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
Japanese aircraft carrier Chitose Japanese aircraft carrier Chitose "Chitose" underwent conversion to a light aircraft carrier at Sasebo Navy Yard commencing on 26 January 1943, was recommissioned on 1 November 1943 as CVL (24) and completed as a carrier on 1 January 1944. She was assigned to Carrier Division 3 as part of the Japanese Third Fleet. Both "Chitose" and were sunk by a combination of naval bombers, cruiser shellfire and destroyer-launched torpedoes during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. According to the plan for the "Sho-ichi go" operation, both carriers were divested of aircraft and successfully used to decoy the main body of the