The Battle of Midway (76 page)

6
. Roy S. Benson (executive officer of
Nautilus)
Questionnaire, n.d., Walter Lord Collection, NHHC, box 18; John F. Davidson oral history (Sept. 4, 1985), 196, and Slade Cutter oral history (June 17, 1985), 297, both in U.S. Naval Institute Oral History Collection, USNA.

7
. Roy S. Benson Questionnaire, n.d., Walter Lord Collection, NHHC, box 18; “Nautilus Narrative.”

8
. “Nautilus Narrative”; Roy S. Benson oral history (March 18, 1980), U.S. Naval Institute Oral History Collection, USNA, 185.

9
. “Nautilus Narrative.” Brockman gives the time here as 9:00 a.m., but it was more likely around 8:30.

10
. Ibid.

11
. Ibid.

12
. This is compiled from the action reports by McClusky, Gallaher, and Best. It is evident that Gallaher and Best collaborated on their reports, for not only do they agree in every particular, they also used identical language to do so. See Action Reports, reel 3, also available at
www.cv6.org/ship/logs/action19420604.htm
.

13
. Richard Best interview (Aug. 11, 1995), NMPW, 39–40; Lew Hopkins interview (Jan. 15, 2004), NMPW, 17.

14
. Clarence Wade McClusky, “The Midway Story,” unpublished manuscript in the Gordon Prange collection, UMD, box 17.

15
. Gordon Prange, Donald M. Goldstein, and Katherine V. Dillon,
Miracle at Midway
(New York: McGraw-Hill,1982), 260; Best to Walter Lord, Jan. 27, 1966, Lord Collection, NHHC, box 18.

16
. Prange et al.,
Miracle at Midway
, 259–60.

17
. Best interview (Aug. 11, 1995), NMPW, 42.

18
. Murray to Nimitz (via Spruance), June 13, 1942, Action Reports, reel 3. Also available at
www.history.navy.mil/docs/wwii/mid1.htm
.

19
. Gallaher to Walter Lord, Feb. 26, 1967, Lord Collection, NHHC, box 18; Penland After-Action Report, Jun 10, 1942, Action Reports, reel 3. Italics added. Also available at
www.cv6.org/ship/logs/action19420604-vb6.htm
. Both carriers turned to
the northwest as McClusky approached, which put
Kaga
slightly ahead of
Akagi.
See schematic in Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 222.

20
. Best to Walter Lord, Jan. 27, 1966, Lord Collection, NHHC, box 18; Dick Best Action Report, June 6, 1942, 3 (also available at
www.cv6.org/ship/logs/action19420604-vb6.htm)
; James T. Murray to Walter Lord, Feb. 26, 1967, Lord Collection, NHHC, box 18.

21
. Best interview (Aug. 11, 1995), NMPW, 41–42; Best to Walter Lord, Jan. 27, 1966, Lord Collection, NHHC, box 18.

22
. John S. Thach oral history (Nov. 6, 1970), U.S. Naval Institute Oral History Collection, USNA, 251.

23
. Jonathan B. Parshall and Anthony P. Tully,
Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway
(Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2005), 233–34.

24
. Ibid., 234–35.

25
. Thach oral history (Nov. 6, 1970), 252; Best interview (Aug. 11, 1995), NMPW, 17; Norman (Dusty) Kleiss, BOMRT, Sept. 3, 2010; Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 250. Subsequently, Jon Parshall estimated that, including the small 100-pound bombs, a total of twelve bombs probably hit the
Kaga.
BOMRT, Aug. 25, 2010,
www.midway42.org/Backissues/2010–28.htm
.

26
. Best interview (Aug. 11, 1995), NMPW, 19.

27
. Ibid., 42.

28
. Best to Walter Lord, Jan. 27, 1966, Lord Collection, NHHC, box 18.

29
. Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 253–55, 257.

30
. Best interview (Aug. 11, 1995), NMPW, 42.

31
. Leslie to Murray, June 10, 1942, Action Reports, reel 3 (also available at
www.midway42.org/reports.html
).

32
. Leslie to Smith, Dec. 15, 1964, in Prange Papers, UMD, box 17; Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 264.

33
. Ibid.

34
. Leslie to Smith, Dec. 15, 1964, Prange Papers, UMD, box 17; Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 264.

35
. Ibid., 259.

1
. The death throes of the three carriers are described in detail in Jonathan B. Parshall and Anthony P. Tully in
Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway
(Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2005), chaps. 14 and 15. See also Robert Cressman et al.,
“A Glorious Page in Our History”: The Battle of Midway, 4–6 June 1942
(Missoula, MT: Pictorial Histories, 1990), 104–5.

2
. Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 261–62, 268–69.

3
. Ibid., 263.

4
. Ibid., 264, 267.

5
. Cressman et al.,
Glorious Page
, 114–15; Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 292–93.

6
. Buckmaster to Nimitz, June 18, 1942, Action Reports, reel 3 (also available at
www.history.navy.mil/docs/wwii/mid7.htm
); Stuart Ludlum,
They Turned
the War Around at Coral Sea and Midway: Going to War with Yorktown’s Air Group Five
(Bennington, VT: Merriam, 2000), 118.

7
. Ibid.

8
. The message traffic is from Enclosure C of Action Report, Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet (Nimitz), June 28, 1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 3.

9
. Ludlum,
They Turned the War Around
, 119.

10
. Judson Brodie interview (March 13, 2007), NMPW, 35; John S. Thach oral history (Nov. 6, 1970), U.S. Naval Institute Oral History Collection, USNA, 1:267.

11
. Enclosure C of Nimitz’s Action Report, June 28, 1942, Action Reports, reel 3.

12
. Jeff Nesmith,
No Higher Honor: The U.S.S. Yorktown at the Battle of Midway
(Atlanta: Longstreet, 1999), 210–14; Leslie to Smith, Dec. 15, 1964, Prange Papers, UMD, box 17.

13
. Buckmaster to Nimitz, June 18, 1942, Action Reports, reel 3.

14
. Ibid.; Cressman et al.,
Glorious Page
, 116–17.

15
. Interview of Richard S. Brown by Ronald W. Russell (March 15, 2007), BOMRT; Buck-master to Nimitz, June 18, 1942, Action Reports, reel 3; Robert E. Barde, “The Battle of Midway: A Study in Command,” (Ph.D. diss., University of Maryland, 1971), 301.

16
. Cressman et al.,
Glorious Page
, 122.

17
. Buckmaster to Nimitz, June 18, 1942, Action Reports, reel 3; Nesmith,
No Higher Honor
, 220–22; Barde, “Battle of Midway,” 289–90.

18
. Ludlum,
They Turned the War Around
, 122; Cressman et al.,
Glorious Page
, 128.

19
. Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 267.

20
. Ibid., 285; Peter C. Smith,
Midway: Dauntless Victory; Fresh Perspectives on America’s Seminal Naval Victory of World War II
(Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2007), 185–86.

21
. Yamamoto’s comment is from an interview of Kuroshima Kameto by Robert E. Barde, quoted in Barde, “Battle of Midway,” 285.

22
. Mitsuo Fuchida and Masatake Okumiya,
Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan, the Japanese Navy’s Story
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1955), 193.

23
. Ludlum,
They Turned the War Around
, 121; Spruance to Nimitz, June 8,1942, Spruance Papers, NWC, box 2, folder 4.

24
. John Thach oral history (Nov. 6, 1970), 1:269; Cressman et al.,
Glorious Page
, 130. Tootle was subsequently picked up by the destroyer
Anderson.
Ensign George Hopper’s flight was even shorter. The last of the eight Wildcat pilots to take off, he had barely cleared the
Yorktown
s bow when he was hit by 20 mm cannon fire from a Zero.

25
. John Thach oral history (Nov. 6, 1970), 1:268; Craig L. Symonds,
Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles that Shaped American History
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 254–55; Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 314. Thach did not know he had shot down Tomonaga’s plane until it was revealed to him by historian John Lundstrom in 1974. Thach also thought that Tomonaga’s torpedo hit the
Yorktown
, but a careful study by Parshall and Tully showed that it missed.

26
. It was author Jeff Nesmith who learned the identity of the Japanese flyer who shook his fist at the
Yorktown
. Nesmith,
No Higher Honor
, 226.

27
. Author’s interview of Captain John “Jack” Crawford (May 5, 2004); Buckmaster to Nimitz, June 18, 1942, Action Reports, reel 3. That the two torpedoes created a single large hole was discovered only after the war when Navy divers explored the wreckage.

28
. Nesmith,
No Higher Honor
, 232; John Crawford interview (May 5, 2004); Ronald Russell, “A Reunion in the Water,”
Veteran’s Biographies
(June 2006), BOMRT,
www.midway42.org/vets-newberg.html
; Ludlum,
They Turned the War Around
, 125.

29
. John B. Lundstrom,
Black Shoe Carrier Admiral: Frank Jack Fletcher at Coral Sea, Midway & Guadalcanal
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2006), 275; Cressman et al.,
Glorious Page
, 135. As it turned out, two injured men were left aboard ship and were found when the
Yorktown
was reboarded the next day.

30
. William H. Brockman, Jr., “U.S.S. Nautilus, Narrative of 4 June 1942,” Action Reports, reel 3 (also available at
issuu.com/hnsa/docs/ss-168_nautilus?mode=a_p
).

31
. Ibid.; Roy S. Benson oral history (March 18, 1980), U.S. Naval Institute Oral History Collection, USNA, 189; Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 302–3.

32
. Ibid.; Cressman et al.,
Glorious Page
, 141. The
Kaga
was not scuttled until 7:25 p.m.

33
. “CINC First Air Fleet Detailed Battle Report No. 6,”
ONI Review
5 (May 1947), available online at
www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/Japan/IJN/rep/Midway/
Nagumo; Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 323.

34
. Gallaher to Murray, and Leslie to Murray, both June 10, 1942, Action Reports, reel 3. In the end, only twenty-four planes flew to the target, because one of the planes of Gallaher’s section had engine trouble and had to return. Leslie was picked up and taken to Fletcher’s new flagship, the cruiser
Astoria.

35
. Richard Best interview (Aug. 11, 1995), NMPW; Wade McClusky interview (June 30, 1966), Gordon Prange Papers, UMD, box 17.

36
. Lundstrom,
Black Shoe Carrie Admiral
, 270–73.

37
. Ludlum,
They Turned the War Around
, 117,123,127; Samuel Eliot Morison,
History of United States Naval Operations in World War II
, vol. 4,
Coral Sea, Midway, and Submarine Actions, May 1942—August 1942
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1949, repr., 1975, 136. John Lundstrom notes that Adams’s report came in “almost to the minute when the
Yorktown
was torpedoed.” Lundstrom,
First Team
, 411.

38
. Cressman et al.,
Glorious Page
, 136. Buell attributes the communications failure to poor staff work. See Thomas B. Buell,
The Quiet Warrior: A Biography of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1974), 138–39.

39
. Gallaher to Murray, June 10, 1942, Action Reports, reel 3 (also available at
www.midway42.org/reports.html
); Robert J. Mrazek,
A Dawn Like Thunder: The True Story of Torpedo Squadron Eight
(New York: Little. Brown, 2008), 166–67.

40
. Thach oral history (Nov. 6 1970), 1:278–79.

41
. Gordon Prange interview of Richard Best (May 15, 1966), Prange Papers, UMD, box 17.

42
. Gallaher to Walter Lord, Feb. 26, 1967, Walter Lord Collection, NHHC, box 18.

43
. Best interview (Aug. 11, 1995), NMPW, 44; Best to Lord, Jan. 27, 1966, Walter Lord Collection, NHHC, box 18.

44
. Gallaher to Walter Lord, Feb. 26, 1967, Walter Lord Collection, NHHC, box 18; Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 326–29.

45
. Mitscher to Nimitz, June 13, 1942, Action Reports, reel 3 (also available at
www.midway42.org/reports.html
).

46
. Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 329; Cressman et al.,
Glorious Page
, 139.

47
. Spruance to Nimitz, June 5, 1942, Nimitz Papers, NHHC, box 8:89; Spruance to Nimitz, June 16, 1942, Action Reports, reel 3 (also available at
www.mid way42.org/reports.html
). See also Buell,
Quiet Warrior
, 140; and Lundstrom,
Black Shoe Carrier Admiral
, 277.

1
. “CINC First Air Fleet Detailed Battle Report No. 6,”
ONI Review
5 (May 1947), available online at
www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/Japan/IJN/rep/Midway/
Nagumo; Prange interview with Watanabe (Nov. 24, 1964), Prange Papers, UMD, box 17; Jonathan B. Parshall and Anthony P. Tully,
Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway
(Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2005), 342–43.

2
. Prange interview of Watanabe (Nov. 24, 1964), Prange Papers, UMD, box 17; Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 352–53.

3
. Nagumo After-Action Report, 9; Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 349–50; Barde, “Battle of Midway,” 330–32; Walter Lord,
Incredible Victory
(New York: Harper-Collins, 1967), 250.

4
. Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 351–52.

5
. Prange interview with Watanabe (Nov. 24, 1964), Prange Papers, UMD, box 17; Robert E. Barde, “The Battle of Midway: A Study in Command” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Maryland, 1971), 332–34; Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 344–45.