Battle of Midway
The Airborne Defenders of Midway
By Colonel Dick Camp (ret.)Prologue: At the start of World War II, Midway Atoll was a key U.S. base in the central Pacific. Read more
Battle of Midway
Battle of Midway: Story of a Yorktown Survivor
By Carol Edgemon HippersonBACKSTORY: After working in a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp in Idaho, Ray Daves enlisted in the Navy in the spring of 1938 and reported for basic training the following year. Read more
Battle of Midway
An Ace in a day: Ted Crosby’s Air War in the Pacific
By Eric NiderostLieutenant (j.g.) John “Ted” Crosby banked his Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat around, observing the life-and-death drama that was unfolding below him. Read more
Battle of Midway
Sgt. John Basilone: Marine Hero of Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima
By Fred L. Borch & Robert F. Dorr“Banzai! Banzai!” screamed the Japanese at the top of their lungs as they launched a ferocious night attack against Marines dug in on Guadalcanal. Read more
Battle of Midway
Heroic Airacobras of the Cactus Air Force
By Patrick J. ChaissonShortly after 11 am on August 22, 1942, the roar of aircraft engines shattered the stillness over Henderson Field, Guadalcanal. Read more
Battle of Midway
“John Ford’s Navy”: A Filmmaker in the OSS
By Michael D. HullWith such award-winning films as Stagecoach, Young Mr. Lincoln, Drums Along the Mohawk, The Grapes of Wrath, The Long Voyage Home, and How Green Was My Valley behind him, John Ford was one of Hollywood’s most respected directors by the time World War II broke out in 1939. Read more
Battle of Midway
Why the Japanese Lost the Battle of Midway (And How it Changed WWII)
by Mike HaskewSix months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy, sought to extend Japan’s defensive perimeter in the central Pacific with the seizure of Midway atoll, about 1,300 miles west of Hawaii. Read more
Battle of Midway
Comparing Admiral Chester Nimitz and Isoroku Yamamoto
by Michael Haskew“Japan cannot defeat America; therefore, Japan should not go to war with America.” Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy, spoke those words to a group of school children as his government contemplated just that. Read more
Battle of Midway
The Battle Of Midway: Turning the Tide in the South Pacific
By John WukovitsRarely in the history of warfare had one nation absorbed such numbing losses in so rapid a time as did the United States in the Pacific War’s first five months. Read more
Battle of Midway
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, or the Consolidated B-24 Liberator?
By Sam McGowanOne of the most frequently discussed arguments to come out of World War II is which was the “better” bomber, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress or the Consolidated B-24 Liberator? Read more
Battle of Midway
A Submariner’s Letter From World War II
By Robert Schultz with James ShellBy Christmas 1941, Robert Hunt, torpedoman on the submarine USS Tambor, had witnessed the Japanese bombing of Wake Island, had slept in the Tambor’s forward torpedo room on the way back to Pearl with a bomb-induced leak bubbling in the corner, and had stood on his sub’s bow and seen the devastation of Battleship Row as debris in the oil-slicked harbor bumped against the hull. Read more
Battle of Midway
A Newspaper Headline Nearly Exposed the U.S. Navy’s Codebreaking Success Against Japan
By Colonel James W. Hammond, Jr.Stanley Johnston, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune accredited to the Navy as a correspondent, had made two forays into the South Pacific aboard the aircraft carrier Lexington. Read more
Battle of Midway
Torpedo Squadron 8: Their Heroic Flight at the Battle of Midway
By John DomagalskiThe pilots of Bombing Squadron 6 could not believe what they were seeing on the morning of June 4, 1942. Read more
Battle of Midway
The Chance-Vought F4U Corsair: Whistling Death in the South Pacific
by Sam McGowanThanks to the rather far-fetched mid-1970s TV series Black Sheep Squadron, the bent-wing image of the Chance-Vought F4U Corsair is no doubt one of the most vivid of the World War II fighters in the minds of most Americans. Read more
Battle of Midway
Battle of the Philippine Sea & The ‘Great Marianas Turkey Shoot’
By John WukovitsLieutenant Tom Bronn glanced anxiously at the fuel gauge on his Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bomber. He had been aloft for almost four hours, engaged in a hectic combination of trying to locate Japanese ships he knew to be in the Philippine Sea, diving down to unleash his four bombs at a carrier as dusk enveloped his aircraft, and then embarking on a desperate search for his own carrier, the USS Lexington, in the darkness. Read more
Battle of Midway
Battle of the Bismarck Sea: A 15-Minute War in the South Pacific
By Sam McGowanMost military historians consider the Battle of Midway to be the turning point of World War II in the Pacific. Read more
Battle of Midway
How Japanese Aircraft Carrier Construction Was Thwarted
by John W. WhitmanJapan lacked the industrial strength needed to wage a war against the United States. Yet, Japanese military planners seldom considered the limitations to their nation’s construction capabilities. Read more
Battle of Midway
WWII Fighter Planes: The Grumman F4F Wildcat Fighter
By David Alan JohnsonThe Grumman F4F Wildcat is usually described as chunky, “square,” squat, or stubby—not exactly adjectives that suggest grace or elegance. Read more
Battle of Midway
USS Astoria Sunk: The Disaster Off Savo Island
By John DomagalskiAdmiral Ernest King could not believe what he was reading. The graying 63-year-old chief of U.S. naval operations had been awoken from his sleep. Read more
Battle of Midway
The Shinano Carrier: How Allied Forces Sunk Such a Secret
By Kelly BellThe first torpedo struck the Shinano carrier farthest aft. Over the next 30 seconds three more warheads detonated against the massive aircraft carrier’s hull, working their way forward. Read more
