National Geographic: The Battle for Midway Page #2

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that people do get killed, you know,

as a teenager, which I really was.

You think you're immortal.

And we had what we thought were

the best airplanes

that the Navy had come up with

and we would really give

the Japanese the hell,

I guess you'd say, and come back.

And it didn't work that way.

Dawn, June 4th nearly six months

to the day since Pearl Harbor.

Two hundred-forty miles from Midway,

Admiral Chuichi Nagumo readies

his attack.

He is supremely confident

of the final outcome

and utterly unaware of the American

aircraft carriers slowly closing in.

My spirits were, well, up to then,

we had won ever battle we fought,

so we thought we would win again.

Now is the moment of attack.

Six a.m.

With Japanese aircraft bearing down,

the American planes on Midway scramble

into the air.

With them is the torpedo bomber

carrying Harry Ferrier,

Bert Earnest and the third member

of their crew,

Jay Manning, the turret gunner.

They're going after

the Japanese carriers.

Earnest, Ferrier and

Manning clear the island just minutes

before enemy planes hit Midway.

The Americans fight back

with everything they've got.

Less than half an hour later,

the first Japanese strike is over.

But if the enemy aircraft carriers

are not stopped soon, Midway may fall.

Six-fifty a.m. June 4, 1942.

A hundred-and-sixty miles

from a battle-torn Midway,

the torpedo bomber carrying Ferrier,

Earnest and Manning head straight

at the Japanese fleet.

As they near the carriers,

the Japanese fighter attack

becomes more intense.

And tragically effective.

But very shortly,

Manning had stopped firing,

and so I looked back over my shoulder

to see what was going on,

and he was just hanging down

in his harness in the turret

and obviously had been killed.

And then, really, the next thing

I remember was waking up

with my head hanging down

and blood pouring off my head.

Their plane is shot up.

Their controls and compass out

of commission.

Their comrade Jay Manning is dead.

But Ferrier and Earnest

are still alive

and now they have

to find their way home.

I decided to climb up above the clouds

and see if I could see anything,

and I did.

And when I got up there,

I saw a great big plume of

smoke over to the east.

...and realized that probably

was Midway, which had been attacked.

They manage to land safely in a

plane that is literally shot to pieces.

After getting patched up at

a field hospital,

Harry Ferrier waits for the return of

the other five planes in his squadron.

He waits in vain.

But it was afternoon,

you know, early afternoon,

and it became obvious that our airplane

was the only one that had come back,

that the other five did not,

and we eventually just had to accept

the fact that they

all five were shot down.

It is day eight of the expedition.

Ballard's robot explorer, the ATV,

is still crippled.

And the Navy doesn't know if they can

get it up and fully running again.

They need more time,

the one thing Ballard can't spare.

Fortunately, the sonar

is still going strong.

Instead of just waiting,

Ballard leaves

the phantom Yorktown behind

to look for Japanese carriers

at a site 170 miles away.

The Japanese veterans

have not seen these waters in 56 years

not since the death of their ship,

the Kaga.

Yet here, time is erased.

My heart is racing in anticipation

of seeing the ship.

I keep remembering the image

of the sinking carrier.

I hope it is found soon.

After all the frustration and delay,

the ATV makes it to the bottom

of the sea.

But all too soon,

Ballard realizes the bottom is barren

no carrier, no planes

just rocks and mud.

No excuses.

I just didn't find it. Period.

Round one.

To Kaga.

I'll get to Yorktown.

I really want the Yorktown.

That's where I'm headed.

But one unspoken question

is inescapable.

If the sonar was wrong

about finding the Kaga,

is it also wrong about the location

of the Yorktown?

Seven a.m. The waters off Midway.

Japanese commander, Admiral Nagumo,

is still completely in the dark

about the trap awaiting him.

Eight-twenty a.m.

Admiral Nagumo receives

truly startling news.

His scout planes sight the one thing

they never expected to see

an American carrier.

Nagumo is shocked to discover

he has a real fight on his hands.

Now he must decide on his next step.

Should he launch a

limited strike immediately?

Or regroup, refuel,

and rearm all of his forces

and then obliterate what he believes

to be the one American carrier?

He decides to wait.

It is a decision that will change

the course of the entire war.

While Nagumo waits,

the American pilots wing their way

towards his carriers.

Yet very quickly,

many of the American squadrons get

separated from each other.

Most of the torpedo bombers find

themselves on their own

without fighter protection from

the fast, lethal Japanese Zeros.

One after another,

the young torpedo bomber crews attack

just as they have been taught stead on

low, straight at the target

directly into murderous enemy fire.

And one after another,

they are blown out of the sky.

The Enterprise torpedo squadron

The Yorktown's 21 out of 24.

And of the 30 from Hornet's torpedo

squad, only one man makes it back.

Yet not a single torpedo makes a

single successful strike

against any of the Japanese carriers.

Despite all the sacrifice,

the Americans are losing the battle.

America is facing defeat at Midway.

And the enemy commander,

Admiral Nagumo,

is set to launch a massive attack

against the American carriers.

Nagumo's crews work feverishly

to get nearly a hundred warplanes

into the air.

Abandoning all caution,

they leave explosives and

gasoline strewn everywhere.

The decks are a disaster waiting

to happen.

Less than a hundred miles away,

is the last American hope,

the dive bombers.

But none of them can find the enemy.

The Japanese have taken

a 90 degree turn northward

to engage the U.S. ships.

Then Enterprise's dive bombing

squadron plays a hunch

and changes course.

And in their sights appear

the four Japanese carriers

Kaga, Akagi, Soryu and Hiryu.

And there is not a Japanese fighter

anywhere to be seen.

The enemy fighters are still

too busy defending their carriers

against the last of

the American torpedo planes

to stop the dive bombers high above.

It's a sight Lt.

Dick Best has been longing for.

I was amazed to see that a,

the deck was a bright yellow,

because our decks had been stained

a north Pacific blue ever since

the start of the war.

And in addition to the deck being

a bright yellow,

the big rising sun up forward

of the elevator,

it was glowing red,

like a tremendous advertisement.

Here we are, we are the Japanese Navy.

He dives toward the rising sun.

And releases his bomb

as does the rest of his group

onto Japanese decks now crowded

with torpedoes,

bombs, gasoline, planes-and men.

She was a mass of flames

from bow to stern,

with tremendous eruptions coming up

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