Chapter 28 Chapter 24 So they were there!

The unnamed scout pilot on the cruiser USS Tone may be fretting over his morning's troubles, but he can't complain that the morning was uneventful.First, the Tone didn't let him go until 5:00, an hour later than originally planned.For the Japanese who have a strong sense of time, this is really annoying.Second, he discovered the enemy only twenty minutes after he catapulted into search area four.He immediately reported to the Ligan that the two submarines that had surfaced were found to be eighty nautical miles away from where I took off. [Note: Narration of Japan, p. thirteenth. 】It is almost certain that one of the two submarines is the Gruper, and the other is probably the Fishing, which is operated by the British in the far east. [Note: Research on Command Issues, p. 206. 】

Less than an hour after takeoff, he spotted the enemy again and made a second report by radio: fifteen enemy planes are flying towards you.Nagumo received the alert at 5:55.What he found was perhaps ten search planes from the Yorktown at 4:30, since the American attack planes had not yet taken off.Five minutes later, Yamaguchi also confirmed the sighting of an enemy plane.So Nanyun ordered the fighter jets of each ship to take off.Whether the situation about these American planes is true or false, they have disappeared without a trace at this moment, and there has been no more news since then. [Note: Narration by Japan, page 13; "Battle of Midway Island", page 159. 】

A pilot of a reconnaissance plane would be very excited if he found two submarines and fifteen enemy planes in one day.But for the pilot on the Tone, this was just the beginning.At 7:28, when he completed the outward search mission and began to return, he found a major enemy situation, and immediately made the following report: Ten surface ships, resembling enemy ships, were found, 240 nautical miles away from Midway Island, bearing 10 degrees , with a heading of 150 degrees and a speed of more than 20 knots. [Note: Narration of Japan, page 15. 】 This report was like a bolt from the blue, causing a huge shock on the bridge of the Akagi.The grass deer thought to himself: They were there! [Note: Caolu's statement. 】

Genda recalled: Nagumo and other staff members felt that we had been fooled and let down our vigilance. At the same time, they did not know how to correctly assess the situation at that time. [Note: Genda's statement. 】 Ten surface ships, like enemy ships, the wording of this report is of course ambiguous.The warships in this sea area can only be enemy ships.Nagumo's own troops were on the easternmost side of the attacking forces on Midway Island. It can be speculated that these ten warships were not German, and certainly not Italian, so they could only be enemy ships.After marking the position of the enemy ships on the map, the Intelligence Staff Officer Kanjiro Ono found that they were exactly 200 nautical miles away from his own fleet.Finding out whether there are aircraft carriers in the enemy fleet is the most important thing.If not, there is no threat to the Japanese.It is completely within the attack range of the Japanese carrier-based aircraft, and it can be allowed to cruise freely for a while, and it will not be too late to come back to clean it up after the second wave of attacks quickly finishes the work on Midway Island.

However, if there is really one or several aircraft carriers in the enemy fleet, it will be quite different. [Note: "The Battle of Midway Island", one hundred and sixty-seven | one hundred and sixty-eight pages. 】Caolu first considered: the enemy fleet mentioned in the report is not likely to have an aircraft carrier in that sea area, and it must be somewhere.He knew, however, that the Japanese would not call off the attack on Midway, because he believed that the discovery of the American fleet did not change the considerations which had driven the decision in the first place.At the same time, he could not forget the argument between the two rabbits and the subsequent order: attacking Midway Island is the top priority. [Note: Caolu's statement. 】

Therefore, Nagumo's decision is actually a compromise.Although he agreed to attack Midway according to the scheduled schedule, he could not take the ten enemy ships operating nearby lightly, nor could he wait for the reconnaissance plane on the Tone to find out the type of ship.So at 7:45, he sent an order to his troops: Prepare to attack the enemy fleet, and the attacking planes that have not replaced the bombs should not unload the torpedoes.Two minutes later, he ordered the No. 4 machine on the Tone to find out the type of ship and keep in touch. [Note: Narration of Japan, page 15. 】

There was apparently a seventeen-minute delay between the receipt of the information at 7:28 and the delivery of the order at 7:45.For this, Nagumo received many accusations.Nagumo's own report clearly stated that he did not receive a report from the reconnaissance plane on the Tone until about 8 o'clock.Both Yamaguchi and Grass Deer agree with this statement. [Note: Japan's narrative, page seven; "United Fleet", page eighty-fourth; Genda's statement. ] But the orders at 7:45 and 7:47 indicated that Nagumo had in fact received the report before 7:45.However, it is unfounded to say that Nagumo hesitated fifteen minutes after receiving the report.It can be seen from the telegrams with the time of transmission earlier that morning that there had been a delay of fourteen to twenty-seven minutes between generation and receipt.For example, the reconnaissance plane mentioned above sent out the report on the discovery of the submarine at 5:20 and received it at 5:40, and Ogawa’s report on the attack on Sand Island was sent at 6:40. The Akagi did not receive it until 7:07. [Note: Narration of Japan, page 13 | 14. ] From this point of view, the report received by the Akagi bridge at 7:28 is likely to be around 7:40.In this way, the time for marking the course, convening the staff for research and discussion, and then for Nagumo to make a decision and issue an order is only five minutes.

At this moment, the torpedo planes of the Akagi and Kaga have probably completed half of the work of reloading the bombs.After the operation team unloaded the torpedoes and loaded the bombs, the aircraft was hoisted to the flight deck again.When Nanyun urgently ordered this work to be stopped immediately, ten to fifteen bombers preparing to attack Midway had already been parked on the flight deck of the second ship.Of course, bombs can also be used to attack ships in an emergency, but their hit rate and destructive power are far inferior to torpedoes. [Note: "The Battle of Midway Island", one hundred and sixty-eight | one hundred and sixty-nine pages. 】

However much these mysterious enemy ships occupied the minds of Nagumo and his staff, the problem is that Midway has so far not complied.At 7:48, the Canglong sent a signal to report that it had spotted six or nine enemy planes with a bearing of 320 degrees. [Note: Narration of Japan, page 15. 】 These American planes just discovered are the vanguard of the SBD|2 Dreadnought dive bombers of VMSB|241 Squadron, led by the squadron leader, Major Lofton R. Henderson himself.According to the establishment, Henderson had 18 SBD|2 aircraft under his command, but two of them could not take off due to engine failure.Ten of the drivers have only been here for a week.The proportion of novices is relatively large, coupled with the frequent lack of fuel, so only one hour of flight training was conducted during this period.Henderson knew he needed to train a solid army, but he didn't have the time, so he divided the men into two groups.Those who are more skilled and have better training results are in one group, and the novices are in another group, led by experienced team leaders.

In fact, only three of his pilots had ever flown an SBD.The three of them could only use the SB2U|2 aircraft to carry out the training of the slide bombing.Dive-bombing was a proven tactic for the Navy, but Henderson out of desperation abandoned it in favor of the ineffective slide-bombing tactic, since the slow descent would allow the novice Drop another bomb.His attack plan for the day was: from 8,000 to 4,000 feet, take the throttle to slide at high speed, approach the enemy collectively, maneuver to the best position, and then fight individually.When withdrawing from the battle, the aircraft can fly close to the water surface or dive into the clouds, and then meet at a distance of 20 nautical miles from the nearest enemy ship on the Midway route.

At around 6:10, the Henderson Squadron began to take off. As many planes were scrambling to take off, haste made waste, and it took ten minutes for all planes to take off.They left minutes before Tomonaga's high-altitude bomber arrived. The sixteen aircraft rendezvoused at Point A, the supposed point 20 nautical miles east of Midway. [Note: Letter from the commander of VMSB|241 to the commander of MAG|22 on June 12, 1942.Content: Report on the combat situation of VMSB|241 on June 4th and 5th.Hereinafter referred to as the VMSB|241 report. ] At this time, Lieutenant Thomas F. Moore Jr. received news that the island was being violently attacked on the radio.He turned his head and saw thick smoke rising from the island.Then the order from MAG|22 came from the headset: attack the enemy aircraft carrier, bearing 320 degrees, distance 180 nautical miles, heading 135 degrees, speed 25 knots. [Note: Conversation by Second Lieutenant Thomas F. Moore, Jr., U.S. Marine Corps Volunteer Reserve (Type III) on June 4, 1942.Hereinafter referred to as Moore's talk. 】 On Midway Island, Kems felt uneasy.He repeated this order from time to time, but there was still no response after more than an hour. He was worried that the dive-bombing attack of the VMSB planes would be in vain.In fact, the planes had all received his orders and had answered his calls, but perhaps at the time when the island was attacked by air, radio contact was interrupted. [Note: Kems' report. 】 As soon as Henderson's SBD spotted the Nagumo Force, it encountered the fighters on the Soryu.The Japanese fleet and the Japanese planes that took off and intercepted were colorful and dazzling.Second Lieutenant Harold G. Schlenderling quickly scanned the enemy fighters and identified them as two types, one with retractable landing gear and the other with fixed landing gear.Some fuselages are shiny silver, with red identification marks and fairings on the machine, and some fuselages are dark brown, identification marks and fairings are purple.The shells fired by the guns carried wisps of white smoke, forming smoke rings from time to time. [Note: Conversation by Lieutenant Harold G. Schlenderling, June 4, 1942.Hereinafter referred to as Schlenderling's talk. 】 The Americans soon discovered that their cunning adversary operated in two layers, with excellent coordination.The Japanese machine seemed to want to wait for the SBD machine to finish firing the 100 rounds in the belt before jumping up to deal with them.Hikki had the right instinct to bite Henderson and concentrate on him.Capt. Elmer G. Glidden, affectionately known as Iron Man, took over command when Henderson's plane caught fire and went down, leading the squadron into the clouds.The bottom of the cloud is well below Henderson's 4,000-foot single-plane descent threshold.Glidden burst through the clouds at a height of about two thousand feet, appearing almost directly on top of a Japanese aircraft carrier.The planes he led followed at intervals of about five seconds.They saw a huge sun emblem painted on the middle of the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, and they all felt itchy.The flight deck of the aircraft carrier is bright yellow and shiny, and there is no camouflage on it. [Note: Conversation by Captain Elmer G. Glidden, U.S. Marine Corps Volunteer Reserve (Type III), June 4, 1942.Hereafter referred to as Glidden's talk. 】 After Fujita engaged the B|26 over the maneuver force, he single-handedly launched three or four attacks on the dive bombers.Two of his comrades came to help, and they worked together to shoot down several slow SBDs.The SBDs that were not shot down continued to rush towards the aircraft carrier.After they dived, they were caught by Fujita and the others as soon as they pulled up.Fujita was flying just below the bomber he was attacking, and the SBD tilted and fell into the sea. [Note: Interview with Fujita, December 29, 1964. 】 Glidden pulled the plane up, believing he saw two hits and a near miss flying close to starboard. [Note: Glidden's conversation. 】He did build a polished barrage on both sides of the Flying Dragon, but the two bombs that landed closest were about 50 meters away from the target, one landed on the outside of the port side and the other on the outside of the starboard bow. [Note: Narration in Japan, page 54. ] No wonder Glidden mistakenly believed that the enemy aircraft carrier was hit by him when he glanced at it for a moment. Even the people on the Akagi were worried when they saw this scene, thinking that the Hiryu was doomed.Fuchita saw that about half of the American planes had been shot down, but the squad still marched forward bravely.But he also didn't understand how they missed the target.The Hiryu disappeared into the huge dense water column and billowing smoke, but it soon appeared on the sea in a triumphant gesture like a dignified old actor making a curtain call. [Note: "The Battle of Midway Island"; one hundred and sixty-two | one hundred and sixty-eight pages. 】 Lieutenant Daniel Iverson Jr. slid out of the thick clouds. He looked down and found three aircraft carriers on the sea, one of which was smoking in the middle.He chose an aircraft carrier he thought was being overlooked by his comrades.There is a sun emblem on the front and rear of the flight deck of the ship, which is shorter and wider than the corresponding level of American aircraft carriers, and the flight deck has no superstructure.This is the shape of the Kaga.As far as he and his gunners observed, one of their bombs missed the quarterdeck.Iverson hoped it would knock out the propellers of aircraft carriers. [Note: Conversation by Lieutenant Daniel Iverson Jr., U.S. Marine Corps Volunteer Reserve (Type III), June 7, 1942.Hereinafter referred to as Iverson's conversation. ] Kaga's combat record map indicated that three near-miss bombs had been dropped on this location, the nearest of which was only twenty meters away from the port stern. [Note: Narration in Japan, page 53. 】 The Kaga responded immediately.The anti-aircraft firepower on the flight deck almost formed a complete ring.Iverson pulled the plane up sharply, but was bitten by a group of Japanese fighters.A bullet knocked out his microphone, and he felt a twinge of unease.He later recalled that the plane was hit several times. [Note: Iverson's conversation. ] His words can be called a masterpiece of understatement, because when his plane landed crookedly on Sand Island, the maintenance personnel found that the fuselage was full of bullet holes, as many as 210, and they couldn't help being stunned. [Note: VMSB|241 report. 】 Lieutenant Moore dropped the bomb at 400 feet, and immediately after, his fuselage shook so violently that the plane was out of control.When he regained consciousness, he found himself only fifty feet above the surface.He originally wanted to look back at the impact point of the bomb, but found three Zeros trailing up.He later said: "I lost all interest in where my bomb hit."His machine gunner, Private Charles W. Huber, reported loudly that the machine gun had jammed, but Moore told him to keep aiming at the Japanese.The Zero had almost driven them to the surface, and Huber was still performing this pantomime of jamming a machine gun and hitting an enemy plane.Then he was hit by a bullet, not badly hurt, but he couldn't continue his bluster.The Type Zero pilot seemed to have sensed that the American plane was malfunctioning, and approached closer with a howl. Moore was slightly injured and decided to fly into the clouds for cover.As he pulled the plane up, the engine suddenly failed.He reached for the hand pump, but brave Huber got there first and got the engine running again.Seeing this situation, the two Type Zeros stopped chasing, but the other one was extremely ferocious and kept chasing after it.Moore fired at it with a nose-to-nose 0.3-inch machine gun, but every time he charged at it, the Japanese dodged sideways.After a few rounds of you coming and going like a ballet dance, the zero machine finally left sadly. Moore haunted the clouds from time to time, trying to figure out his position.He saw Cure Island, but didn't want to land there because he wanted to rush Huber to Midway for treatment.He was unable to contact the base due to a radio failure.After a considerable period of time, he had not found the base, and he was very panicked.Huber, who was still injured later, told him that the place where the black smoke was rising in the distance was their destination. [Note: Moore's talk. 】 Capt. R. L. Bryan made his way through very dense flak fire, outnumbered enemy fighters he estimated to be two to one, and flew over the target, confident that his squad had a bomb hit One of the sizable heavy ships was dropped, and the other fell over the side.Then his bad luck started.His wings and fuselage were shot through many holes by the Zero.He got into the clouds and lost the enemy plane, but the fuel pump failed again.He had to use the hand pump, which escaped the tracking of enemy fighters.His machine gunner, Private First Class Gordon R. McFeely, drove next.At one point the engine died and the plane plummeted, but about 200 feet above the surface, it started up again. After a few minutes, the engine never revs again.Brian had to make a forced landing at sea.His SBD floated in the water for about three minutes, during which time they grabbed a flare gun, a first aid kit, and a parachute that could be used as a floating anchor.Brian later said: "We got really annoyed when we uncorked the CO2 bottle because the emergency refill valve wasn't closed.It's all about the pump.After inflating the life raft, they found a leak but quickly largely plugged it and then used their flying helmets to bail out the water. Brian said he had had enough of a fucking night.Early the next morning, they heard the sound of a plane's motor and tried to get the plane's attention.But the patrol plane, presumably carrying a full tank of fuel, was unable to land.It wasn't until the next day, when they were communicating with the last buoy light, that a sharp-eyed machine gunner from a patrol plane spotted their raft.The patrol plane flew back and forth several times before finally being able to land in the nearby sea.The pilot was a lieutenant whom Brian had befriended in Pensacola. [Note: A talk by Capt. R. L. Bryan of the U.S. Marine Corps.Hereinafter referred to as Brian's talk. 】 Schlenderling could hardly go back.About eight nautical miles from Midway, his engine died, and he and the machine gunner had to parachute.Schlendling started swimming toward a coral reef about five nautical miles away, and when he looked back, Private First Class Edward D. Smith, the machine gunner, had disappeared.At about ten o'clock, torpedo boat No. 20 rescued him.Later, the boat rescued the downed fighter pilot Merrill from the sea.The boat circled many times in this sea area, and no other people who fell into the water were found. [Note: Schlenderling's talk. 】 The Marines credited three of their bombs hitting a Kaga-class aircraft carrier and a few more near misses. [Note: VMSB|241 report. ] Fujita, who personally participated in the air battle, said that none of the planes hit. [Note: Interview with Fujita, December 29, 1964. ] As the reader knows, other eyewitnesses and official Japanese records corroborate Fujita's account.Eight of the sixteen U.S. Dreadnoughts were shot down without causing significant losses to the Japanese.Those SBD|2 machines that returned to Midway were also riddled with holes, and some were scrapped, [Note: VMSB|241 report. 】This is another resolute and resolute attack launched by the U.S. Army on Midway Island against the Nanyun Army, but with little success.