Prof. Greg Jackson

In response, nine Midway-dispatched B-17 Flying Fortresses try and fail to bomb these ships that very afternoon.

In reality, these miniature ships are the invasion transport group under Vice Admiral Kondo Nobutake.

Now, clearly, the Vice Admiral knows that the Americans know he's coming.

But that doesn't mean that the Americans know about the rest of the Japanese fleet, because Admiral Nagumo is approaching with his four carriers from a separate, more northern route.

The plan is for his aircraft to strike midway and soften it up before these transports land their 5,000 men.

So, not wanting to risk alerting the Americans to the rest of the fleet's presence, nor willing to deviate from the plan, Kondo does not break radio silence to inform Nagumo of the B-17's failed attack.

Thus, as night falls on June 3rd, the ever-so-silent Japanese ships sail on in their two respective groups, knowing they'll be in position by morning.

But as they do, American commanders Black Jack Fletcher and Raymond Spruance also have their sailors and flyboys ready.

Blackjack has made an incredibly lucky yet informed inference.

He's brought the U.S.

carriers just north of Midway, which happens to be more in line with the Japanese aircraft carrier's path.

Scuttlebutt amongst American sailors has it that because they've broken the Japanese code, the Rising Sun's ships are sailing straight into a carefully laid trap.

Well, let's see if that's the case, shall we?

At 2.45 a.m., June 4th, 1942, the Akagi's loudspeakers jolt Japanese airmen from their slumber.

They quickly consume their multi-decade traditional pre-attack meal of rice, soybean soup, dry chestnuts, and sake.

At 4.30 a.m., an air officer shines the green lantern, and the planes hurl down the carrier's deck and into the faint-lit morning.

Aboard his flagship aircraft carrier, Akagi, Japanese Vice Admiral Nagumo Chuichi still thinks the American ships are en route from Pearl Harbor, arriving in about 48 hours.

He likely can't wait for them to show up at midway, only to realize that the Japanese have gotten there first.

Okay, pause.

Is it actually 4.30 a.m.?