Which battle in June 1942 marked a turning point in the Pacific by destroying four Japanese carriers?

• A. Battle of Coral Sea
• B. Battle of Midway
• C. Battle of Guadalcanal
• D. Battle of Iwo Jima

Answer: (B)

The main idea is how a single battle shifted who controlled the balance of naval power in the Pacific. In June 1942, Midway became a turning point because American codebreakers exposed Japan’s plan and the U.S. Navy set an ambush that sank four of Japan’s front-line carriers—Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu—while losing only the carrier Yorktown. This crippling loss reduced Japan’s ability to wage large-scale carrier battles and pushed the initiative to the United States, allowing Allied forces to go on the offensive in the Pacific and begin the shift toward island-hopping campaigns. The other battles are important in their own right, but they don’t match the specific impact described here: Coral Sea occurred earlier and stopped a Port Moresby invasion without the scale of carrier losses, Guadalcanal began later and was a prolonged slog, and Iwo Jima happened in 1945.