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
1st Air Fleet (Imperial Japanese Navy) the Japanese carrier force was again practically without aircrew and aircraft. This meant that at the Battle of Leyte Gulf the IJN carrier force was only used as a decoy force where it was ultimately destroyed, the battle that saw the last "Kidō Butai" survivor, "Zuikaku", along with "Zuiho", "Chiyoda" and "Chitose" succumbing to US air attacks of Admiral William F. Halsey's Task Force 38. 1st Air Fleet (Imperial Japanese Navy) The also known as the "Kidō Butai" ("Mobile Force"), was a name used for a combined carrier battle group comprising most of the aircraft carriers and carrier air groups