Cripple Creek Press
INTRODUCTION
A simple lie can change the course of history.
Beginning with the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the next four months witness a continuous string of victories by Japanese armed forces throughout the Pacific Theater. Wake Island falls before year’s end. The last bastion of Corregidor is poised on the brink of surrender, spelling an imminent end to the American presence in the Philippines. Australia, Hawaii, and the West Coast of the United States lie vulnerable to attack. By the early spring of 1942, the United States appears close to a catastrophic defeat to the Empire of Japan.
Yet, all is not what it seems. Japan makes a grievous error at Pearl Harbor. By striking while the American aircraft carriers are absent, the United States has sufficient resources for retaliation. The Japanese soon realize this. There is a sense of urgency among some members of the Imperial Combined Fleet to end hostilities before the American industrial might exerts itself. It is Yamamoto’s belief that the total destruction of the American battle fleet will force the United States to the peace negotiation table. He seeks another surprise attack opportunity like Pearl Harbor, but dismisses an invasion of Hawaii or the West Coast as too dangerous due to patrols and available defensive air power. He decides to focus his enormous naval strike forces on an intermediate target. This target has to be beyond the range of air support from Hawaii but important enough that the United States will fight to retain its possession. Midway meets both of these requirements and offers the Japanese a presence in the central Pacific near the Hawaiian Islands. In an attempt to lure the American aircraft carrier fleet into a final battle of annihilation, Yamamoto and his staff develop the Midway Plan in early 1942.
In the spring of that year, concern grows among American intelligence sources about Japanese communications and movements in the Pacific. A belief develops, especially among Commander Joseph Rochefort’s small code-breaking unit operating at Pearl Harbor called the Pacific Fleet Combat Intelligence Unit, designated HYPO, that another major Japanese offensive operation against a target code-named AF is imminent. Through long hours of hard study and due diligence breaking the Japanese cyphers, it is determined that Midway Atoll is the chosen target. Admiral Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet, has faith in HYPO’s conclusions. Admiral Ernest King, Chief of Naval Operations back in Washington, wants more proof before agreeing with Nimitz’s plan to defend Midway. HYPO comes up with an idea to have Midway transmit a false message advising Pearl Harbor that its fresh water condenser has broken down. This small lie is intercepted by a Japanese listening post and then broadcast to Tokyo as, “AF is low on fresh water.” The broadcast confirms the matter for King and sets in motion the battle to follow. Admiral Nimitz commences preparations to spring his own surprise on the unsuspecting Japanese fleet.
Despite opposition at every level, Yamamoto forces the Japanese Naval General Staff to adopt his plans by threatening to resign if he is refused; this is the same tactic he used to win approval for the Pearl Harbor attack. The prestige gained by him since then adds to the influence he commands. In April, the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo and the fears that ensue serve to end most of the arguments against the operation. Yamamoto's one concession to the General Staff is to include a simultaneous attack and occupation of the Aleutian Islands to protect Japan’s eastern flank from American forces.
The plans as drawn up by Yamamoto’s Senior Operations Officer Captain Kameto Kuroshima involve four separate attack groups. The Northern (Aleutians) Force under the command of Vice Admiral Moshiro Hosogaya is composed of a few cruisers, destroyers, the light carrier Ryujo and carrier Junyo. Its mission is an invasion and occupation of the Aleutian Islands. The First Carrier Striking Force led by Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo from his flagship the aircraft carrier Akagi includes the large carriers Kaga, Hiryu, and Soryu. Its objective is to neutralize American air power based on Midway and soften it up for invasion. The Main Force under the direct command of Admiral Yamamoto contains the bulk of the Combined Fleet’s battleships including his flagship, Yamato, the largest such vessel currently afloat. The Main Force’s job is to follow behind Nagumo’s carrier force in preparation to pounce on the American fleet when it rushes in to defend Midway. Vice Admiral Nobutake Kondo commands the fourth element, the Midway Invasion Force, composed of a battleship, cruisers, destroyers, seaplane carriers, a light carrier, and the troop transports. Each group has a separate departure time and route to the battle area.
About a month before Operation AF is to begin, Japanese naval forces under the command of Vice Admiral Shigeyoshi Inoue intent on occupying Port Moresby clash with an American fleet led by Rear Admiral Frank J. Fletcher in the Coral Sea. A tactical victory by the Japanese in terms of ships lost by each side, the clash is nonetheless a strategic victory for the United States. The obvious American success is the withdrawal of Japanese invasion forces and removal of the threat between the Australian and American supply line. Not readily apparent at the time is that damage sustained by Shokaku and the air group losses suffered by Zuikaku, the newest and largest Japanese aircraft carriers, prevents them from participating in the upcoming Midway operation.
The Japanese believe they have sunk both the Yorktown and another carrier mistakenly identified as the Saratoga but is actually the Lexington. Lexington is in fact lying on the bottom of the Coral Sea. Though seriously damaged, Yorktown is enroute to Pearl Harbor for major repairs.
Yamamoto’s staff presents the plans to the various commanding officers involved, and war game simulations conclude. Despite Doolittle’s raid, there is still some dissension and opposition to the Midway operation. The various elements of the Combined Fleet hold final meetings in preparation to sail if they reach an agreement.
In Pearl Harbor, Admiral Nimitz rushes all available manpower and equipment to aid in repelling the invasion. Short on resources, he sends a conglomeration of aircraft to throw into the breach. He also waits for the arrival of the two men tasked with stopping the Japanese.
What happens next will determine the course of the war in the Pacific.
Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance currently serves as cruiser commander of Admiral William Halsey’s Task Force 16. He is a slender man, fifty-six years of age, with a firm face and thinning hair. The total antithesis to the swashbuckling Halsey, he believes in calm, logical thinking preceding any action. He desires neither to promote himself nor to provide colorful comments for the war correspondents. He carries this attitude to the extreme of banning reporters from his flagship. They respond by popularizing the image of Spruance as cold and hard. His inexperience with aircraft carrier command could lead to indecision and disaster. The shadow of Halsey accompanies him to Midway.
Rear Admiral Frank J. Fletcher leads Task Force 17 comprised of the aircraft carrier Yorktown and her supporting vessels. He is of medium height, fifty-seven years of age, physically fit, with a weathered face. A nephew of the past Commander in Chief of the Atlantic Fleet, Admiral Frank Friday Fletcher, he bears the taint of benefiting from friends in high places. In late December of 1941, he is picked to lead Task Force 14 in reinforcing a beleaguered Wake Island. He shares the blame along with his superior, Admiral William S. Pye, when the attempt is called off shortly before they are close enough to launch an air strike. Wake Island falls to the Japanese that same day. In May of 1942, he commands Task Force 17 during the Battle of Coral Sea. When the aircraft carrier Lexington is sunk during this action, he comes under further criticism and scrutiny. The accusations fly afterwards that his lack of aggression allowed the Japanese and certain victory to escape. Defending Midway offers the chance for vindication. Or another opportunity at failure.
Lieutenant Commander John C. Waldron leads the carrier Hornet’s Torpedo Squadron 8. He is a lean, dark-skinned man whose hawk-like profile bears evidence of a proud one-eighth Sioux bloodline and heritage. At forty-one years of age, he is the consummate professional officer who leads his boys with an equal mixture of tough taskmaster and playful older brother. His men are unblooded, most having never dropped a torpedo in any manner from their obsolete Douglas Devastator TBD torpedo-bomber aircraft. The core group has trained and lived together long enough to become family. They affectionately call Waldron either Skipper or Captain. All are vocal in their dedication and willingness to follow him into hell. The hostile waters northwest of Midway Atoll might offer them the chance.
Lieutenant Commander John S. Thach commands Yorktown’s Fighter Squadron 3 flying Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter planes. A tall, quiet-spoken Southerner, he is recognized as an exceptional leader and teacher. Thirty-six years old, he has lived an interesting life that includes performing as stand-in pilot for Clark Gable in the motion picture Hell Divers. His brilliance at developing air tactics has resulted in a maneuver that he calls the “beam defense position.” He believes this tactic will result in a greater chance of surviving an aerial encounter with the faster climbing, more nimble Japanese Zero fighter aircraft. He seeks a chance to test the tactic in actual combat to prove its effectiveness. His chance should soon arrive.
Lieutenant Commander William H. Brockman Jr. is captain of the submarine USS Nautilus. Thirty-six years of age, he is a burly man of average height with an open, sincere face. In his first command of a submarine, he and his crew are in the midst of evaluating the newly refurbished boat after its initial shakedown cruise. Like other officers forced into command by the war, he is youthful, and there are some doubts about his abilities. The same holds true for the inexperienced crew. He is determined to prove the doubters wrong. Proof waits in the deep, killing waters of the South Pacific.
Corporal Frank L. Melo Jr. is a radioman/gunner in a Mitchell B-26 Marauder medium-bomber attached to the Army Air Force’s 22nd Bomb Group. He is in his mid-twenties, a short, dashing young man with a gleam in his eyes. His and another aircrew from the 22nd are left behind in Hawaii to finish preparing their B-26s for service while the remainder of the group proceeds on to the Southwest Pacific. Bored with days spent learning to launch torpedoes from the B-26, he envies those who go on ahead to the active combat zone. He wishes to join the real fighting. Unfortunately, the real fighting is about to reach out to him and his companions.
Major Lofton R. Henderson commands Marine Air Group VMSB-241 and is an honor graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy. He is thirty-nine years old and cuts a handsome, striking figure as an officer. A veteran of carrier air operations, he looks and acts the part of a Marine’s Marine in his attitude and comportment. In late May of 1942, he is handed both a promotion and a new assignment on Midway Atoll. The assignment seems impossible to those familiar with it. Not to Henderson.
Commander Logan C. Ramsey is chief of staff for Hawaiian patrol planes. He is forty-four years old, a physically imposing figure with a visage seemingly forged from battleship steel. While unorthodox in his methods, he is a mental genius capable of figuring out complex mathematical problems while playing cards. Nimitz considers him the right man for the tough task of defending Midway from the air. Ramsey views the assignment as another job that needs doing. He forgets that fate has a way of showing a man the error in his thinking.
Lieutenant Commander Richard H. Best serves as squadron leader of Enterprise’s Bombing 6 flying Douglas Dauntless SBD dive bombers. At forty-two years of age, he maintains his boyish good looks and a slender physical frame that belies his mature leadership skills. An honor graduate of the Naval Academy, he is an excellent pilot who served a stint training flight instructors at the Pensacola Naval Air Station. With a wife and child living in Honolulu, he has much more than a passing interest in the security of the Hawaiian Islands. His concerns lead to distraction that could prove fatal.
The Japanese:
Rear Admiral Ryunosuke Kusaka is Admiral Chuichi Nagumo’s chief of staff. He is forty-eight years old and rather corpulent, with a broad, placid face. Though not a flier, he is a veteran of two separate commands of aircraft carriers. A Zen Buddhist, he often engages in philosophical discourses and holds a reflective outlook on life. Others view him as a talented negotiator and counselor, and his relaxed personality seems to make him unsuited for initiating bold action in time of crisis. He must overcome this perception if he is to become the military leader that Japan desperately needs.
Lieutenant Joichi Tomonaga is a recent addition to the aircraft carrier Hiryu’s air group flying Nakajima Ninety-seven torpedo-bomber aircraft. A young, handsome man with high cheekbones and intense eyes, he is a veteran of the air war in China. A personality mix of serious and aloof combined with a reputation as a hard drinker makes him somewhat of a loner among his new squadron mates. He secretly seeks a challenge equal to his repressed samurai upbringing. That challenge awaits him over the horizon at a place called Midway Atoll.