HISTORY

Source: Naval History and Heritage Command

Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless No. 17 of unit VS-5 prepares to board Yorktown on the morning of June 4, 1942. Seated in the cockpit is Ens. Leif Larsen.

single successful hit. It was the Devastator’s very last combat mission. Their sacrifice though was not futile. They caused

another delay in re-arming of the Japanese aircraft. And above all they lured A6M

fighters protecting the formation down to

low altitudes at the time when the SBD

Dauntless dive bombers from VB-6, VS-6

and VB-3 were approaching at the high

altitude. Then they could choose the targets at will and undisturbed. Kaga received

five direct hits, Akagi only one but another

near miss disabled the steering and Soryu

was hit directly at least three times. Under

the normal circumstances the bomb hits

would not have been fatal. On all three

ships however, the explosions occurred in

the hangars among the aircraft full of fuel.

They were surrounded by bombs and torpedoes which the servicemen did not have

time to store in the protected ammunition

storages. All of it caught fire and started to

explode. Within couple of minutes the Japanese ships were in flames from the bow

to the stern.

Hiryū versus Yorktown

The only undamaged Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryū wasted no time and launched 18

D3A Val dive bombers escorted by six fighters which followed the returning American aircraft and attacked the first ship they

discovered. It was USS Yorktown which

sustained three bomb hits. Those tore a

huge hole in the deck and disabled most of

her boilers. Within an hour the ship’s crew

managed to temporarily cover the deck

and restore the propulsion. When another

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INFO Eduard

wave from Hiryū arrived in the form of ten

B5N Kate torpedo bombers escorted by six

fighters the ship appeared to them undamaged, and they concluded it was another

ship. This time they hit Yorktown with two

torpedoes. The vessel without the power

started to list to the port side. The Japanese were convinced that they sank two

American carriers and balanced the powers. They were preparing to strike the

remaining enemy ships when 24 American

dive bombers arrived and hit Hiryū with

four to five bombs. The morning scenario

repeated itself with large scale fires and

the ammunition explosions which sealed

the ship’s fate. While Soryu and Kaga sank

on June 4 evening, Akagi followed then

only next day early morning and Hiryū sank

last on June 5 at 9 am.

The main forces consequently avoided

the further confrontation, and the Japanese withdrew. The cruisers Mogami and

Mikuma however were left behind due to

their earlier collision and damage. In the

following two days they were the target the

air raids which ultimately sank Mikuma on

June 6.

Mogami escaped heavily damaged. On the

American side the efforts to save Yorktown continued ultimately marred by I-168

submarine. On June 6 she hit the carrier

with two torpedoes, third one struck destroyer Hamman which sank with the loss

of 80 crew members. On the following day,

June 7 in the morning, she was followed

by Yorktown to the ocean bottom. The Battle of Midway final act was capturing of

several Japanese sailors. First USS Trout

submarine picked up two survivors from

Mikuma on June 9. Then, on June 14 a Catalina crew spotted a small boat hundreds

of miles off Midway.

Five days later, on June 19, it was found by

USS Ballard which picked up 35 Japanese sailors from it. There were mechanics

left behind on the sinking Hiryū. They made

their way up from bellow the deck, found a

boat, launched it on the water just minutes

before Hiryū disappeared under the surface. They tried to reach their own territory.

Originally there were 39 of them but five of

them did not survive the two weeks on the

ocean. The rest became POWs and were

transferred to Pearl Harbor. Three American aviators were also captured but their

fare was much worse. Pilot Fran O’Flaherty and his gunner Bruno Peter Gaid from

Enterprise were interrogated and the murdered by throwing them overboard with

the weight attached. Japanese tried to kill

Wesley Osmus from Yorktown in the same

way but he resisted so they killed him with

a hatchet and threw his dead body overboard.

Kaga and Akagi found

Midway was a turning point in the Pacific

war and ships sunken in this battle would

have been valued exhibits in Paul Allen’s collection. He was heavily involved in

searching for the shipwrecks however on

October 15, 2018 he passed away after sudden illness. The company he had founded

continued in his efforts for some time afterwards. Precisely a year after Allen’s death his ship RV Petrel sailed on expedition

January 2023