Prof. Greg Jackson

It was almost unbelievable, but I was seeing it.

Almost simultaneously, three Japanese carriers were wiped out.

I knew what it meant.

By golly, we did it.

Upon returning to the Enterprise, the returning American pilots are met with cheers.

As one unnamed sailor recalls, we were exultant, not just at the revenge for Pearl Harbor, sweet as that was, but at our renewed sense of power and superiority over the Japanese fleet.

Yes, it seems that everything has turned on a dime.

That the gamble taken by Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance and Chief of Staff Miles Browning in sending out the Enterprises and the Hornets' aircraft so early and piecemeal were the right move after all.

But let's not get too excited.

The Battle of Midway isn't over yet.

It's 2.42 in the afternoon, June 4th, 1942.

USS Yorktown is peacefully anchored within proximity of Midway.

Well, as peaceful as an aircraft carrier can be in the midst of a major naval battle.

Ever since noon, the miraculously repaired Post Coral Sea aircraft carrier has been refueling and launching Wildcat and dive bomber planes into battle.

Then suddenly, at 2.43 p.m., a torpedo strikes frame 90 of the port side of the ship.

As a curly-haired ensign named John Jack Crawford will later recall, it was a real whack.

You could feel it all through the ship.

I had the impression that the ship's hull buckled slightly.

Spot on, Jack.

There's now a sizable puncture in a Yorktown's hole, 15 feet below the waterline.