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Only a few of their bombs struck, but they sank all four fleet carriers. With a small force of carriers and sufficient secret intelligence on Japanese intentions, the Pacific Fleet commander, Admiral Chester Nimitz, planned a daring interception.Īs the Japanese carrier fleet neared Midway, it was attacked by American dive-bombers. Pacific Fleet to battle and then annihilate it. This was the first hint that Japanese expansion was nearing its limit.­Ī month later, Yamamoto dispatched a huge task force to Midway Island, hoping to lure what was left of the U.S. The battle was a strategic setback for Yamamoto, who was obliged to abandon his plan to seize Port Moresby and isolate Australia. The task force that was dispatched south in early May was attacked by a small Allied force in the Coral Sea.

The prelude to the final Japanese assault was the seizure of Port Moresby in southern New Guinea. naval power in the ocean and cut off American aid to the South Pacific. This was designed to destroy what was left of U.S. In early May, a naval force sailed south to seize the southern peninsula of New Guinea while Admiral Yamamoto planned a mid-Pacific offensive. This was the limit of Japanese expansion, though the assault had been so successful and rapid that senior commanders sought to capitalize on their advantage with further advances. A Japanese aircraft carrier raided the northern Australian port of Darwin on February 19, and in April Japanese aircraft sank British shipping on the Indian coast. By early June, nearly all American forces in the Philippines had surrendered.­įurther west, a Japanese force overran Burma and entered the capital, Rangoon, on March 8. The American headquarters in the fortress of Corregidor, in Manila Bay, fell on May 6, 1942, after a fierce defense. The Japanese captured the peninsula in April. The northern Philippines, with a mixed native and American fo­rce, was quickly overrun except for the Bataan Peninsula, where 100,000 soldiers and refugees were bottled up. In the Dutch East Indies, the 140,000-man colonial army was overwhelmed. They would defend the perimeter while the rich resources of the region were incorporated into the Japanese war effort. The Japanese armed forces aimed to capture a broad area in the south.