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14 Battles That Turned the Tide

USS Yorktown Is Hit at Midway, 1942

USS Yorktown Is Hit at Midway, 1942

Smoke from anti-aircraft guns fills the sky as the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown is hit by a Japanese air-launched torpedo during the Battle of Midway. The battle had been planned as a Japanese trap to destroy the remaining U.S. carriers, but American codebreakers, intercepting messages sent to Japanese commanders, allowed the U.S. Navy to turn the ambush around. It was the Japanese military's first major defeat in the war.

Photo: Time Life Pictures./Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Jun 06, 1942