Battle of Midway: Code Breaking

Join the National Museum of the Pacific War for their webinar, Battle of Midway: Code Breaking, with guest speaker Dr. Vince Houghton.

The Battle of Midway, which ran from the fourth through seventh of June 1942, was one of the American military’s biggest victories over the Japanese navy during World War II. Eighty-two years ago, the first bombs fell in what was supposed to have been a Japanese ambush. U.S. Navy cryptanalysts had begun breaking Japanese communication codes early in 1942 and knew for weeks ahead of time that Japan was planning an attack in the Pacific at a location they called “AF.” The Navy suspected it was Midway, deciding to send out a false message from the base claiming it was short of fresh water. Japan’s radio operators sent out a similar message about “AF” soon afterward, confirming the location of the planned attack. The advancement of Code breaking was pivotal in Military advancement in WWII.

Former International Spy Museum Historian Dr. Vince Houghton has a Ph.D. in Diplomatic and Military History from the University of Maryland, where he specialized in US scientific and technological intelligence (nuclear intelligence) in the Second World War and the early Cold War. He has taught courses on the history of US intelligence, US diplomatic history, the Cold War, and the history of science at the university level, and has also worked with middle school and high school students to foster their interest and curiosity in history and intelligence. He is the author of two books: Nuking the Moon, a collection of declassified and abandoned intelligence schemes and projects, and The Nuclear Spies, a history of the atomic intelligence race between the US and the Soviet Union. He is also a frequent media commentator and public speaker on topics related to intelligence, history, and national security.