What code did the Americans decode of the Japanese in the battle of Midway?

Question

Ok.. What code of the Japanese did the Americans figure out in the Battle of Midway?
How they did it?... Who did it?.... and what was so significant about it- How did it give America the 'upper-hand'?

Please reference a website so I can check it out!

Answer 1

The Americans intercepted a code from the Japanese that said they were moving to strike island AF. The Americans thinking that this could possibly be Midway, they devised a plan to fly out a PBY Catalina to personally tell the Marine garrison there to send a message that they were running low on fresh water, This plan was devised by a Commander in the Navy (can't remember his name). Soon after the Americans intercepted a code from the Japanese that Island AF was running short on fresh water. This is how the Americans figured out they were going to attack Midway. This was very beneficial to the Americans because now they had the element of surprise. So they took all of their available carriers and waited. The Japanese never knew what hit'm. Once the American dive-bombers and torpedo planes found the Japanese fleet in less than 10 minutes 3 of their aircraft carriers were burning and sinking. By the end of the Battle the Japanese lost 4 carriers and the Americans lost 1, the Americans now turned the battle of the Pacific.

Answer 2

I'll let the other answers about the code itself stand...but how did it give America the upper hand?

It was PRICELESS.....in June of 1942 America was down to 3...yes one two three....operational carriers....Hornet, the legendary Enterprise ( she latter got the first nuclear carrier, a Space Shuttle, and a line of starships named to honor her )and Yorktown; Yorktown had suffered enough damage the month before at the Coral Sea that it should have taken 90 days to fix her; the shipwrights at Peal Harbor patched her up in 72 hours and sent her off. So, Adms. Fletcher and Spruance were outnumbered by the Japanese carriers 4 to 2 1/2.

With the broken code, we knew the simultaneous attack on the Aleutians 2000 miles north was a diversion; we had a damn good idea just where and when the main Jap fleet was going to be; we were then able to hang back, let the Japanese launch their first attack on Midway island thinking they were unopposed, and then send in the strike to catch the Jap carriers with almost all their planes on deck, a deck filled d with bombs and torpedoes and gasoline.

The American strike was a bit ragged; the Devastator torpedo bombers arrived first and without fighter escort; none the less they attacked the Japanese battle line. I believe it was 34 out of 38 were shot down without a single hit. For about 90 seconds the Japanese thought they had won this battle, and maybe the Pacific war.

The few Japanese fighters that were in the air were all down low, having just slaughtered the Devastators.

Then the US Dauntless dive bombers arrived. Unopposed, they started their attack on the Japanese carriers from 2 miles high, carriers whose decks, remember, were filled with planes filled with gas and bombs.

5 minutes later 3 of the 4 Japanese carriers who had attacked Pearl Harbor six months before were burning exploding wrecks on their way to the bottom; the fourth would join them that afternoon.

Midway was the last chance the Japanese had to knock us out of the war. They didn't, because of some suicidally brave torpedo bomber pilots, and because we were "reading their mail"

Answer 3

Admiral Nimitz had one priceless asset: U.S. cryptanalysts had broken the JN-25 naval code.

It gave americans the upper hand because they knew pretty much the size of the army they were going to face the strengths where they were going to come from and how many forces they had. Check out the links provided one leads to the main site and the other link send you to just about the code and not about midway island..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JN-25

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_midway#American_code-breaking

Answer 4

Barr's code

Answer 5

Barr's code is wat they used