Page "Raymond A. Spruance" Paragraph 11

The U. S. task force, based on three carriers, faced a Japanese force with four fleet carriers, divided into two groups, a lead group under Admiral Nagumo and a follow-on group under Admiral Yamamoto.

The US Navy lost one carrier while sinking all four of the enemy's fleet carriers.

The US victory came largely from the toughness of the fighting force, Spruance's combination of coolness plus his caution at just the right moments, and large doses of plain luck.

Several waves of US aircraft were beaten badly by the Japanese both at the Island of Midway and at sea around the Japanese task force.

Then a large group of US dive bombers happened to find Nagumo's four carriers — with air cover absent.

Most of the Japanese strike planes had only returned from the attack on Midway, and the CAP deployed by Nagumo was busy attacking VT-8 torpedo bombers from Hornet.

The US dive bombers badly damaged the Japanese carriers, all eventually sinking, which essentially ended the Japanese lead in fleet power in the Pacific.

One of the carriers, Hiryu gave a brief respite for the Japanese by sending a strike wave which crippled Yorktown, but additional waves from Enterprise struck the carrier, which forced Hiryu to be scuttled afterwards.