Picture from Dull, Paul S., A Battle HIstory of the Imperial Japanese Navy(1941-1945), pg 147

    By late May of 1942, Yamamoto was urgently seeking a decisive naval battle with the American carriers. Though Japan was still on the offensive her invasion of Port Moresby had been prevented by the carriers Lexington and the Yorktown in the Battle of the Coral Sea. In April of that year medium-range B-25 army bombers had struck the Japanese homeland from the carrier Hornet in what is known as the Doolittle Raid (Ito 55). By attacking the two-island atoll of Midway, which lies approximately 1600 northwest of Hawaii, Yamamoto had hope to draw the U.S. carriers out and sink them. However, Yamamoto had mistakenly believed that the Yorktown, in addition to the Lexington, had been sunk in the Coral Sea. Incredibly, after returning to Pearl Harbor, Yorktown was made operational again after a mere 72 hours. Yamamoto also was unaware that U.S. intelligence sources had broken the Japanese code and were anticipating an operation in the vicinity of Midway (Dulls 134). Additionally, two carriers the, Zuikaku, and Shokaku would not be participating in this operation as the Shokaku had been damaged in the Battle of the Coral Sea, and the Zuikaku had lost a large portion of her air wing. As a result, only four carriers, the Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu were sent for the strike on Midway. Yamamoto followed the strike force 300 miles to the west in his flagship Yamato. Anticipating their approach, the carriers Hornet and Enterprise under the command of Admiral Ray Spruance were sent northeast of Midway, and the Yorktown, under the command of Admiral Jack Fletcher followed shortly thereafter as a separate task force. Multiple air patrols of PBY Catalina "Flying Boats" were dispatched from Midway and successfully located various elements of the Japanese fleet. Alerted to their location, a number of attacks were launched against the strike force from Midway and from Hornet, Enterprise, and Yorktown. Initially, most of these attacks were swept from the sky by Japanese fighter cover and intense antiaircraft fire. These attacks did succeed in drawing attention away from dive-bombing attacks on the carriers as their flight decks were covered with aircraft, fuel, and ordinance. In little more than five minutes the carriers Akagi, Kaga, and Soryu were struck with enough bomb hits to ignite several fires, which ravaged the ships until they finally sunk. The carrier Hiryu, survived long enough to launch attacks against the Yorktown and cripple her, but she was struck by further attacks and sunk as well. A Japanese submarine sank the disabled Yorktown as she was being towed back to Pearl Harbor. Upon discovering of the loss of his four carriers, Admiral Yamamoto briefly considered attacking Midway at night with a naval bombardment from his battleships and cruisers. He was dissuaded from doing this as he risked being caught by aircraft the following day so he reluctantly withdrew (Dulls 163).

Battle damage to the island of USS Yorktown                                             Battle damage to the flight deck of Hiryu