HISTORY

F4F-4 Wildcats, SBD-3 Dauntlesses and TBD-1 Devastators of USS Hornet’s Air Group Eight aboard ship the morning

of June 4, 1942. (USN)

VF-8 F4F-4 Wildcat ready to take off while others are positioned to the side. (USN)

12

INFO Eduard

ward Midway as Carey kept losing altitude

and falling behind. “I kept throttling back

so he could keep up. His wounds kept him

from working the rudders, and his plane

was all over the sky.”

They reached Midway under attack and

prepared to land, at which point Canfield

discovered his flaps were gone. “When the

wheels touched the ground the landing

gear collapsed, and the plane slid along

the runway. When it stopped, I jumped out

and ran for a trench just as a Zero strafed

my abandoned plane.” Carey landed right

behind and remembered “I ended up in

a ground loop, as I had a flat tire and could

not control the plane because of the wound

in my leg.” Carey crashed into a revetment

and was pulled out and dragged to safety

with the bombs falling.

Left behind by Carey and Canfield, Marion

Carl rolled into an overhead pass against

the bombers. “I caught sight of these damn

Zeros … The air was full of them!” He made

a high-side firing pass on one; when he

looked back, “I was surprised to see several Zeros swinging into position on my

tail, so I dived straight down at full throttle,

then zoomed back up to 20,000 feet.”

As he headed back toward Midway, he spotted three Zeros below. “They didn’t see me

drop astern. I gave one a long burst, until

he fell off on one wing out of control and

headed almost straight down with smoke

streaming from the plane.”

“I looked around and couldn’t find a friendly airplane any place and the next thing

I know, I’ve got a Zero on my tail that’s shooting away. I headed for a cloud, chopped

the power, and threw the plane into

a skid. When I came out the other side, the

Zero had overrun me. I pulled the trigger

on my guns and got nothing! My guns had

jammed, but the maneuver scared him so

badly that he gave up the fight.” Despite

being badly shot up, Carl was able to limp

back and land safely.

The three Wildcats were lucky. Major

Parks was hit by the swarming escorts

early in the fight. Parks bailed out and his

parachute was seen to open. A Zero pilot strafed him and then strafed his body

when it fell on one of the outer reefs. All

six pilots of Parks’ first division were shot

down. The 20 F2A-3 pilots were not only

outnumbered by the 36 Zeros, but they

were also completely outclassed by the

faster and more agile enemy fighters,

whose experienced pilots quickly shot

down 16 Buffalos and one of the patrolling

Wildcats, with 14 Marines killed in action.

Four crash-landed on Eastern Island and

six managed to land after the air raid was

over. Only two planes were fit to fly again.

VMF-221 was out of action. The 23 pilots

were each awarded the Navy Cross, all but

nine posthumously. Their opponents that

morning were seasoned veterans of what

was at the time the most effective naval air

October 2022