<P> Despite estimates that Yorktown, damaged in the Battle of the Coral Sea, would require several months of repairs at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, her elevators were intact and her flight deck largely so . The Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard worked around the clock, and in 72 hours she was restored to a battle - ready state, judged good enough for two or three weeks of operations, as Nimitz required . Her flight deck was patched, and whole sections of internal frames were cut out and replaced . Repairs continued even as she sortied, with work crews from the repair ship USS Vestal, herself damaged in the attack on Pearl Harbor six months earlier, still aboard . </P> <P> Yorktown's partially depleted air group was rebuilt using whatever planes and pilots could be found . Scouting Five (VS - 5) was replaced with Bombing Three (VB - 3) from USS Saratoga . Torpedo Five (VT - 5) was also replaced by Torpedo Three (VT - 3). Also Fighting Three (VF - 3) was reconstituted to replace VF - 42 with sixteen pilots from VF - 42 and eleven pilots from VF - 3 with Lieutenant Commander John S. "Jimmy" Thach in command . Some of the aircrew were inexperienced, which may have contributed to an accident in which Thach's executive officer Lt Cmndr Donald Lovelace was killed . Despite efforts to get Saratoga (which had been undergoing repairs on the American West Coast) ready for the coming engagement, the need to resupply and assemble sufficient escorts meant she was not able to reach Midway until after the battle . </P> <P> On Midway, by 4 June the USN had stationed four squadrons of PBYs--31 aircraft in total--for long - range reconnaissance duties, and 6 brand - new Grumman TBF Avengers, the latter a detachment from Hornet's VT - 8 . The Marine Corps stationed 19 Douglas SBD Dauntless, 7 F4F - 3 Wildcats, 17 Vought SB2U Vindicators, and 21 Brewster F2A Buffalos . The USAAF contributed a squadron of 17 B - 17 Flying Fortresses and 4 Martin B - 26 Marauders equipped with torpedoes: in total 126 aircraft . Although the F2As and SB2Us were already obsolete, they were the only aircraft available to the Marine Corps at the time . </P> <P> During the Battle of the Coral Sea one month earlier, the Japanese light carrier Shōhō had been sunk and the fleet carrier Shōkaku was severely damaged by three bomb hits, and was in drydock for months of repair . Although the fleet carrier Zuikaku escaped the battle undamaged, she had lost almost half her air group, and was in port in Kure awaiting replacement planes and pilots . That there were none immediately available is attributable to the failure of the IJN crew training program, which already showed signs of being unable to replace losses . Instructors from the Yokosuka Air Corps were employed in an effort to make up the shortfall . </P>

Who dominated the war in the pacific after the loss of japanese carriers at midway