In this episode, Dale and Christophe cover the Battle of Midway — one of the most consequential naval engagements in American history and the decisive turning point of the Pacific War. From the catastrophic losses of the first six months following Pearl Harbor, to the codebreakers working in a windowless basement in Hawaii, to the torpedo bomber crews who flew into certain death and made victory possible, the full story gets the treatment it deserves.

What we cover:

The strategic context going into the battle — Japan's "Victory Disease" and the devastating string of Allied losses across the Pacific from December 1941 through the spring of 1942. Admiral Yamamoto's Operation MI: the plan to lure the American carrier fleet into a decisive engagement and destroy it before the US industrial machine could turn the tide. The unsung heroes of Station HYPO — Commander Joseph Rochefort and the codebreaking team that cracked enough of Japan's JN-25b cipher to reveal where and when the attack was coming, and the famous "AF is short on water" deception that confirmed Midway as the target. The American order of battle — two operational carriers, a Yorktown repaired in 72 hours by 1,400 workers around the clock, and a collection of aircraft ranging from capable to dangerously obsolete. The opening moves on June 3rd and 4th, including the PBY Catalina patrol that made first contact and the wave after wave of Midway-based aircraft cut to pieces without scoring a single hit. The sacrifice of Torpedo Squadrons 8, 6, and 3 — 41 of 42 aircraft lost, zero torpedo hits, and why their deaths were anything but wasted. Wade McClusky following a destroyer's wake across empty ocean, Maxwell Leslie leading a dive bombing attack with no bomb, and the five minutes that broke the back of the Pearl Harbor strike force. Hiryu's counterstrike, the crippling and eventual loss of Yorktown, and Admiral Yamaguchi going down with his ship. The final accounting: four Japanese fleet carriers, 248 aircraft, and roughly 3,000 men — against one American carrier, 150 aircraft, and 307 men.

Why it matters:

Midway ended Japan's offensive momentum permanently, gutted an irreplaceable generation of veteran naval aviators, and made the Guadalcanal campaign possible just two months later. The battle stands as one of the clearest examples in military history of signals intelligence directly deciding the outcome of a major engagement — and as a testament to men who did their duty knowing it might not be enough.

Honor Roll:

This episode closes by honoring the men of Torpedo Squadrons 8, 6, and 3 — whose sacrifice made everything that followed possible.

The US Navy History Podcast drops new episodes regularly. Find us on Spotify, follow us on X at @USNHistoryPod, reach out at usnavyhistorypodcast@gmail.com, and join the conversation on our Discord — https://discord.gg/hzFAtfhvm

The episode recounts the January 23–24, 1942 night raid at Balikpapan in the Dutch East Indies, seven weeks after Pearl Harbor, when Commander Paul Talbot led four aging Clemson-class destroyers (USS John D. Ford, Pope, Parrott, and Paul Jones) through the Makassar Strait toward burning Dutch-demolished oil facilities to attack a Japanese invasion convoy anchored off the coast. With no air cover, limited equipment, and unreliable Mark 15 torpedoes, the destroyers used the refinery fires for navigation and target silhouette, fired the first American surface-launched torpedoes of WWII against Japan, shifted to gunfire amid smoke and confusion, and withdrew before dawn with all four ships intact. Postwar records confirm four Japanese transports and patrol boat P-37 sunk, additional damage inflicted, but the invasion succeeded; the hosts emphasize morale, tactical lessons, and torpedo-failure documentation. The episode closes honoring Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Manuel Reyes Denton, killed in Vietnam in 1963 during a rescue mission.

In this episode, Dale and Christophe break down the U.S. Navy's role in Operation Epic Fury — the massive American military campaign launched against Iran on February 28, 2026. From the decades of tension that set the stage, to the opening Tomahawk salvo, the systematic destruction of the Iranian Navy, and the debut of revolutionary new drone technology, this episode covers the full naval picture of one of the most significant military operations in a generation.

Note: Everything discussed in this episode reflects what has been publicly reported as of early March 2026. Details may be updated or corrected as more information becomes available. Some cost figures are modeled estimates from think tanks, not confirmed Pentagon data. Operational details — including submarine deployments, munitions counts, and targeting specifics — reflect only what officials have chosen to disclose publicly.

The episode opens with the 45-year history of U.S.-Iran tensions that made Operation Epic Fury inevitable — from the 1979 hostage crisis, to the IRGC's systematic harassment of commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, to the 2019 tanker attacks, to Operation Midnight Hammer in June 2025, when the U.S. struck Iran's nuclear facilities using B-2 stealth bombers and submarine-launched Tomahawks.

From there, Dale and Christophe walk through the full naval order of battle assembled for Epic Fury — the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike groups, fourteen Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, three littoral combat ships, and an undisclosed number of submarines operating across the Arabian Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the eastern Mediterranean — and explain why the geographic positioning of each asset was as strategic as the assets themselves.

The episode then dives into the opening Tomahawk campaign, the systematic destruction of the Iranian Navy — including the first sinking of an enemy vessel by U.S. torpedo since World War II — and Iran's massive retaliatory barrage of 500+ ballistic missiles and 2,000+ drones in the first four days of the war. Dale and Christoph examine how the Navy's Aegis missile defense systems held the line, and why the sustainability of interceptor stockpiles is one of the most pressing strategic questions hanging over the operation.

The second half of the episode covers the combat debut of LUCAS — the $35,000 drone reverse-engineered from Iran's own Shahed-136 — and the critical but largely invisible role of the EA-18G Growler in clearing the electronic path over Iranian airspace. The episode closes with a hard look at the economics of the operation, the shift to Phase 2 targeting Iran's missile production industrial base, and what Operation Epic Fury reveals about the future of American sea power — including the vulnerabilities it has exposed along the way.

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Fair winds and following seas.