Posted on 06/03/2015 7:26:11 AM PDT by US Navy Vet
Some thing to remember(73 years ago today)
Still have one in the wargames stack in my closet. Haven’t played them in decades, though.
Yes it was. We really kicked their asses. The Island hopping is what got expensive.
About the only thing they really had going for them was their willingness to commit suicide. Sound like anyone we know of?
The dive bombers, led by Wade McCluskey and Max Leslie, got through (in part) to the sacrifice of Torpedo 8, led by Lt Cdr John Waldron. He pressed ahead, without fighter escort, and Japanese Zeros mauled his squadron at low altitude. When the dive bombers arrived, the enemy fighter CAP was “on the deck,” engaging the remnants of Torpedo 8, allowing McCluskey and Leslie to hit the carriers with minimum interference from the Zeros.
Twenty-nine of the 30 men in Torpedo 8 were lost. The sole survivor, Ensign George Gay, spent a couple of days bobbing in the water—in the middle of the Japanese fleet—as the battle unfolded. He passed away in 1994.
Also worth noting that Torpedo 8 was divided into two groups before the battle. Waldron led crews flying the antiquated Douglas Devastator torpedo planes from USS Hornet; a smaller detachment flew from Midway, equipped with new TBF Avengers. Five of the six Avengers were shot down, and only two crew members, a pilot and a radioman survived. The Avenger-equipped element of Torpedo 8 actually launched the first attack of the battle, but their heroism and sacrifice was largely forgotten over the years.
The Avenger pilot (Bert Ernest) and radioman (Harry Ferrier) remained in the Navy; Ernest retired as a Captain and Ferrier made it to Commander. Ernest passed away in 2008, but Commander Ferrier was around for the 70th anniversary of Midway in 2012. Incidentally, he joined the Navy when he was 16, and participated in the Battle of Midway just after his 17th birthday.
Virtually all of the torpedo squadrons that fought at Midway suffered horrific losses. But their sacrifice paved the way for the decisive victory that followed.
The ‘miracle’ was simply luck in timing, and the torpedo squadrons paid in blood for it, which allowed the dive bombers to attack without opposition.
Yorktown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW8tQ_6dqS8
and more
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwDOjQs5QM8
whew..... and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rro6_WceV0
To understand the Battle of Midway and the distortions you think are history, read :the shattered Sword" for the real poop.
There will not be another American generation like them.
BTW Steven Moore's Pacific Payback is a pretty good book as well. It details the early war operations of these naval aviators.
Thanks for posting this. I had the good fortune of knowing two pilots. who flew in this battle and talking about it. We also were friends of a back seater. He was in the back of a Navy Plane manning guns to protect his plane and other Navy planes from the Zero’s.
Bravo Zulu to the brave Air Dales and Sailors, who fought this in this intense battle and helped to win the war in the Pacific.
There is an interesting side note re the role our Navy Security played in cracking the Japanese code which allow our sea going CO’s to have critical info before and during the battle.
The link below should take you to this data.
http://search.xfinity.com/?con=betac&cat=web&q=US+Navy+Security+Group+and+the+Battle+of+Midway
Thanks, again to our brave Sailors, Navy Air Dales and NSG guys.
It was the point in the Pacific war where the IJN never went on the offensive again. To me, that is a significant turning point bordering on miraculous.
Yet obama will not bomb the ISIS headquarters saying he is worrying about the civilians around the building.
Meanwhile thousands of civilians are being murdered by ISIS and as a extension obama and the democrat party.
If WW2 happened you know todays democrats would surrender.
Obama does not bomb ISIS headquarters because they are his creation and ally. by this time next year, he will have enough of them over here to augment the ones already here. Then things will get interesting.
Well their surface fleet did at Leyte and almost pulled it off except for Taffy 3 off Samar. Another fantastic battle by the greatest generation of sailors we shall ever see.
One of the dive bomber pilots said the deck of `his’ carrier was painted yellow (ours were painted sea blue) with a big red `meatball’. He just aimed for the meatball.
This showed some of their arrogance, having run loose in the Pacific for years without suffering a defeat.
The battle also demonstrated to the Japanese (what the Japanese called) the “samurai spirit of the American aviators”—particularly the torpedo plane pilots who suffered ... grievous losses, but kept on coming.
They kept the Zeros defending the carriers busy so that the dive bombers were able to sink three Japanese carriers.
That kind of courage is remarkable.
This is a day that American grade, middle and high school classes should remember every June 4th, but I suppose they’re too busy ventilating such critical Obamanite issues as “white privilege”.
My career Navy father survived the Yorktown and more.
Whilst in RVN we sometimes discussed how our life as infantryman was a bit better than our predecessors.
On a sinking ship or beach landing.
Gay flew for PanAm for 30 years after the war..
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