USO Canteen FReeper Style..Battle of Midway Tribute....June 4,2002

FRiends of the USO Canteen FReeper Style and Snow Bunny

[Snow Bunny]

Sixty years after the Battle of Midway, ceremonies across the nation and on the tiny atoll itself will commemorate the day U.S. forces sunk four Japanese aircraft carriers and turned the tide of World War II. the battle on June 4-6, 1942.

For three days, American dive bombers and fighter pilots fended off the Japanese naval fleet's attempt to gain Midway as an outpost.

After Midway, the crippled Japanese fleet withdrew, never again to gain the offensive.

The battle of Midway was the most important in the fight for the pacific in the WW2, finishing the Japanese rule over on the last six months since the Pearl Harbour attack the 7th. of December of 1941.

Having achieved its initial military goals by early 1942, the Japanese decided to take more Pacific outposts--including Midway Island in the central Pacific and islands off Alaska--in order to establish an outer defense line. The Japanese fleet, under Adm. Yamamoto Isoroku, also hoped to draw the remaining U. S. aircraft carriers into battle.

Yamamoto erred in dividing his force of more than 160 vessels. The U.S. commander, Adm. Chester Nimitz, with 76 ships available, including the carriers Hornet, Enterprise, and Yorktown, was stronger than the Japanese thought. Searches by U.S. aircraft established the position of the Japanese fleet.

Early on June 4, Vice Admiral Nagumo, in command of the Japanese carriers, launched 108 planes for an attack on Midway, 240 miles (386 km) to the southeast. American fighters sent to intercept them were outmaneuvered by Japanese fighters. Bombs damaged Midway, but the runways were not put out of action.

Rear Adm. Raymond Spruance, in command of the Hornet and the Enterprise, counterattacked. Fighters and bombers from all three carriers and from Midway were sent toward the enemy carriers. Only then did Nagumo learn that the U.S. carriers were to the northeast. He also learned that another air attack on Midway would be required and ordered his reserve aircraft to be rearmed with fragmentation and incendiary bombs. His logistics grew increasingly complex as his striking force returned from Midway. At 9:05 am he altered course to proceed toward the U.S. carriers. By 9:17 all his bombers were on his decks, refueling or rearming. Because of Nagumo's change in course, dive bombers from the Hornet missed him. Two other waves of more than 40 bombers did find the Japanese, but they scored no hits, and all but a few were shot down.

But the maneuvers of the Japanese carriers had kept their bombers from taking off, and their fighter planes were out of position because of their fight with the attackers. At 10:26, 37 U.S. bombers struck with devastating effect. The Agaki took direct hits, was abandoned, and sank, and the Kaga and Soryu were also destroyed. The Hiryu escaped, launched bombers that damaged the Yorktown, but was itself destroyed from the air at 5 pm The Yorktown was later destroyed by a Japanese submarine. The Americans lost 150 planes and 307 lives; the Japanese, 253 planes and 3,500 lives.

After Midway the Japanese fleet withdrew, never again to regain the offensive.

Going back to June 4, 1942.......

On the Island of Midway at 0230 pilots and air crews were awakened and just fifteen minutes later the units of the First Air Fleet, in preparations for the air attacks that morning against Midway began at 0245 when pilots and air crews aboard the flagship, Akagi, were awakened, At 0400 PBY Catalinas and F4F Wildcats from Midway had already taken off, patrolling the area and the island. By 0430, the first airplanes started lifting off for their first air strike of the day, 108 planes from all four carriers this time. Half an hour earlier, Scouts were launched from the Japanese carriers prior to the attack, but too few: one Kate each from Akagi and Kaga, supplemented only by two catapult planes from Tone and two from Chikuma, and a smaller scout from Haruna. Tone's No.4 catapult plane would not launch in time due to a malfunction and Admiral Nagumo did not send out a replacement as he could have should done.

The strike force, closed on Midway, and appeared shortly before 0600 on the radar at t Midway. Midway's base commander launched all available planes, including the twenty-seven fighters led by Marine Major Floyd B. "Red" Parks, which would jump the enemy bombers on their run in. Six Avenger torpedo-bombers, four Army Marauder medium bombers, eleven Marine Vindicator dive-bombers and sixteen Douglas Dauntlesses, and a total of nineteen B-17 bombers, augmented the rest of the 32 total Catalina’s.

Major Park's pilots and their planes in both numbers and quality were not ready to engage this enemy. They were to early and failed to get into the bombers quickly, owing to the escorting Zero fighters. Of the intercepting fighters, 15 were shot down, and the fighters were unable to protect Midway from air attack, which task was now left to the air defense units. Total Japanese losses over Midway and before were around fifteen planes shot down and thirty-two damaged. In exchange, the Japanese, without any planes to bomb, hit the facilities on Sand and Easter Island, and left both islands on fire, having destroyed fuel tanks, the hospital, storehouses, and seaplane facilities.

Even before the Japanese planes attacked Midway, Nagumo's carrier lost their most important defense when Lt. Howard Ady, piloting a PBY Catalina spotted them. Ady immediately broadcast the sighting report, which was received at 0553 by USS Enterprise, Yorktown, and Intelligence back at Pearl Harbor.

US flattops waited on. But Nagumo's carriers would see their very first action. On Midway Lt. Langdon K. Fieberling led six VT-8 Avengers, re-routed to Midway when they had been unable to catch up with their mother ship, the Hornet, Midway's planes took off with orders to attack the enemy carriers along with four B-26 Marauder bombers They flew into the fray of AA and Japanese Fighters as the first US attack group. And above them, old Vindicator dive-bombers, SDB Dauntlesses, and B-17 level bombers approached for their attacks.

Fieberling's planes attacked first at 0700, but there was no way around the Zero fighters, much less away through them. Four Avengers fell even before they were able to release their torpedoes. The other planes continued, but three more fell to AA, and the rest, an Avenger and two Marauders, scoring no hits, retired damaged to Midway.

Nagumo, watching the attack from his flagship's bridge, was not impressed with the ability of the of the US pilots, but he felt that they might indeed prove what Lt. Tomonaga Joichi of the Midway strike force had stated: a second attack was necessary.

Unknown to Nagumo, his fate was being sealed. Admiral Spruance, his flagship Enterprise having intercepted the report from Ady, had been steaming toward the enemy to reduce the range. When the Japanese planes left the air space over Midway at around 7 o'clock, quick calculations made it clear that if the US carriers launched immediately, they would probably hit the Japanese carriers with planes loaded on the deck, a most vulnerable condition. Accordingly, both carriers launched their planes between 0700 and 0755, full deckloads of bombers with a fighter escort. Twenty minutes past seven, Spruance ordered the new Rear-Admiral Mitscher to take Hornet and an escort and maneuver independently.

Nagumo's ships underwent more attacks in rapid succession, first Major Loften Henderson's Marine Dauntlesses, then B-17s from the Army, and finally the Vindicators. None scored a single hit, but the more planes attacked, the more convinced was Nagumo that a second strike was needed against Midway. Already at 0715, Nagumo had ordered to arm his ready planes with bombs instead of torpedoes. But by 0730, Tone's No. 4 scout had radioed Nagumo that there were "ten enemy surface ships" in the vicinity. Though worried about the unplanned presence of this force, Nagumo regarded the Midway forces as the main threat and continued the re-arming.

Nagumo was greatly hampered by the incapable crew of Tone No.4, which took an hour to find out what it had really sighted, the Yorktown group. Only by 0820 did the plane inform Nagumo that the force included "what appears to be a carrier". Nagumo now had to worry but didn't for too long, and soon ordered armament changed back to torpedoes. Only half of the Japanese planes were affected, for only half of them had been loaded with bombs after the first of Nagumo's rearm orders had been given. Due to the time pressure, however, bombs were not being properly stored. The Japanese carriers slowly became floating, unprotected arsenals.

By 0830, the final Midway-based attack against Nagumo's forces had been made, and a mere nine minutes later, Lt. Tomonaga's Midway group arrived overhead and commenced landing. Though interrupted once by a false report of US torpedo planes, Nagumo successfully landed Tomonaga's group, and turned his forces toward the enemy by 0917. Only a minute later, however, Nagumo saw himself faced once again with enemy torpedo planes .

It was VT-8 from Hornet, under the command of Lt.Cmdr. John C. Waldron. His planes were old, slow, and sluggish TBD Devastators, once the finest plane in the fleet ,but after seven years it had become a deathtrap., Waldron had trained his pilots to the last - and, before the battle, suggested to them that they should write a letter to their families. This brave but hopelessly outnumbered force approached Admiral Nagumo's carriers. Zeros were soon between them, and no single plane survived the massacre, as the Devastators approached in the "low and slow" manner necessary for them to conduct a successful attack, an approach forced upon the men by their torpedo load, the Mk13. Only one of the pilots, Ensign George Gay, survived, and was picked up alive by a PBY the next day.

The Yorktown wounded and sinking at the Battle of Midway

USS YORKTOWN CA 5 AT

THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY

During the great air battle of 4 June, Hammann screened Yorktown, helping to shoot down many of the attacking aircraft. But the carrier took two torpedo hits and, listing heavily, was abandoned that afternoon. Hammann again picked up survivors in the water, including Yorktowns skipper, Captain Buckmaster, and transferred them to the larger ships. Next morning, however, efforts were mounted to save the stricken carrier, a skeleton crew returned on board, and attempts were made to tow her to safety. Hammann came alongside 6 June to transfer a damage control party. The destroyer then lay alongside, providing hose and water for fire fighting, power, and other services while tied up next to Yorktown.

The salvage party was making excellent progress when the protective screen was penetrated by a Japanese submarine after noon on 6 June. Four torpedoes were loosed two missed, one passed under Hammann and hit Yorktown, and the fourth hit the destroyer amidships, breaking her back.

Sailors on Yorktown watch the USS Hammann break into and sink into the ocean with many crewmen trapped below.

ENS George H. Gay, with his gunner, Robert K. Huntington, ARM3c, climbing into the rear cockpit, spotted first for takeoff from Torpedo Eight on U.S.S. Hornet on the morning of June 4, 1942, is visited during a delay by ENS Ulvert M. "Whitey" Moore who was spotted behind him. They joked about never having launched with a torpedo slung under their aircraft, and had never even seen it done. Moore said "You test the weight and I'll test the wind," to which Gay responded, "I'll do my best, buddy, if I go into the drink she's too heavy so you ask for more speed to get more wind over the deck." With a grin and a thumbs up, Moore returned to his TBD, and soon they were launched.

America owes a great debt to those brave men in the Battle of Midway.Thank you seems so small, but it is said with all our hearts.

[Angelique]

President Bush's Adopt a Detainee Program

Dear Liberal:

Thank you for your recent whiney letter criticizing the treatment of the Taliban and El Quieda detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

As part of the Administration's Liberal Re-training Program, you'll be pleased to learn that the Administration has decided to place one detainee under your exclusive care. Your detainee is scheduled to be delivered to your personal residence on Monday. The detainee is to be cared for pursuant to the standards you strongly recommended in your letter of admonishment. It will be necessary that you hire your own caretakers. We will also conduct weekly inspections, of course, to assure that your detainee is actually being cared for in the manner you personally prescribed.

His meal requirements are simple, but we strongly suggest using menus that do not require utensils. While he does bite, the rabies test were negative, although he does have a bad case of body lice that we haven't completely remedied.

Although he is sociopathic and very psychotic, we do welcome your promised efforts to overcome that "attitudinal problem" with your promised counseling and home schooling.

He's extremely proficient in hand-to-hand combat and can extinguish human life with such simple items as a pencil or light bulb. We do not suggest that you ask him to demonstrate these proficiencies at your next bridge party. He also has the ability to make a variety of lethal bombs from common household products, so you may wish to keep those items locked up, notwithstanding that it may conflict with your moral values or disrupt your maid's daily routine.

Please heed the large orange notice attached to your detainee's cage. "Does not play well with others".

Your detainee generally bathes quarterly, with the change of seasons, assuming that it rains, and washes his clothes simultaneously. That should help with your water bill.

You take good care of our detainee now.

President George Dubya' B.

[Angelique]

Very interesting history lesson.

[tomkow6]

Good morning, Snow! Good morning, Jen! Good morning, all!

[tomkow6]

A man is a person who, if a woman says, "Never mind, I'll do it myself;" lets her.

A woman is a person who, if she says to a man, "Never mind, I'll do it myself," and he lets her; gets mad.

A man is a person who, if a woman says to him, "Never mind, I'll do it myself," and he lets her and she get mad; says, "Now what are you mad about?"

A woman is a person who, if she says to a man, "Never mind, I'll do it myself," and he lets her and she get mad, and he says, "Now what are mad about?" says, "If you don't know I'm not going to tell you!"

[LoneGOPinCT]

Big ol' busy-at-work Hero BUMP!

If You Love Freedom
Thank A Veteran!

[firewalk]

Good morning & have a nice day!

[Iowa Granny]

Oh, be careful there, Tom. You are getting dangerously close to figuring "us" out.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Wishing you good luck today!
I hope the voters today vote for your man.

[tomkow6]

Never happen! Every time us guys get even close to figuring you gals out, you change yhe game plan ;-}

[Iowa Granny]

G'mornin' Snow. Primary Election Day today here in Iowa. There's a 3 way primary in the Governors race.

Your opening, on Midway, is very interesting. I'm going to go back and read it again before I head to the shower.

The cyber food is ready.

Steak, scrambled eggs, Potatoes O'Brien, Watermellon chuncks, Toast/cherry jam. Orange Juice and fresh, hot coffee. enjoy.

[HighWheeler]

Canteen Jokes of The Day:

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Three guys

A priest, a rabbi, and a minister walk into a bar and sit down.

The bartender looks at them and says, "What is this, the start of a joke?"

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Ad for Encyclopedia

A guy puts an ad in the paper which reads:

"Encyclopedia Brittanica for sale - like new - $100 - I don't need it any more - got married last month - wife knows everything."

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Classical composers

Producers wanted to make a new film about famous classical composers, but in order to give the film more box office clout, they decided that they needed to employ the services of Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Van Damme. In order to make sure that they would be interested in the film, the three superstars were given the choice of which famous composer they would like to portray:

"Well", started Stallone, "I've always admired Mozart. I would love to play him."

"Chopin has always been my favorite.", said Van Damme, "I'll play him."

The producers were pleased.

"Sounds splendid, but who do you want to be, Arnold?" "I'll be Bach."

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[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Well today IS the day I have long awaited.
It will be the 1st time in 33 years that I will be standing a watch
on a military base in uniform again.
As many of you know last week I completed my Coast Guard training
and oral review board and am now a fully qualified Radio Watchstander.
Today a regular Coast Guard person will be free for another
task or training while I replace them on their watch.
I will representing the Coast Guard on the radio, the phone and at the front desk of the base.
Know that I assume this duty with the same passion and love that I have for our country.




You will stay right where you are on the thread.

Please take a moment and Thank a Service Man or Woman.
Just Click on the graphic to send an e-mail.

[larryjohnson]

Today in military history:1960 2nd Lt Laurence Norman Johnson marries Darby Elizabeth Frey in River Edge,NJ.Their honeymoon was a trip to Mather AFB,CA. Thanks to all FReepers to your support to all in Uniform and to those of us who can no longer fit into ours.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

[firewalk]

Congratulations Tonkin & Thank you!

[Vigilantcitizen]

Congratulations!

You are a Patriot of the highest order. Thanks for your continuing service for our Nation.

[SassyMom]

Beautiful flowers! Thank you!

Have a great day today! I will be praying for you! :)

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Thank You sis for all the support you have shown me in my new duties.
Remember back in Oct when I was waiting to hear from the Oregon national Guard about enlisting?
But they said I was too old. LOL
Well then you rode the emotional roller coaster with me
while I waited for approval from the Coast Guard Auxiliary.
Thank you my wonderful sister!
I won't be home till about 10PM PST, my monthly meeting is tonight also.

[Angelique]

Congratualtions Tonk.

[d4now]

Tonk, you have a fine day! I've been busy but have been thinking about you and I smile each time I do.

Hugs and a smooch.