 The Battle of Midway was a decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II . Between 4 and 7 June 1942 , only six months after Japan 's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea , the United States Navy under Admirals Chester Nimitz , Frank Jack Fletcher , and Raymond A. Spruance decisively defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy under Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto , Chuichi Nagumo , and Nobutake Kondo near Midway Atoll , inflicting devastating damage on the Japanese fleet that proved irreparable . Military historian John Keegan called it " the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare . " 
