WITH THE IMMEDIATE SINKING OF THREE OF YAMAMOTO'S ... (5, June 1942)

With the immediate sinking of three of Yamamoto's carriers–the fourth lingered for a bit before going down–the Midway operation was cancelled.  In addition to these losses, 350 Japanese planes were destroyed and the best of her naval aviators were dead.  The next day, June 5, dive-bombers and torpedo planes from Hornet and Enterprise found heavy cruiser Mogami and sank her.  As the battered armada steamed to sanctuary, an air officer described Fleet Admiral Yamamoto:  Dazed, glassy-eyed, "he sat sipping rice gruel helplessly on the forward bridge."
     The United States victory had turned the tide of war.  Yamamoto now realized that Japan had lost the initiative in the Pacific.  He had hoped to win the war within one year, or before American industry could attain peak war production, and the conquest of Midway had been the key factor in his overall plans.  Its loss, but particularly the loss of his first-line carriers and trained pilots, which required more than two years to replace, was the essence of Yamamoto's setback.  Midway clearly presaged Japan's ultimate defeat; her hitherto unbeaten Combined Fleet was never again to sortie for such grandiose purposes.
     Rear Admiral Ernest M. Eller analyses the great victory.  We have met him before.

--S. E. Smith
From: The United States Navy in World War II
Preface to Part III: Chapter 11: The Battle Analyzed