Winter 1943
Battle of Midway Rd3
After landing the American planes were again hastily rearmed, refueled and relaunched. In the early afternoon, the the Japanese invasion fleet was milling around trying to collect the survivors of the previous attacks when the Americans came in for their third strike, sinking two more cruisers, some more destroyers and more transports, again for no losses.
The invasion fleet is now shattered.
However, at about the time the americans launched their third attack, a float plane from the Japanese carrier strike force made visual contact with the American Task Force. The Japanese launched a carrier strike with the elite naval aviators, veterans from Pearl Harbor and many of the other encounters of this war, to attack the Americans at extreme range.
The Japanese attack encountered the American CAP as the American strike planes were landing after their third successful attack on the invasion fleet. Already exhausted from the mornings activity the Americans struggled to clear the decks of strike planes fast enough to get more fighters airborne before the Japanese closed to attack. The air combat between Japanese and American planes saw substantial losses on both sides, and the withering anti-aircraft gunnery on modern American warships shot nearly fifty irreplaceable Japanese planes, but nonetheless, enough Japanese planes were able to attack.
The Japanese focused their attack on the CV3 USS Yorktown, which was hit several times with bombs.
The carrier was abandoned after 45 minutes, and sank the next day, after a mysterious explosion occurred in the middle of an attempt to set up a tow system to salvage the wrecked carrier.
3 Japanese eNAS shot down. US CV3 Yorktown sunk, 2US NAS lost, 1 NAS lands at Midway
total losses to Japan, 3enas, 2 nas, ca6, dd5, cvl2, bc3
Japanese submarines in the area fired torpedoes at the American Task Force, but they missed