10 February 1942 A.D. Japanese Sub Bombards Midway
10 February 1942 A.D. Japanese Sub Bombards Midway Editors. “Japanese sub bombards Midway.” History.com. N.d. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/japanese-sub-bombards-midway . Accessed 9 Feb 2015. Japanese sub bombards Midway On this day, a Japanese submarine launches a brutal attack on Midway, a coral atoll used as a U.S. Navy base. It was the fourth bombing of the atoll by Japanese ships since December 7. The capture of Midway was an important part of the broader Japanese strategy of trying to create a defensive line that would stretch from the western Aleutian Islands in the north to the Midway, Wake, Marshall, and Gilbert Islands in the south, then west to the Dutch West Indies. Occupying Midway would also mean depriving the United States of a submarine base and would provide the perfect launching pad for an all-out assault on Hawaii . Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, mastermind of the Pearl Harbor attack and commander in chief of the Japanese combined flee...