I’ll have to re-watch “the Battle of Midway” to see if it includes the US submarine sending the first notice of locating the Japanese fleet. The morning of the battle, a PBY crew made the first sighting of the carriers.
What you recall of the SBD’s following the lone destroyer is correct, but that was after the initial location sent by the PBY and then the intercept point was mis-calculated by one of the carrier CIC’s. Cdr Wade McCluskey led the dive bombers and followed the Jap destroyer that he figured was heading to rejoin its main fleet.
This Wikipedia article is quite accurate about the battle of Midway: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Midway
The new movie coming out. Woody Harrelson. High tech explosions out of a 360 Xbox. I dunno. Hopefully it’s accurate history.
I think the first PBY contact was with the invasion fleet, not the carrier battle group. There was great hesitation about what to do — whether to launch or hold back. These were incredible gambles.
Not necessarily arguing your point. PBY’s were used extensively during the battle to both reconnoiter and attack.