at Midway, 1982.

Frank Uhlig Jr.