I really enjoy detailed discussions like this one.
May I strongly recommend to you and your readers the book Shattered Sword, by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully? ISBN 1-57488-923-0
Based on tremendous research in Japanese records and reminiscences, it gives detail I've never encountered before on both sides of the battle of Midway.
To read a book that not only discusses Japanese carrier doctrine and flight operations during the battle, but can even tell you the names of Japanese fighter pilots shot down during the American air raids! It's a great eye-opener for how historical research should be done.
There are detailed discussions of the Japanese plan for the campaign, intentions for air attack and counterattacks, superb images of the attacks carried out by both sides that clear up many mysteries of what ship was where at a given time. There are flight paths for the various attacks and even for the search patterns overlaid on ship steaming paths.
And to learn how exactly one bomb hit [and one near miss] doomed a fleet aircraft carrier. And whose bomb it was. The details and discoveries go on and on...
Oh, and by the way, there weren't flight decks full of Japanese planes at the time of the Enterprise and Yorktown dive bomber attacks, and couldn't have been.
And Nagumo, whether he landed the Midway strike first or launched his attack on the US Fleet first, could never have prevented the destruction of his ships.
Go read the book and see why. It's a revelation per page 
Lloyd:
Thanks - in fact I have read Shattered Sword and am using it as a primary reference for this series. I found the detailed description of IJN CV ops particularly fascinating as it goes a long way to demolishing old/inaccurate concepts. Stay tuned - there's more to come 
- SJS
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