Lords of the Sky: Fighter Pilots and Air Combat, From the Red Baron to the F-16 (45 page)

Hornet
carried sixteen Mitchell B-25 bombers flown by Army pilots. Stripped down, the bombers each carried three 500-pound high-explosive bombs and one incendiary bomb. The Mitchell could cruise at about 230 mph with an 1,100-mile range. The idea was to hit targets in Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe, and Nagoya, then dash across the Sea of Japan to land in China. The odds were terrible and no one really believed survival was possible, but with the indomitable spirit of Americans, they went anyway.

Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle had planned the mission and would lead it over the objections of his superior officers. Formerly a prizefighter and racing pilot, Doolittle also held degrees from UC Berkeley and a doctorate in aeronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He pioneered many aspects of flight, but his most significant contribution was in the field of instrument flying. Doolittle was the first to really study relationships between our motion senses and visual cues and how these affected a pilot’s ability to fly at night or in bad weather. After developing the technology, he became the first pilot to fly an entire flight, from takeoff to landing, solely on instruments.

Accomplished, independently wealthy and famous, Doolittle had earned the right to live as he pleased, but sitting in an office as a staff officer was not his idea of fighting a war. As he would later say:

The Japanese people had been told they were invulnerable. . . . An attack on the Japanese homeland would cause confusion in the minds of the Japanese people and sow doubt about the reliability of their leaders. There was a second, and equally important, psychological reason for this attack. . . . Americans badly needed a morale boost.

At 7:38 a.m. on April 18, 1942, the task force was spotted by a Japanese picket ship, which was quickly sunk. The problem was that
Hornet
was still 170 miles beyond the planned launch point and at extreme range for the bombers. With the element of surprise lost, the decision was made and the raiders manned their planes. The carrier swung into the wind, surging forward at flank speed, and at 8:20 a.m. Colonel Doolittle’s B-25 staggered off the bow with feet to spare and turned toward Japan.

Whiskey Pete
,
Ruptured Duck
,
Hair-karier
, and the others followed. Last off was
Bat out of Hell
at 9:19, and the carriers immediately turned back to the east. More than five hours later the B-25s crossed the Japanese coast and headed inland, homing on a Tokyo radio station. Thirteen targets were hit, including the brand-new aircraft carrier
Ryuho.
Fifteen B-25s made it to China and one to the Soviet Union. Of the eighty men who flew off
Hornet
that morning, seventy, including Doolittle, survived and evaded capture. Two men were downed at sea, and eight more were caught by the Japanese.
^*

Doolittle had expected a court-martial for losing all his aircraft, but instead he was awarded the Medal of Honor as a national hero. Militarily the raid did little damage, but the psychological impact on both sides was immense. For the Americans it was a tremendous shot in the arm and gave everyone the confidence that the United States, even on the ropes, would fight back. On a practical level it again demonstrated the awesome potential of the aircraft carrier. Every major blow in the Pacific thus far had been dealt by aircraft, and “gun club” admirals commanding the battleship navy could no longer ignore the facts.

The raid had an equally significant effect on the Japanese. Those advocating peace were silenced by this assault on the homeland and its proximity to their emperor. Those who favored occupying an outlying, defensive ring of islands now had just cause. The attack was also an insult to the Japanese navy, which bore responsibility for protecting the islands, and to Admiral Yamamoto.

By May 1942, the fortress of Corregidor in the Philippine Islands had fallen. At the same time, as the Japanese pushed south from Rabaul, an invasion fleet was sent across the Coral Sea to Port Moresby, on the southern edge of Papua New Guinea. If they could capture it, then the northern shore of Australia would be in range of Japanese aircraft. Troop transports were escorted by cruisers and destroyers, with the carriers
Shokaku
,
Zuikaku
, and
Shoho
capable of putting up 120 combat aircraft.

Aware of the Japanese plans, Adm. Chester Nimitz, the new commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, dispatched two carrier groups to the Coral Sea: the USS
Yorktown
’s Task Force 17 and Task Force 11, centered on the USS
Lexington
. Nimitz knew the extreme risks, but he was no Admiral Pye and had commanded submarines, gunboats, and cruisers. Though never an aviator, he could think unconventionally and was well aware of the value of attack.
^*

Fought entirely by aircraft, the Battle of the Coral Sea was a milestone in military history. It was also a tactical draw in that the Americans scuttled the
Lexington
and sustained heavy damage to
Yorktown
. Nearly seventy planes were lost, along with 656 lives. The Japanese lost the light carrier
Shoho
, several smaller warships, and nearly a thousand men. Additionally, the fleet carrier
Shokaku
was heavily damaged and would spend the next two months out of action.
Zuikaku
was undamaged, but most of the ninety-two destroyed Japanese warplanes were from her, and she would be out of the fight until her aircraft were replaced.

Strategically, the battle was a decisive American victory. The invasion of Port Moresby had been stopped and the myth of Japanese invincibility shattered. Also, two front-line carriers had been put out of action—not permanently, but long enough. Neither would be a part of the fleet now sailing toward an obscure island and a battle that would turn the tide of the Pacific war.

THROUGH THE SEA
breeze a mechanical bugle blared and the pilot looked up startled, a rice ball halfway to his mouth. Like angry ants, men poured from everywhere over the flight deck and ran toward waiting aircraft or anti-aircraft guns.
Air attack . . .
that was what the bugle was playing. Air attack. Jumping to his feet, Kaname Harada stared up and saw nothing. Then he squinted past the bow and saw little dark flecks appear against the lighter horizon band.

“Torpedo planes!” someone yelled over the noise. “Torpedo attack!”

Tossing his teacup overboard, the pilot sprinted to his waiting Reisen, clambered up the wing and plopped into the cockpit.
^*
The ground crew already had the engine started and, ignoring the seat straps, he waved everyone back and held the brakes as the chocks were yanked out. Peering forward over the nose, Harada pushed the throttle up, and the fighter surged forward. His eyes were locked forward as his right hand checked the flaps down and switched on his guns.

Coming off the deck, the plane crabbed into the wind, and he held his takeoff pitch long enough to clear the carrier’s bow, then retracted the gear. As the Zero sank toward the sea he felt the propeller really bite into the air, and the fighter slowly rose. Slapping up the flaps, he leveled off for a few seconds to gain more airspeed. Glancing toward the attackers, he was shocked to see how close they were. Escort ships were firing now, and he could see black and white puffs exploding over the Americans. Beginning a wide turn, Harada waited until his wingmen were loosely joined, then he began to climb. Eyes narrowed, he realized he wouldn’t have to go too high—the Yankees were skimming the wave tops.

Hold it . . . hold it . . .
He bunted slightly and began a gentle turn, gauging the intercept geometry from long experience. He could plainly see them now. They were the newer American torpedo bombers, big and ugly, like a bumblebee, with blue paint and bright white stars. The Avenger, made by Grumman, with a three-man crew.

Now . . .

Yanking back on the stick, Hamada flipped the nimble little fighter over and sliced down toward the lumbering planes. His two wingmen repositioned and floated into single file behind him. Leaving the throttle up, he lightly played the stick and rudder to swoop in from above. The Avenger had an enclosed ball turret, and as it started to swivel Harada opened fire with a three-second burst. His two cowling-mounted machine guns instantly spewed out a stream of fifty 7.7 mm shells, and the wings shuddered from the recoil of the bigger 20 mm cannons. Pieces flew off the other plane, but the American had banked up and his tail gunner was firing.

Yanking the stick back into his lap, Harada grunted and barrel-rolled the fighter up and over the torpedo bombers. Inverted, staring down at the blue water, he saw his second wingman firing and made a snap decision. Cutting in front of his third wingman, Genzo Nagazawa, Harada snap-rolled upright behind another Avenger. The other Zero immediately pulled straight up to avoid a collision, and as he did the American tail gunner fired a long, lethal burst into the fighter’s belly. Horrified, Harada saw his wingman’s plane burst into flames and smash into the sea.

Enraged, he screamed, pulled his nose to bear, and fired at point-blank range into the Avenger. The gunner’s turret disappeared in a cloud of shredded metal, glass, and smoke. The big plane instantly nosed over and hit the waves, throwing up a tremendous fan-shaped spray of water. Blinking rapidly, Harada rolled up and over again, looking down as the rest of the Americans vanished in similar flaming splashes.

It was June 4, 1942, just past 7 a.m. on a clear, sunny morning. Admiral Yamamoto, commander of the Combined Fleet, was under tremendous pressure. The Doolittle raid had graphically demonstrated the home islands’ vulnerability to air attack, and the Battle of the Coral Sea had shaken the Imperial Navy’s cult of invincibility. Yamamoto also knew he was running out of time to achieve victory before America overwhelmed Japan. His plan was twofold. First was to take Midway Island as the key to an outer range of defense that would prevent another attack on Japan. Second, to complete the mission started at Pearl Harbor by luring the U.S. Navy into a final great sea battle, where it would be crushed. With no navy to protect the West Coast, Washington would be compelled to negotiate.

Yamamoto’s complex plan involved three main prongs. First, an attack on the Aleutian Islands was intended to divert American attention and resources. Second, his main carrier strike group would hit Midway Island, destroying any chance of land-based U.S. air attacks against his fleet. The island would then be invaded and taken with its airfield intact for use by Japanese aircraft. By this time, Yamamoto calculated, the Americans would’ve sent their navy out to fight, and his Combined Fleet could trap and annihilate them.

There were several problems with this. Foremost was the broken Japanese JN-25 military code, which enabled Nimitz’s intelligence section to read anywhere from 25 to 75 percent of any given message. They’d also figured a way to nail down Midway as the target by simply referencing it in a clear message, which the Japanese then repeated in their code.
^*
Another problem was the Aleutian feint. It was so obviously a diversion that no one fell for it, least of all Nimitz, and the fact that it tied up Japanese Fifth Fleet resources (including the carriers
Ryujo
and
Junyo
) may well have turned the tide of the battle.

Last was the Japanese underestimation of American forces and, perhaps most damning, of the Americans themselves. Pearl Harbor had convinced many of the Imperial Navy’s superiority, and the lessons from Wake Island and Coral Sea hadn’t been fully digested yet. They knew that the
Saratoga
was in California being repaired but also believed the
Yorktown
had been sunk in the Coral Sea. Limping back to Pearl Harbor, however, Nimitz put 3,000 workers onboard for seventy-two hours, and the big carrier was back at sea. In the meantime, Admiral Nagumo and the First Mobile Force sailed from Hiroshima Bay on May 26, 1942. The Japanese Fifth Fleet, called Mobile Force 2, had also steamed from the home islands heading northeast toward the Aleutians. As far as Yamamoto knew, only the
Enterprise
and
Hornet
were available and his intelligence placed them far down in the South Pacific.

Which they were not.

On the same day both carriers had returned to Pearl Harbor, followed by the damaged
Yorktown
. At noon on May 27 the
Enterprise
and
Hornet
, with fifty-four fighters, seventy dive-bombers, and twenty-nine torpedo planes, left Oahu. Commanded by Rear Adm. Ray Spruance, Task Force 16 was escorted by six cruisers and eleven destroyers. Midway was also reinforced by four USAAF B-26 bombers and eight additional Catalinas. By 1200 on May 30, Task Force 17 had sortied from Pearl Harbor. Escorted two cruisers and five destroyers,
Yorktown
was carrying twenty-seven fighters, thirty-seven dive-bombers, and fifteen torpedo bombers. By June 1 nine more B-17s from the 26th Bombardment Squadron had arrived, bringing the total to sixteen heavy bombers. Also, a third U.S. task force built around the
Saratoga
had sailed from San Diego heading west.

As the sun set during the afternoon of June 2,
Enterprise
,
Hornet
, and
Yorktown
rendezvoused 350 miles northeast of Midway Island. The Japanese carriers of Mobile Force 1 had turned southeast and were about 700 miles when darkness fell. The invasion fleet was also 700 miles west and closing. Twelve American submarines were deployed in an early-warning screen along the northwestern approaches to Midway, and the Catalinas were still flying their patrols.

The island’s airborne defenses now included twenty-one Marine fighters (Buffalo and Wildcats) and thirty-six dive-bombers (Dauntless and Vindicators). Ground forces included two companies of the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, among whose officers was Maj. James Roosevelt, eldest son of the president of the United States.
^*
The USAAF had deployed twenty-five bombers (B-17s and B-26s), and six new Grumman Avengers from VT-8 off the USS
Hornet
flew in on June 1. There were more than thirty long-range Catalinas; enormous planes with a wingspan over 100 feet, the PBYs were also used for interdiction and night attack. They could carry bombs, torpedoes, and four machine guns over their 2,500-mile range.