Carrier battle group at the Battle of Midway. In contrast, the United States Navy deployed its large carriers in separate formations, with each carrier assigned its own cruiser and destroyer escorts. These single-carrier formations would often be paired or grouped together for certain assignments, most notably the Battle of the Coral Sea and Midway. By 1943, however, large numbers of fleet and light carriers became available, which required larger formations of three or four carriers. These groups eventually formed the Fast Carrier Task Force, which became the primary battle unit of the U.S. Fifth and Third Fleets. With the construction of the large
Japanese aircraft carrier Hōshō striking force, "Hōshō" missed the major portion of the battle in which Nagumo's four fleet carriers were ambushed and fatally damaged by US carrier aircraft on 4 June. The next day, "Hōshō" aircraft helped guide the remnants of Nagumo's force to a rendezvous with the Main Body. Around the same time, one of "Hōshō's" aircraft, crewed by pilot Shigeo Nakamura and observer Kiyoshi Ōniwa, discovered the burning, sinking . Photographs of the abandoned carrier taken by Ōniwa have been described as "among the most dramatic of the war in the Pacific". With the battle lost, a significant strategic defeat for