November 5, 2024 • 17 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Anne Claire tells the story of the Battle of Midway, America's "make or break" moment in World War II.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Jabib and this is our American stories,
and we'd love to tell stories about everything, and one
of our favorite subjects American history. Up next, a story
about one of the most important battles of the twentieth century.
On December seventh, nineteen forty one, Pearl Harbor was attacked
by Japanese forces in our Pacific fleet. It was nearly
(00:32):
wiped out. We entered World War Two down and out
and looking for major victory. That victory would come at Midway,
a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Here's writer and Claire to tell the story of this
major battle.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
The tiny two point four square mile Midway Atoll was
annexed by the US in eighteen sixty seven. The descriptively
not really imaginatively named Eastern and Sand islands in the
atoll weren't inhabited, and they weren't useful for resources, but
there allure lay in their strategic location. The atoll was
(01:13):
about halfway between Asia and the US, or I suppose
you could say midway between them and pretty close to Hawaii.
And in nineteen forty work began on getting that area
set up with air and submarine facilities. Now, the famous
Battle of Midway was actually not the first time in
(01:37):
World War Two that the Atole came under fire. On
December seventh, nineteen forty one, shortly after attacking Pearl Harbor,
Japanese forces also attacked Midway. The engagement was fairly short,
but there was still loss of life. One notable case
was Lieutenant George H. Cannon, who became the first US
(01:58):
Marine to earn a Medal of Honor in World War II. Now,
six months later, in May of nineteen forty two, the
Japanese goals toward Midway were more ambitious. Now, Admiral Yamamoto
of the Japanese Navy had his eyes set on the
destruction of Midway's defenses and the occupation of the atoll
by Japanese forces.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
He set the date for the attack.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
June fourth, with Midway hopefully flattened and occupied by the seventh. Now,
there were, of course, lots of facets to the plan,
but part of it at least revolved around the American commander,
Admiral Nimitz kind of falling for a little misdirection.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Because the Japanese forces were.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Going to split up, Yamamoto sent a smaller force to
attack Alaska's Aleutian Islands just before the main attack on Midway.
If the American forces were drawn up to Alaska, that
would open up the Southern Pacific areas around Midway and
around Hawaii for Yamamota's forces to come in and do
(03:07):
what they wanted to. Thankfully, though American cryptanalysts had broken
the Japanese naval codes, they had an idea that Midway
was the main target, and so Admiral Nimitz planned a
surprise of his own. Now, even knowing that Midway was
(03:32):
the goal, the Americans were at a disadvantage because the
Japanese had four aircraft carriers to bring to Midway. The
US had two operational ones in the Pacific, the Hornet
and the Enterprise. The Yorktown was still there, but it
was at Pearl, and it had been pretty damage at
(03:52):
the Coral Sea. The shipyard workers at Pearl had said
that it was going to take three months to really
get the Yorktown up and ready to go out and
fight again, to which Admiral Nimitz responded, he was gonna
need it in three days instead, and pretty amazingly, as
can be said, for a lot of the work done
by shipyard workers and other supporting people during the wartime.
(04:16):
They made it happen. They got the Yorktown sailing in time.
Now the commander's in charge, Rear Admiral Frank Fletcher aboard
the Yorktown to whom Nimitz gave overall tactical command, and
Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance aboard the Enterprise both moved their
ships into position to quietly await the anticipated attack and
(04:40):
hopefully Admiral Yamamoto wouldn't see them coming, wouldn't know they
were there now.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Of course, one.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Of the tricks with naval battles at this time was
finding the other force, because the ocean's a pretty big place,
so the planes would have to go out, you know,
hopefully with good weather and hopefully just get a look
at where where exactly the enemy were coming from, and
they could end up just missing each other completely. So
flights from Midway made daily searches scanning the seas for
(05:09):
the Japanese fleet. Now at five point forty five on
June fourth, a patrol plane called in enemy Planes had
been spotted. Shortly thereafter, Pby spotted the main body of
Japanese ships, including some carriers. So first of all, Midway
Atolls defending planes took off. They weren't going to be
(05:31):
caught grounded like American forces in the Philippines and other
places had been.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
The Japanese planes met them.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Records show that the American planes were pretty well swarmed,
each pilot trying to shake from one to five Japanese
fighters a piece, and it was a pretty intense fight
for the American planes because the Japanese zeros had the
double advantage of being more maneuverable and also having more
season pilots s s. One of Midway's groups of pilots
(06:02):
had only had a week of training in their planes
before the attack. Now, of the twenty seven American planes
that were defending the ad told by the end of
the battle at the stage, fifteen of them were missing,
seven were severely damaged, and by six thirty am, the
first bombs were all already falling on Midway itself. With
the result of all of the above ground structures being
(06:24):
destroyed or damaged, they had done their best. The Japanese
forces weren't checked, and most of Midway's fighters were gone.
Three of the Japanese carriers were still either undamaged or
at least not damaged enough to actually hamper them. So
that was the first stage of the battle. But there
was a lot more to come.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Now though, the.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Planes from the Enterprise, the Hornet, and the York Town,
still waiting quietly out of sight, had to come in
and have their safe.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
And you're listening to writer Anne Claire tell the story
of the Battle of Midway, and imagine starting out a
mission with twenty seven planes and by the end of it,
fifteen are missing and seven are damage. Those are some
really tragic odds. When we come back more with Anne
Claire on the Battle of Midway. Here on our American Stories, Folks,
(07:30):
if you love the stories we tell about this great country,
and especially the stories of America's rich past, know that
all of our stories about American history, from war to innovation,
culture and faith, are brought to us by the great
folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all
the things that are beautiful in life and all the
things that are good in life. And if you can't
get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their
(07:52):
free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu
to learn more, and we returned to our American stories
in the story of the Battle of Midway. When we
(08:14):
last left off, the first stage of the Battle of
Midway had resulted in what appeared to be a Japanese victory,
but the tide was about to change in a major way.
Here again is Anne Claire to tell this story.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Now, after the initial attack on the Midway Atoll, Japanese
Admiral Nugumo, who was kind of running operations there at
the battle, it must have thought things were going quite well.
The goal had been to engage Midway quickly and stealthily
enough that the American Navy wouldn't be able to intervene
in time, and as far as his patrols had told him,
(08:52):
after these first hits on the atoll, he had succeeded.
More importantly, they hadn't spotted any American aircraft.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
And they weren't really expecting to.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Now, when his pilots radioed in that another strike at
Midway itself was necessary after that initial assault, he began
making preparations.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
To do this.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
The planes and the hangars needed to be re armed,
though with bombs rather than torpedoes. Now this was a
little bit of a process. According to one of my sources,
it would likely take maybe forty minutes, so it would
take a little while to get all the planes rearmed.
But again, since there hadn't been any enemy aircraft carrier cited,
that wasn't a big deal necessarily. But as they were
(09:39):
rearming the plane's word came in at least one American
aircraft carrier had been spotted after all. Now Nigumu faced
a difficult choice. He needed to shift his attention to
this carrier. However, his planes were turning from Midway, needed
to refuel and rearm, and there were still those in
(09:59):
the hangar that were being ready for another assault on
the ground. So he made his choice, and this was
a choice that would greatly impact the outcome of the
battle and of history as well. He decided that they
would wait the return of the Midway attack unit and
then carry out an air attack. So it was all
(10:20):
a matter of timing. Could the Japanese get their planes
in the air in time to attack the US ships
or would his.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Four carriers be caught with their flight decks fold Now. Meanwhile,
as they're trying to figure all.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
This out, the US task forces were waiting quietly word
came that the Japanese carriers had been sighted, and so
they prepared to enter the freight. In spite of there
being a pretty uncooperative wind. The Enterprise and Hornet launched
their scout bombers, torpedo planes, and fighters. The Yorktown's planes
were temporarily held in reserve. Unfortunately, the American pilots didn't
(10:59):
know their targets had moved now, the Enterprise and Hornet
did not break radio silence to inform their pilots of this.
So the Hornets, fighters and bombers turned south and they
missed the Japanese carriers, completely exhausting their fuel and a
lot of them having to land in the sea. However,
the torpedo squadron from the Hornet had become separated from
(11:22):
the main group. They turned north and they discovered the
enemy carriers. This torpedo squadron was supposed to be supported
by other planes, but they didn't have them, and they
went into attack anyway. One by one, the torpedo planes fell.
Of fifteen, none made it. None made it back to
(11:43):
their ship. Now, less than an hour behind the Hornet's
torpedo squadron came the Enterprise's torpedo planes. These planes came
in again without fight or protection, but also they attacked anyway,
and it's unlikely that most of them even had a
(12:04):
chance to drop their torpedoes and try and make a hit.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Now.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Unlike the previous attackers, the Yorktown's pilots did have some
fighter protection at first. However, they were quickly engaged by
enemy aircraft and yet another torpedo squadron began its approach
pretty well alone. There were a lot of heavy losses
in these different groups, but there was some success. Of
(12:28):
the three carriers under torpedo attack, all had been at
least hit, and also the valiant efforts of these torpedo
planes had two results that had a really.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Huge impact on the battle.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
First, the Japanese carriers were kept busy maneuvering and they
weren't able to launch their own bombers. And secondly, the
Japanese fighters were flying low focusing on the torpedo attacks,
which meant they were unprepared for the approach of high
flying US dive bombers. They met very little opposition until
(13:06):
after they dropped their bombs and had scored at least
eleven direct hits simultaneously. The Yorktown's dive bombers attacked the
carrier to the east, scoring at least five direct hits.
They wreaked havoc on the carrier's flight deck. As the
surviving US plans returned their respective carriers, Umo's powerful fleet
was left with three carriers hit and in flames. But
(13:30):
the plans that returned to the Yorktown didn't have a
whole lot of time to celebrate. They were quickly warned
to take off again and head over to the Enterprise
because word came that Japanese forces were headed to attack
the Yorktown. So, in spite of anti aircraft fighter and
defending fighters, Japanese plans managed to land three two hundred
(13:53):
and fifty kilogram bombs on the Yorktown before being shot down.
The explosions on the aircraft carrier started fires and extinguished
all but one of the Yorktown's boilers. Now the carrier's
crew set to work and soon actually got the carrier
limping along again and able to start refueling her surviving fighters.
(14:15):
Then word came from one of the accompanying ships, the Pensacola,
which had been monitoring radar, that more Japanese planes were approaching. Now,
the Yorktown launched her planes and the ships that screened
her set up a heavy curtain of anti aircraft fire
to protect the wounded carrier. Only two Japanese torpedoes hit home,
but they were enough A tempstress store of power failed
(14:38):
and everything went dark below the decks. Fearing that the
Yorktown would just capsize completely, orders were given to abandon ship.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Lieutenant Joseph Pollard, who was.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
A flight surgeon, shared memories in writing of abandoning the Yorktown,
describing how hard it was to even stand on the
slick deck searching for life preservers, trying to find a
way to get the wounded safely off of the ship.
Now ships stood by to rescue the survivors, as meanwhile,
American planes had located the source of these attacks, that
(15:10):
fourth Japanese aircraft carrier they hear you. After six direct hits,
that carrier was also in flames, which left US pilots
in control of the air. The final stages of the
Battle of Midway took the next couple of days. During
(15:31):
it all, the Yorktown did remain afloat, but crippled. Salvage
crews even returned to the carrier, hoping to repair her
enough to get her back home, and in the process
finding and saving some wounded who'd been overlooked in the
evacuation until about one thirty five PM, when four torpedo
wakes were cited to the Yorktown's storeboard side. The impact
(15:54):
was tremendous, but she still didn't sink right away, But
at three point thirty someone noticed that the Yorktown's list
was increasing again, and at five oh one she disappeared
into the sea.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
So in spite of the loss of.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
The Yorktown and the many men who paid the ultimate sacrifice,
the Battle of Midway wound up unquestionably being an American victory.
Japan's loss of four aircraft carriers and over one hundred
irreplaceable trained pilots really derailed.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Their plans for expansion the Pacific.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
And was a major turning point in the war, which
is probably one reason why Hollywood's made a few movies
about it.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
And a special thanks to Anne Claire for setting on
record what happened in the middle of the Pacific and
the most important battle in our history, and to disarm
and eliminate from competition four aircraft carriers is a big deal.
And if you've ever seen an aircraft carrier or been
on one, you know you don't make them in a
day or a week. And how important they are in
(16:58):
navy battles, and how important it is to protect those carriers,
and what they are and what they mean, the significance
of taking them out, well, it was indeed the turning
point in the war in the Pacific, the story of Midway,
the story of the greatest battle of the twentieth century
when it came to naval battles. Here on our American
stories
This is Lee Jabib and this is our American stories,
and we'd love to tell stories about everything, and one
of our favorite subjects American history. Up next, a story
about one of the most important battles of the twentieth century.
On December seventh, nineteen forty one, Pearl Harbor was attacked
by Japanese forces in our Pacific fleet. It was nearly
(00:32):
wiped out. We entered World War Two down and out
and looking for major victory. That victory would come at Midway,
a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Here's writer and Claire to tell the story of this
major battle.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
The tiny two point four square mile Midway Atoll was
annexed by the US in eighteen sixty seven. The descriptively
not really imaginatively named Eastern and Sand islands in the
atoll weren't inhabited, and they weren't useful for resources, but
there allure lay in their strategic location. The atoll was
(01:13):
about halfway between Asia and the US, or I suppose
you could say midway between them and pretty close to Hawaii.
And in nineteen forty work began on getting that area
set up with air and submarine facilities. Now, the famous
Battle of Midway was actually not the first time in
(01:37):
World War Two that the Atole came under fire. On
December seventh, nineteen forty one, shortly after attacking Pearl Harbor,
Japanese forces also attacked Midway. The engagement was fairly short,
but there was still loss of life. One notable case
was Lieutenant George H. Cannon, who became the first US
(01:58):
Marine to earn a Medal of Honor in World War II. Now,
six months later, in May of nineteen forty two, the
Japanese goals toward Midway were more ambitious. Now, Admiral Yamamoto
of the Japanese Navy had his eyes set on the
destruction of Midway's defenses and the occupation of the atoll
by Japanese forces.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
He set the date for the attack.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
June fourth, with Midway hopefully flattened and occupied by the seventh. Now,
there were, of course, lots of facets to the plan,
but part of it at least revolved around the American commander,
Admiral Nimitz kind of falling for a little misdirection.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Because the Japanese forces were.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Going to split up, Yamamoto sent a smaller force to
attack Alaska's Aleutian Islands just before the main attack on Midway.
If the American forces were drawn up to Alaska, that
would open up the Southern Pacific areas around Midway and
around Hawaii for Yamamota's forces to come in and do
(03:07):
what they wanted to. Thankfully, though American cryptanalysts had broken
the Japanese naval codes, they had an idea that Midway
was the main target, and so Admiral Nimitz planned a
surprise of his own. Now, even knowing that Midway was
(03:32):
the goal, the Americans were at a disadvantage because the
Japanese had four aircraft carriers to bring to Midway. The
US had two operational ones in the Pacific, the Hornet
and the Enterprise. The Yorktown was still there, but it
was at Pearl, and it had been pretty damage at
(03:52):
the Coral Sea. The shipyard workers at Pearl had said
that it was going to take three months to really
get the Yorktown up and ready to go out and
fight again, to which Admiral Nimitz responded, he was gonna
need it in three days instead, and pretty amazingly, as
can be said, for a lot of the work done
by shipyard workers and other supporting people during the wartime.
(04:16):
They made it happen. They got the Yorktown sailing in time.
Now the commander's in charge, Rear Admiral Frank Fletcher aboard
the Yorktown to whom Nimitz gave overall tactical command, and
Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance aboard the Enterprise both moved their
ships into position to quietly await the anticipated attack and
(04:40):
hopefully Admiral Yamamoto wouldn't see them coming, wouldn't know they
were there now.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Of course, one.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Of the tricks with naval battles at this time was
finding the other force, because the ocean's a pretty big place,
so the planes would have to go out, you know,
hopefully with good weather and hopefully just get a look
at where where exactly the enemy were coming from, and
they could end up just missing each other completely. So
flights from Midway made daily searches scanning the seas for
(05:09):
the Japanese fleet. Now at five point forty five on
June fourth, a patrol plane called in enemy Planes had
been spotted. Shortly thereafter, Pby spotted the main body of
Japanese ships, including some carriers. So first of all, Midway
Atolls defending planes took off. They weren't going to be
(05:31):
caught grounded like American forces in the Philippines and other
places had been.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
The Japanese planes met them.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Records show that the American planes were pretty well swarmed,
each pilot trying to shake from one to five Japanese
fighters a piece, and it was a pretty intense fight
for the American planes because the Japanese zeros had the
double advantage of being more maneuverable and also having more
season pilots s s. One of Midway's groups of pilots
(06:02):
had only had a week of training in their planes
before the attack. Now, of the twenty seven American planes
that were defending the ad told by the end of
the battle at the stage, fifteen of them were missing,
seven were severely damaged, and by six thirty am, the
first bombs were all already falling on Midway itself. With
the result of all of the above ground structures being
(06:24):
destroyed or damaged, they had done their best. The Japanese
forces weren't checked, and most of Midway's fighters were gone.
Three of the Japanese carriers were still either undamaged or
at least not damaged enough to actually hamper them. So
that was the first stage of the battle. But there
was a lot more to come.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Now though, the.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Planes from the Enterprise, the Hornet, and the York Town,
still waiting quietly out of sight, had to come in
and have their safe.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
And you're listening to writer Anne Claire tell the story
of the Battle of Midway, and imagine starting out a
mission with twenty seven planes and by the end of it,
fifteen are missing and seven are damage. Those are some
really tragic odds. When we come back more with Anne
Claire on the Battle of Midway. Here on our American Stories, Folks,
(07:30):
if you love the stories we tell about this great country,
and especially the stories of America's rich past, know that
all of our stories about American history, from war to innovation,
culture and faith, are brought to us by the great
folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all
the things that are beautiful in life and all the
things that are good in life. And if you can't
get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their
(07:52):
free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu
to learn more, and we returned to our American stories
in the story of the Battle of Midway. When we
(08:14):
last left off, the first stage of the Battle of
Midway had resulted in what appeared to be a Japanese victory,
but the tide was about to change in a major way.
Here again is Anne Claire to tell this story.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Now, after the initial attack on the Midway Atoll, Japanese
Admiral Nugumo, who was kind of running operations there at
the battle, it must have thought things were going quite well.
The goal had been to engage Midway quickly and stealthily
enough that the American Navy wouldn't be able to intervene
in time, and as far as his patrols had told him,
(08:52):
after these first hits on the atoll, he had succeeded.
More importantly, they hadn't spotted any American aircraft.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
And they weren't really expecting to.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Now, when his pilots radioed in that another strike at
Midway itself was necessary after that initial assault, he began
making preparations.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
To do this.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
The planes and the hangars needed to be re armed,
though with bombs rather than torpedoes. Now this was a
little bit of a process. According to one of my sources,
it would likely take maybe forty minutes, so it would
take a little while to get all the planes rearmed.
But again, since there hadn't been any enemy aircraft carrier cited,
that wasn't a big deal necessarily. But as they were
(09:39):
rearming the plane's word came in at least one American
aircraft carrier had been spotted after all. Now Nigumu faced
a difficult choice. He needed to shift his attention to
this carrier. However, his planes were turning from Midway, needed
to refuel and rearm, and there were still those in
(09:59):
the hangar that were being ready for another assault on
the ground. So he made his choice, and this was
a choice that would greatly impact the outcome of the
battle and of history as well. He decided that they
would wait the return of the Midway attack unit and
then carry out an air attack. So it was all
(10:20):
a matter of timing. Could the Japanese get their planes
in the air in time to attack the US ships
or would his.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Four carriers be caught with their flight decks fold Now. Meanwhile,
as they're trying to figure all.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
This out, the US task forces were waiting quietly word
came that the Japanese carriers had been sighted, and so
they prepared to enter the freight. In spite of there
being a pretty uncooperative wind. The Enterprise and Hornet launched
their scout bombers, torpedo planes, and fighters. The Yorktown's planes
were temporarily held in reserve. Unfortunately, the American pilots didn't
(10:59):
know their targets had moved now, the Enterprise and Hornet
did not break radio silence to inform their pilots of this.
So the Hornets, fighters and bombers turned south and they
missed the Japanese carriers, completely exhausting their fuel and a
lot of them having to land in the sea. However,
the torpedo squadron from the Hornet had become separated from
(11:22):
the main group. They turned north and they discovered the
enemy carriers. This torpedo squadron was supposed to be supported
by other planes, but they didn't have them, and they
went into attack anyway. One by one, the torpedo planes fell.
Of fifteen, none made it. None made it back to
(11:43):
their ship. Now, less than an hour behind the Hornet's
torpedo squadron came the Enterprise's torpedo planes. These planes came
in again without fight or protection, but also they attacked anyway,
and it's unlikely that most of them even had a
(12:04):
chance to drop their torpedoes and try and make a hit.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Now.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Unlike the previous attackers, the Yorktown's pilots did have some
fighter protection at first. However, they were quickly engaged by
enemy aircraft and yet another torpedo squadron began its approach
pretty well alone. There were a lot of heavy losses
in these different groups, but there was some success. Of
(12:28):
the three carriers under torpedo attack, all had been at
least hit, and also the valiant efforts of these torpedo
planes had two results that had a really.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Huge impact on the battle.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
First, the Japanese carriers were kept busy maneuvering and they
weren't able to launch their own bombers. And secondly, the
Japanese fighters were flying low focusing on the torpedo attacks,
which meant they were unprepared for the approach of high
flying US dive bombers. They met very little opposition until
(13:06):
after they dropped their bombs and had scored at least
eleven direct hits simultaneously. The Yorktown's dive bombers attacked the
carrier to the east, scoring at least five direct hits.
They wreaked havoc on the carrier's flight deck. As the
surviving US plans returned their respective carriers, Umo's powerful fleet
was left with three carriers hit and in flames. But
(13:30):
the plans that returned to the Yorktown didn't have a
whole lot of time to celebrate. They were quickly warned
to take off again and head over to the Enterprise
because word came that Japanese forces were headed to attack
the Yorktown. So, in spite of anti aircraft fighter and
defending fighters, Japanese plans managed to land three two hundred
(13:53):
and fifty kilogram bombs on the Yorktown before being shot down.
The explosions on the aircraft carrier started fires and extinguished
all but one of the Yorktown's boilers. Now the carrier's
crew set to work and soon actually got the carrier
limping along again and able to start refueling her surviving fighters.
(14:15):
Then word came from one of the accompanying ships, the Pensacola,
which had been monitoring radar, that more Japanese planes were approaching. Now,
the Yorktown launched her planes and the ships that screened
her set up a heavy curtain of anti aircraft fire
to protect the wounded carrier. Only two Japanese torpedoes hit home,
but they were enough A tempstress store of power failed
(14:38):
and everything went dark below the decks. Fearing that the
Yorktown would just capsize completely, orders were given to abandon ship.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Lieutenant Joseph Pollard, who was.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
A flight surgeon, shared memories in writing of abandoning the Yorktown,
describing how hard it was to even stand on the
slick deck searching for life preservers, trying to find a
way to get the wounded safely off of the ship.
Now ships stood by to rescue the survivors, as meanwhile,
American planes had located the source of these attacks, that
(15:10):
fourth Japanese aircraft carrier they hear you. After six direct hits,
that carrier was also in flames, which left US pilots
in control of the air. The final stages of the
Battle of Midway took the next couple of days. During
(15:31):
it all, the Yorktown did remain afloat, but crippled. Salvage
crews even returned to the carrier, hoping to repair her
enough to get her back home, and in the process
finding and saving some wounded who'd been overlooked in the
evacuation until about one thirty five PM, when four torpedo
wakes were cited to the Yorktown's storeboard side. The impact
(15:54):
was tremendous, but she still didn't sink right away, But
at three point thirty someone noticed that the Yorktown's list
was increasing again, and at five oh one she disappeared
into the sea.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
So in spite of the loss of.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
The Yorktown and the many men who paid the ultimate sacrifice,
the Battle of Midway wound up unquestionably being an American victory.
Japan's loss of four aircraft carriers and over one hundred
irreplaceable trained pilots really derailed.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Their plans for expansion the Pacific.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
And was a major turning point in the war, which
is probably one reason why Hollywood's made a few movies
about it.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
And a special thanks to Anne Claire for setting on
record what happened in the middle of the Pacific and
the most important battle in our history, and to disarm
and eliminate from competition four aircraft carriers is a big deal.
And if you've ever seen an aircraft carrier or been
on one, you know you don't make them in a
day or a week. And how important they are in
(16:58):
navy battles, and how important it is to protect those carriers,
and what they are and what they mean, the significance
of taking them out, well, it was indeed the turning
point in the war in the Pacific, the story of Midway,
the story of the greatest battle of the twentieth century
when it came to naval battles. Here on our American
stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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