Battle of Midway Question

That part wherein the officers at the Japanese anti-aircraft batteries were directing the guns with their swords. I liked that.

 

Actually, in reality, not swords, but pointers. They had no radar and only localized, that is per mount/battery control. They shot at what the battery officer pointed.

 

Were you a fighter pilot?

 

For anyone interested in the Battle of Midway trivia, I have a few bits that are new to me. If you know something that is not commonly known, tell us about it. Maybe we don't know about it.

In the attack that devasted 3 Japanese carriers, there were a total of 9 bomb hits, Kaga was hit by four 500-LB bomb, and one 1,000-pounder. A total of 30 SBDs dove on the Kaga. Four SBDs were lost diving on the Kaga, but of the 30, only 3 wisely peeled away, Lt Best and 2 wing men to attack the Akagi. That was the most significant single bomb strike in the battle, and maybe the Pacific theater, Lt Best hit the Akagi in the worst place possible with a 1000-LB bomb that caused massive secondary explosions totally disabling the carrier. At the same moment, coincidentally, the Soryu was attacked by 24 Yorktown SBDs, in two waves of 14 and then 10, scoring 3 hits with 1000-LB bombs, and NONE of the SBDs were shot down!

Later that day, 24 SBDs attacked the Hiryu, but only 17 of those were able to dive on the Hiryu, scoring 4 direct hits, by three 1,000-LB bombs, and one 500-pounder. NO SBDs were lost in this raid! Of the total 18 SBDs lost during the battle, only 4 were lost attacking the 4 carriers. That averaged to one lost per carrier! The other 14 SBDs were lost later during return flights, defensive actions, or operational incidents, but not during the actual bombing runs on these carriers.

 

Enterprise launched 33 SBDs, but one VS-6 plane aborted early into the mission and one from VB-6 ran out of fuel* just when they sighted the Japanese carrier force. As noted, three SBDs attacked Akagi, leaving 28 attacking Kaga.

12 of the 500-pounder armed SBDs also carried two 100pdrs and presumably dropped them on Kaga. There's not much mention of them, but it's suggested that Kaga was hit by as many as eleven bombs.

Sources agree that Ensign J.Q. Roberts' SBD was shot down while diving on Kaga, but do not cite any other losses.

VB-3 attacking Soryu had 17 planes, 4 of which including squadron leader Max Leslie had inadvertently dropped their bombs when switching on the arming switch; they followed the "one target, on squadron" doctrine. As far as Leslie knew, four bomber and three torpedo squadrons had gone ahead of him, and VS-5 was coming behind.

* Ensign T.F. Schneider. The junior pilots, likely with the least experience in managing fuel consumption, had to make constant adjustments to maintain formation on their section, squadron, and air group leaders.