US Naval Intelligence Code Breakers deserve a lot of credit for the victory at Midway....in their gambit that identified "AF" as being Midway thus allowing Nimitz to position US Forces in the best location to counter the Japanese Attack.
Then there is the credit owed to the Shipyard Workers who worked miracle in doing repairs to the third of only three US Carriers.....done in 48 hours and while embarked enroute to the area of operations.
Also the gallantry of the Aircrews who flew on to attack the Japanese knowing they did not have the fuel to make it back to their Carrier....a great many of whom remain lost at sea following the battle.
"Luck" played a role....but it was built upon a lot of other factors including a lot of hard work, dedication, and just plain true grit.
Those Pilots had trained long and hard to be the best pilots In the Air and that must have had something to do with it as well.
From one account of the battle.....
Aboard Yorktown, Lieutenant Dick Crowell voiced the message in even simpler terms when he bluntly told that carrier’s aviators, “The fate of the United States now rests in the hands of two hundred and forty pilots.”
Newspaper reporter Robert J. Casey, accompanying the American carriers to write an account for the people back home, asked one officer for his opinion of the aviators who piloted the old, slow-moving torpedo planes. “They don’t stand any watches,” he replied. “They don’t have to go out and do patrol jobs. They don’t have any dogfights to worry about. They may sit around playing poker for a month before they have to go out…. Then they go out and they don’t come back.”
These men, and others who braved enemy antiaircraft fire and fighters to swoop down on Nagumo’s carriers, altered the fortunes of war. Few returned, but the legacy they left behind remains to this day, for without their valor and sacrifice the Pacific War would have taken an ominous turn for the United States.
The Torpedo Squadrons suffered near total losses during the battle.