The Battle of Midway was a decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The United States Navy under Admirals Chester W. Nimitz, Frank J. Fletcher, Raymond A. Spruance defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy under Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto, Chūichi Nagumo, Nobutake Kondō near Midway Atoll, inflicting devastating damage on the Japanese fleet that proved irreparable. Military historian John Keegan called it "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare", while naval historian Craig Symonds called it "one of the most consequential naval engagements in world history, ranking alongside Salamis and Tsushima Strait, as both tactically decisive and strategically influential"; the Japanese operation, like the earlier attack on Pearl Harbor, sought to eliminate the United States as a strategic power in the Pacific, thereby giving Japan a free hand in establishing its Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

The Japanese hoped another demoralizing defeat would force the U. S. to capitulate in the Pacific War and thus ensure Japanese dominance in the Pacific. Luring the American aircraft carriers into a trap and occupying Midway was part of an overall "barrier" strategy to extend Japan's defensive perimeter, in response to the Doolittle air raid on Tokyo; this operation was considered preparatory for further attacks against Fiji and Hawaii itself. The plan was handicapped by faulty Japanese assumptions of the American reaction and poor initial dispositions. Most American cryptographers were able to determine the date and location of the planned attack, enabling the forewarned U. S. Navy to prepare its own ambush. Four Japanese and three American aircraft carriers participated in the battle; the four Japanese fleet carriers—Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū and Hiryū, part of the six-carrier force that had attacked Pearl Harbor six months earlier—were sunk, as was the heavy cruiser Mikuma. The U. S. lost the destroyer Hammann.

After Midway and the exhausting attrition of the Solomon Islands campaign, Japan's capacity to replace its losses in materiel and men became insufficient to cope with mounting casualties, while the United States' massive industrial and training capabilities made losses far easier to replace. The Battle of Midway, along with the Guadalcanal campaign, is considered a turning point in the Pacific War. After expanding the war in the Pacific to include Western outposts, the Japanese Empire had attained its initial strategic goals taking the Philippines, Malaya and the Dutch East Indies; because of this, preliminary planning for a second phase of operations commenced as early as January 1942. There were strategic disagreements between the Imperial Army and Imperial Navy, infighting between the Navy's GHQ and Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's Combined Fleet, a follow-up strategy was not formed until April 1942. Admiral Yamamoto won the bureaucratic struggle with a thinly veiled threat to resign, after which his plan for the Central Pacific was adopted.

Yamamoto's primary strategic goal was the elimination of America's carrier forces, which he regarded as the principal threat to the overall Pacific campaign. This concern was acutely heightened by the Doolittle Raid on 18 April 1942, in which 16 United States Army Air Forces B-25 Mitchell bombers launched from USS Hornet bombed targets in Tokyo and several other Japanese cities; the raid, while militarily insignificant, was a shock to the Japanese and showed the existence of a gap in the defenses around the Japanese home islands as well as the accessibility of Japanese territory to American bombers. This, other successful hit-and-run raids by American carriers in the South Pacific, showed that they were still a threat, although reluctant to be drawn into an all-out battle. Yamamoto reasoned that another air attack on the main U. S. naval base at Pearl Harbor would induce all of the American fleet to sail out to fight, including the carriers. However, considering the increased strength of American land-based air power on the Hawaiian Islands since the 7 December attack the previous year, he judged that it was now too risky to attack Pearl Harbor directly.

Instead, Yamamoto selected Midway, a tiny atoll at the extreme northwest end of the Hawaiian Island chain 1,300 miles from Oahu. This meant that Midway was outside the effective range of all of the American aircraft stationed on the main Hawaiian islands. Midway was not important in the larger scheme of Japan's intentions, but the Japanese felt the Americans would consider Midway a vital outpost of Pearl Harbor and would therefore be compelled to defend it vigorously; the U. S. did consider Midway vital: after the battle, establishment of a U. S. submarine base on Midway allowed submarines operating from Pearl Harbor to refuel and re-provision, extending their radius of operations by 1,200 miles. In addition to serving as a seaplane base, Midway's airstrips served as a forward staging point for bomber attacks on Wake Island. Typical of Japanese naval planning during World War II, Yamamoto's battle plan for taking Midway was exceedingly complex, it required the careful and timely coordination of multiple battle groups over hundreds of miles of open sea.

His design was predicated on optimistic intelligence suggesting that USS Enterprise and USS Hornet, forming Task Force 16, were th

William Harold Bidmead known as Bill Bidmead, was an English professional footballer who played in the Football League for Small Heath and Grimsby Town. Bidmead was born in Staffordshire, he played for Elwells, Walsall and Brierley Hill Alliance before joining Small Heath in September 1903 as cover at full back for Jack Glover and Frank Stokes. Matthews describes Glover and Stokes as "generally rated as the best at club level anywhere in the country around the turn of the century". Bidmead played only three first-team games in three seasons, moved on to Leyton in the 1906 close season. Two years he returned to the Football League with Grimsby Town, but played only once before returning to Brierley Hill Alliance where he finished his career in 1911. Bidmead died in Bethnal Green, London, in 1961 at the age of 78

"White beech" redirects here. This may refer to the related Gmelina arborea outside Australia. Gmelina leichhardtii, the white beech, is a rainforest tree of eastern Australia. Scattered individuals or small groups of trees occur from the Illawarra district of New South Wales to near Proserpine in tropical Queensland; the white beech or grey teak is a fast-growing tree, growing on volcanic and alluvial soils in areas of moderate to high rainfall. It grows on poorer sedimentary soils in fire free areas. White beech may be seen in Australian rainforests, though their status is considered "uncommon". Unlike the Australian red cedar, the white beech has not recovered well after logging in the 19th and 20th centuries. Ferdinand von Mueller described the white beech as Vitex leichhardtii in 1862, from collections near Myall Creek by Ludwig Leichhardt and Clarence River by Dr. Hermann Beckler. George Bentham reassigned it to the genus Gmelina in his 1870 Flora Australiensis; the genus name honours German botanist Johann Georg Gmelin, while the species name honours Leichhardt, who explored and collected specimens from the country's east and north.

White beech was classified in the Verbenaceae, but its genus and many others have been transferred into the mint family Lamiaceae. White beech is the standard trade name for the timber, as well as a common name for the species, due to the similarity of the wood to that of European beech, Fagus sylvatica, not related. Other common names include grey teak. Mature specimens of white beech reach 15 to 30 m tall, though exceptional individuals can reach 60 m tall, live for centuries; the base of the largest trees exceeds two and a half metres in diameter, the trunk is cylindrical with a flanged but not buttressed base. The flanging can extend up the bole; the bark varies from light to dark grey and has a scaled surface with vertical cracks marking sections of trunk. There can be burls. Considered by some to be a semi-deciduous species, losing part of the canopy in late spring. Green leaves are always found at the base of the tree, assisting with tree identification. Branchlets are thick, grey or brown and hairy, with visible leaf scars.

The new shoots are densely covered in fine fur. The mature leaves are ovate, 8 to 18 cm long. Hairy and veiny on the underside. Midrib and net veins distinct on the upper surface, conspicuously raised and distinct beneath due to the covering of fawn hairs. Lateral veins eight to ten and forking near the margin at 45 degrees to the midrib. Juvenile leaves are toothed. Purple and white flowers form in late spring and summer; the fruit are ripe from February to May. The main range is from the Blackall Range and the vicinity of Maleny south through to the New South Wales south coast; the locality of Broughtonvale, near Berry, New South Wales is considered by Anders Bofeldt as the southern limit of natural distribution. However, D. J. Boland considers the far more southerly Clyde River, New South Wales near Batemans Bay to be the southern limit of distribution. There are isolated occurrences in central-northern Queensland in the Eungella Range and on Mt Elliot near Townsville. North of Sydney, it was last recorded in the Wyong area in 1916.

White beech is rare and endangered in the Illawarra region. It is that fewer than one hundred trees remain in some thirty different sites in the Illawarra. White beech trees in the Illawarra may be seen by the Minnamurra Falls rainforest walk in Budderoo National Park, these trees are not signposted, it is found on mountain slopes as well as alluvial soils along riverbanks. On Fraser Island it is found on sand hills; the usual habitat is subtropical rainforest, where trees occur singly or in small stands of up to five individuals scattered through the forest, associated with such trees as yellow carabeen, red carabeen, Queensland kauri pine, golden sassafras, black booyong and white booyong, as well as members of the genus Flindersia. The fruit is consumed by the topknot wompoo fruit dove. Around Easter time, seeds mature within a fleshy bluish or purple drupe 2 to 3 centimetres in diameter; these are eaten by the wompoo fruit dove, paradise riflebird, topknot pigeon and other large fruit eating birds.

The fruit contains a hard wooden capsule. The capsule contains each with a viable or non viable seed; the fleshy aril needs to be removed. Regular watering and drying of the capsules seems to improve germination results. Germination is unreliable, taking between six months and four years. Seedlings appear in late spring and summer. A successful technique for germinating white beech is to collect new purple fruit. Cut off the fleshy aril. Place the wooden "nut" in the sun for a few days; when cracks appear around the emerging seed compartments, place it in a large container. Ensure the capsule receives adequate warmth in the cooler months. Trying to open the hard nut in the middle of the fruit, or hitting the capsule with a hammer has proven useless; the best technique appears to be the removal of the outer blue/purple flesh. Exposing the inner capsule to sunlight and moisture; the sunlight cracks the outer covering of the capsule. The moisture seeps through the outer shell; when the seed is germinated, it pushes open the cells of the capsule.

The majority of capsules will not produce seedlings. A large quantity of capsules is advised for propagation; the timber is durable and greyish without sig