Midway: The Carriers Strike
By David H. Lippman
March 2008

At the precise time that Lt. Tomonaga's message goes into the ether, calling for a follow-up assault on the battered island of Midway, U.S.S. Hornet starts launching her planes for the strike on Nagumo. The carrier launches 10 F4F fighters, 34 SBD Dauntless dive-bombers, and then 15 TBD Devastator torpedo bombers. Cdr. John C. Waldron, leading VT-8 from Hornet, tells his fliers not to worry about navigation — just follow him. Waldron believes the Japanese carriers will not be at the point given during the briefing, but will turn. Before climbing into his Devastator, Waldron promises Hornet Capt. Marc Mitscher that he will "get hits." It is the first battle for the Hornet's air group.

Hornet and Enterprise are using the "Deferred Departure" launch system, in which all planes in a given strike will orbit the carrier until the last has launched. Then all three squadrons will make a coordinated attack on Nagumo.

However, there is no coordination with the groups from Enterprise or Yorktown. In addition, the "Deferred Departure" means that the first planes launched are those with the least fuel, and have to orbit their carrier the longest. The planes fly off into overcast skies, and the dive-bombers and torpedo bombers lose touch with each other. Hornet finishes launching at 7:55.

Enterprise starts launching at 7:06. Spruance launches his fighters first, then his SBDs, and they circle impatiently over the carrier for half an hour, gulping fuel, waiting for the fighters and torpedo bombers to join them. But Enterprise runs into trouble. Bombloads have to be changed at the last minute. A torpedo plane breaks down. The bombers continue to circle, awaiting developments. Lt. Earl Gallaher's Scouting 6, having launched first, carries 500-lb. bombs. Bombing 6, which launches off an emptier deck (meaning a longer launch run), carries 1,000-lb. bombs.

	Torpedo Six prepares to launch from Enterprise, 4 June 1942.

The Enterprise bombers are led by Cdr. Wade McClusky, a short, stocky man with little experience in the subject of bombing. McClusky is a fighter pilot. Formerly boss of VF-6, he became Enterprise Air Group Commander on March 15, 1942. Since then, he has squeezed in time to fly the SBD whenever he can. By now he knows the machine well. He can take it off and land it on a carrier deck, but has never dropped a bomb from an SBD. Despite this, McClusky has a gift for command, leadership, and personal fearlessness. Spruance’s evaluation of McClusky is the rare “terrific.” Now he will become one of the key men in the battle, and perhaps all of U.S. military history.

Flying out of Midway, the mixed bag of land-based American planes chases the enemy. As the American planes come from different branches (Army, Navy, and Marines), different types (TBF, B-26, SBU Vindicator, and B-17), and follow different procedures, there is neither coordination nor communication between the scattered groups. Many of the pilots and crews are flying into their first battle, and are facing a highly experienced Japanese task force that has enjoyed nothing but victory since Pearl Harbor. Some of the Japanese pilots have racked up hundreds of hours of combat experience over China. They are the antithesis of the green Americans.

The tip of the flawed American spear is the detachment from VT-8, later known as the "other survivors" of that doomed squadron. Six brand-new TBF Avengers, carrying a 33-knot torpedo inside the plane, face their first test of battle. It is a most fearful initiation. Lt. Langdon K. Fieberling's aviators are six months out of flight school. Ensign Albert K. Earnest has only dropped one torpedo in his career. There will be no fighter protection, nor any communication or coordination with any of the other land, or carrier-based squadrons in the air.

Just after 7 a.m., Earnest spots two carriers beneath him. Fieberling orders the TBFs to attack. As Earnest pushes over, his gunner, Jay Manning, calls out that Zeros are attacking. Chased by Zeros, the TBFs descend on the enemy.

On Akagi, Tomonaga’s message puts Nagumo’s staff in a quandary. Genda proposes to follow Tomonaga’s recommendation. Kusaka agrees — assuming the U.S. Navy isn’t around. Kusaka later says he feels like “a hunter chasing two hares at once.” The flag officers discuss the situation while the First Carrier Striking Force races to a “Point Option” 140 miles northwest of Midway, to recover aircraft. Akagi leads the four carriers on the starboard column, Kaga behind, with Hiryu leading the Soryu to port.

At precisely 7:05, a Japanese destroyer hoists a flag signal, and Tone’s AA batteries bark at Fieberling’s closing TBFs. Combat Air Patrol Zeros swing in on the American planes. Lt. Raita Ogawa swoops down on the TBFs, guns blazing.

One Zero shoots up Earnest’s plane, killing turret gunner Manning. The plane’s radioman, Harry Ferrier, age 18, sees Manning’s body and confronts death for the first time. Scared, he turns back to his machine gun to find its field of fire blocked. The Zero has also wrecked the hydraulic system, and the tail wheel blocks Ferrier’s gun.

More gunfire tears up the plane, creasing Ferrier’s scalp, leaving him dazed. The Zero’s bullets shred Earnest’s radio, compass, controls, wing, and right jaw. Then the elevator cables. The bleeding Earnest is flying a dying plane. He kicks over his rudder, and the TBF angles toward the cruiser Nagara. Earnest punches the torpedo release button, and drops down to 30 feet. He puts his hand on the wing tab, ready to hit the water — and the TBF jumps upward. Earnest realizes he can still fly his plane, and limps away. His $2 bill is apparently working.

Down below, Japanese deck crews applaud every time a TBF hurtles into the sea.

Ensign Albert K. Earnest's torpedo plane was the only one of six to survive.

Earnest’s plane staggers away from the Japanese fleet. He has no electrical system, no compass, open bomb bay doors, and his gas gauge and speed indicator are busted. He flutters south and east, and then sees smoke rising — Midway.

As Earnest pulls out, Army Capt. James F. Collins Jr.’s four B-26s of the 69th Bombardment Squadron roar in to attack. The B-26s are making history — the first Army squadron to launch a torpedo attack, doing so ahead of their colleagues in the Aleutians later that day. Each plane carries one fish hanging from its belly. Lt. Jim Muri sees Japanese destroyers ahead and below. He takes a Chesterfield cigarette (“Not a cough in a carload,” runs a period advertisement) from a can beneath his feet and puts it in his mouth. Before he can light his match, Zeros swoop in to attack.

Collins’ force heads for Akagi, swinging through flak to the left, then to the right, and finally in at 200 feet. Someone yells “Boy, if mother could see me now!” Muri follows Collins in, through the tracers. Japanese guns rip up the other two B-26s. One falls into the sea. A Japanese machine gun on Hiryu stitches up an incoming torpedo and it explodes harmlessly.

Collins releases his fish at 800 yards and pulls out to the right. Muri races in right behind. After Muri comes a Zero, flown by Lt. Iyozo Fujita of Soryu, a Pearl Harbor veteran assigned to combat air patrol. Fujita stitches Muri’s B-26 with bullets, smashing the plexiglas turret, ripping open the gas tank. The rear gunner, Pfc. Ashley, tries to shoot back, but one .30-caliber machine gun jams. The other’s motor breaks down, so it won’t pull the ammunition tracks. Fujita swoops away.

Muri orders co-pilot Lt. Pete Moore to launch his torpedo at 450 yards, slightly ahead of Akagi. Moore squeezes the trigger, which is connected to a cable and plug with many prongs. “Is it away?” Muri shouts.

“How the hell do I know?” Moore retorts. Muri tries the complex switch himself, but doesn’t feel the torpedo drop. He streaks over the middle of Akagi’s deck. Bombardier Lt. Russ Johnson fires the nose gun as the carrier’s flight deck team, in white, sprints for cover. As Muri flies down, he feels too close to the enemy to be shot at. But he goggles the battle flag snapping from Akagi’s mast. He has seen the blazing Rising Sun flag in newsreels, but never in real life. Now it’s the biggest thing he’s ever seen.

	Lt. Jim Muri and his crew counted over 500 bullet holes in their plane after attacking the Japanese fleet.

Muri pulls his plane out, surrounded by Zeros. The Japanese tear up the B-26, wounding Ashley and side gunner Cpl. Mello. The latter staggers into the cockpit, and says “The plane’s on fire and everybody’s hit back there.” Moore rushes back with a fire extinguisher to douse the blaze. Then he gives Ashley sulfa powder and mans a gun.

Alone in the cockpit, Muri realizes that his plane is in terrible shape, and considers splashing into the drink. Then he decides not to. The Zeros fly away. Muri flies on. He remembers the unlit Chesterfield in his mouth, and reaches to light it. However, in the battle, he has bitten it in two and swallowed half of it.

The last B-26, flown by Lt. Herbie Mayes, shot up by AA and Zero fire, streaks towards Akagi’s bridge. The flag group watches the Marauder fill their windows, and then miss the bridge by inches, cartwheeling into the sea off the port side. Everyone yells out, “Wow!” Kusaka, shaken, is moved by Mayes’ determination. He did not expect it such bravery from an American. Kusaka silently says a prayer for Mayes.

Lt. Ogawa, up above, is less impressed. The two groups of torpedo bombers — B-26s and TBFs — have shown no coordination. The torpedoes were all dropped from too far out, and all the planes approached from one side. Not a very professional attack. Genda is equally unimpressed. “Their attack was a complete failure,” he says later.

Nonetheless, the American strikes have an impact on Nagumo’s planning. Clearly a second attack on Midway is necessary to eliminate the American land-based air threat. Since none of the scout planes have reported an American naval presence, the threat of one can be discarded for the moment. Genda agrees. The first order of business must be to eliminate the American planes and finish softening up Midway for the amphibious assault.

Next: Breaking the Spot

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