Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter. Not sure how long this will be, but it should be a good chapter.

Let's get to it.

Chapter 26- Intelligence Break

(January 2, 1944)

In a planning room in the Naval Headquarters in Tokyo, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto looks at a series of maps spread out before him. Standing around him are several more men, who will be commanding the fleets in the upcoming operation, including Admiral Nagumo, Admiral Kondo, Admiral Kurita, Admiral Tanaka, and Admiral Hosogaya.

"Our most recent reconnaissance confirms that the Americans still have few forces on Midway. The airfields are currently used by only a few scout bombers and a few old fighters. If we are able to approach without being noticed, the battlehips of the invasion fleet will be able to obliterate the American presence on the atoll," Yamamoto says

Admiral Kurita now speaks up. "I believe that it will be rather easy for us to occupy Midway. However, I still have misgivings about going after Hawaii. Even if they aren't expecting it, Oahu will be well defended. And by the time we reach Oahu, the Americans may well have been able to get their fleet within range. We could be pinned between the American fleet and their aircraft stationed on Oahu," Kurita says.

"Which is why speed is essential. If we can strike with the element of surprise and move as quickly as possible, the Americans will be too distracted by their operations in the South Pacific to get their fleet back to Hawaii in time. And even if they could, why else do you think we're sending every carrier we have?" Nagumo responds.

Kurita doesn't respond, instead looking to Yamamoto. Yamamoto looks around at his officers and says, "The Army have been training for months for this operation. The Emperor expects it of us. We will complete our training for this operation. And then we will finally deal a blow to the Americans that will force them to negotiate an end to this war in our favor."

(January 3, 1944)

It's early morning on the island of Oahu. In a small listening station on the northern part of the island, an American intelligence officer is listening to a Japanese radio broadcast he's in the process of intercepting, jotting down everything he's hearing on the broadcast. There's been several important Japanese radio transmissions in the last few days, this being the latest. From what he knows, they're talking about some important Japanese operation.

Finally, the message comes to an end. The officer finishes jotting it down, then hands it to a driver who hurries out to a Jeep. The driver hops in the Jeep and immediately takes off for Station HYPO to get the message to Joseph Rochefort's team of code breakers.

It takes a little while for the Jeep to make it to Station HYPO. The driver parks the Jeep and hurries into the station.

As he approaches the workstations, one of the codebreakers stands up and comes over to meet him. "What do you got?" the man asks.

"Another Jap message. Seemed kind of important to them," the driver says as he hands over the transcript of the message.

"Thanks," the code breaker says, and he sits down to begin his work.

Other codebreakers watch this man as he gets to work. The codebreaker who took the message is one of the most skilled here at this station, and takes his work pretty seriously.

It takes him almost a half hour of slow, painstaking work before he stands up suddenly and hurries off to Rochefort's office. Everyone else watches as he goes.

The man throws open the door to Rochefort's office without even knocking. Rochefort is looking over a paper and looks up as the man enters his office.

"Sir, you need to call Layton and get him here. Now. We just decoded another Japanese message. With every other message we've decoded in the last few days, he's gonna need to see it," the code breaker says. Rochefort just nods and moves over to his phone.

(2 hours later)

Edwin Layton hurries through the door of Rochefort's office. He had been in the CINCPAC headquarters when he received a message that there had been a request from Rochefort for him to come to Station HYPO urgently.

"Hey, Joe. What's so urgent that you needed me here so fast?" Layton asks his friend.

"We've intercepted and decoded several Japanese radio messages over the last few days. We wanted to wait for to get a cleaner picture of what we were dealing with before calling you. But now, we've got a really clear picture of what's going on, and it's pretty big," Rochefort says. He reaches into his drawer and pulls out the translation of the most recent message, as well as the concerning messages over the last few days.

Layton takes the messages and quickly looks over the messages. As he very quickly looks over the messages, he realizes Rochefort was right. He looks up at Rochefort, then back at the messages, then turns and hurries out of the station to head back to CINCPAC headquarters.

(That night)

"Admiral, Layton is here to see you."

Admiral Nimitz looks up from his desk at the officer who just stuck his head through the door. "Send him in," Nimitz orders.

The officer nods and ducks back out. A few seconds later, Layton comes walking through the door.

"Layton. What brings you here tonight?" Nimitz asks Layton

"Admiral, we've intercepted a number of messages over the last few days, all dealing with an upcoming Japanese operation. And we've finally intercepted enough that I think we've identified the target," Layton says.

"And what would that be?" Nimitz asks.

"We believe it's Midway…and then Hawaii itself," Layton says.

Nimitz raises an eyebrow. "Really? Do you have the messages?" he asks.

Layton pulls out the translated transcripts of the intercepted messages and lays them down on Nimitz' desk. Nimitz picks up the transcripts and begins reading them carefully. He spends at least 5 minutes reading the messages over and over before finally lowering them and saying, "OMG. They're sending their whole fleet."

"It sure looks like it, Admiral," Layton says.

"I have to agree with you that it seems like Midway is the target. But what makes you think Hawaii is a target too?" Nimitz asks.

"Part of the reason is the number of carriers. It seems like they're sending every carrier they have. Not only that, but look at the troop numbers alluded to here. Tens of thousands. Way more than would be needed to conquer Midway. Way more than Midway could possibly accommodate. That leads to a conclusion that either they're sending more than they need in case of an attack en route, or Midway isn't their ultimate target," Layton says.

Nimitz nods once as he considers Layton's words. Then, after a moment, he says, "I agree."

There is silence for a moment before Layton says, "The Japanese obviously think they still have the advantage of surprise, and it seems that they are extremely concerned about maintain that surprise. I know that you're going to want to bring everything you can to defend Midway and Hawaii, sir, but I also think if we leave too few resources in the South Pacific, it could tip off the Japanese and ruin this chance to crush their fleet."

"Very good observation, Layton," Nimitz says. After a second of silence, he says, "Tell your man Rochefort I want every Japanese message possibly related to this operation on my desk within hours of interception. Keep me updated on any new intel." As he says this, Nimitz feels a sense of both excitement and apprehension. He knows from these messages and the response he is already planning that the battle to defend Midway and Hawaii will quite possibly be one of the largest battles of the war, and possibly top the Battle of Jutland as the biggest sea battle in history.

And, I'll end there.

I know this was a short chapter, but it was mainly to show Admiral Nimitz learning of the coming operation against Midway.

Next chapter we'll see the forces begin to gather, and I'll go into some detail about Nimitz' plan. However, we still have a few chapters before the battle begins.

Next chapter should be up soon. Until it is, please leave a review and stay tuned!