Naval history of World War II 4–7, 1942, the United States Navy decisively defeated a Japanese naval force that had sought to lure the U.S. carrier fleet into a trap at Midway Atoll. The Japanese fleet lost four aircraft carriers to the U.S. Navy's one American carrier and a destroyer. After Midway, and the exhausting attrition of the Solomon Islands campaign, Japan's shipbuilding and pilot training programs were unable to keep pace in replacing their losses while the U.S. steadily increased its output in both areas. Military historian John Keegan called the Battle of Midway "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval
Propaganda in Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II that the carrier "Hornet" had been sunk, thus taking revenge for its part in the Doolittle Raid, when in fact "Hornet" had not been in the battle. The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, while a Japanese tactical victory, gained time for the Americans on Guadalcanal and inflicted heavy losses on Japanese aircraft; it was considered so momentous that it was praised in an imperial rescript. However, by 1943, the Japanese population was aware of the stark difference between the crude propaganda and the facts. The death of Isoroku Yamamoto inflicted a severe blow. It was followed by defeat at