Stalemate characterizes the war in the Pacific throughout most of 1941. The first major clash between Japan and the U.S. comes at the Battle of Midway (which takes place on December 7, 1941, the date of the attack on Pearl Harbor in our timeline). During the battle the USS Remembrance, transferred to the Pacific after the loss of Bermuda, is sunk and the island itself taken. Although Japan suffers one carrier sunk and another damaged, the U.S. Pacific Fleet is now left devoid of aircraft carriers and reliant upon land-based air cover (in this timeline, the Panama Canal is never constructed due to the hostility between the U.S. and C.S.; ships must sail around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America to transfer between the two oceans).