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
Cross-deck (naval terminology) repair or renovation. More commonly, a core group of experienced personnel may be cross-decked to a new ship to allow the vessel to come to full readiness more quickly. Generally, a move of this type will be between ships with similar missions, though not necessarily the same ship class. This can be seen as a means of propagating institutional knowledge. Entire naval air units, up to and including naval air squadrons, may be transferred to re-balance a task force. For example, during WWII, carrier task groups might suffer more severe attrition in a single carrier air group, leaving an under-utilized