In April 1942 Tokyo was bombed by US Army Bombers which flew off from the aircraft carrier Hornet, going on to land in China. The Japanese realised that they had a gap in their defence line north of the American base of Midway Island and decided to take Midway from the Americans.

The powerful Nagumo Force, with four carriers and two battleships, approached and bombed Midway. The Americans had three carriers in the battle. Their torpedo carrying bombers attacked the Japanese ships but the fast Japanese fighters, the Zeros, shot down many of these bombers. Disaster then struck the Japanese. Their carriers' decks crowded with planes loaded with petrol and ammunition. The Zeros had been drawn to a low altitude by the torpedo aircraft attacks. But then American dive-bombers happened to make a surprise attack from a high level. Plunging down in almost vertical dives they bombed three of the four carriers, which were shattered by explosions and fire and soon sunk.

The surviving Japanese carrier sent planes, which followed the American dive-bombers back to the USS Yorktown and stopped her with three hits. A submarine later sank her (while on tow). But the fourth Japanese aircraft carrier was also bombed and badly damaged, just as her aircraft were about to take off. She sank the next morning.

The destruction of the great Nagumo Force, the victors of Pearl Harbour, Darwin and Ceylon, was a fatal blow to Japan's sea power. The Allies gradually built up greater naval and air power than Japan's in the Pacific and struck the final blow on the Japanese (Axis).