After a three day sea search for Admiral Omwa's carrier fleet it was 3:30 p.m. on June 20, 1944, when a spotter plane reported the enemy position to Admiral Mitscher's Task Force 58. Mitscher knew the risks of dispatching a large force on such a long-range mission so late in the day, but he also knew his task was to get the carriers. By 4:30 p.m. over 200 fighters, dive-bombers, and torpedo strike planes were in the air and heading for the target.
In the short but intense battle that followed late that day, the Japanese carrier Hiyo was sunk, four more Japanese carriers were damaged, two oilers sunk, the battleship Haruna hit, and some 40 enemy aircraft reported destroyed. Fierce, and seemingly successful though the encounter was, for most of the American aircrews the worst part of the mission was yet to come.
As 209 aircraft turned and headed east into the growing dark, most of the pilots knew they had barely enough fuel to get back on board their carriers, some 270 miles distant. Many of the aircraft had received battle damage, and some of the crews were wounded.
It was 8 p.m. and pitch dark as the first of the returning aircraft neared the carriers. Admiral Mitscher knew that without some form of guidance it was going to be impossible to recover his aircraft and, ignoring the submarine threat, boldly ordered the fleet to turn on lights. But the arriving Helldiver and Avenger pilots were all but out of fuel and in the confusion of trying to pick out a carrier and find a landing slot, compounded by a number of deck crashes, some 70 planes went into the water that night. For Mitscher's aircrews, the long return to TF-58 went into history as the 'Mission Beyond Darkness'.
In recreating this awesome scene, Robert Taylor has painted a masterpiece of naval aviation warfare in the Pacific. In the foreground the SB2C Helldiver of Lieutenant Ralph Yaussi, its tanks dry, has ditched near the carrier USS Lexington. As Yaussi and his gunner James Curry clamber out of the sinking aircraft, the Fletcher class destroyer USS Anthony, her 24 inch searchlight ablaze is moving in to make the pick-up. The chaos and confusion of that infamous night during the Battle of the Philippine Sea, springs back to life in this stunning painting.