Battle of Midway

The Yorktown Diary of Ed Reynolds

By Pat Reynolds

Suppose you found a magic door that opened onto some of the most crucial battles fought in the Pacific during World War II? Read more

Battle of Midway

Why the Douglas SBD Dauntless Had Such a Stunning Combat Record

By Martin K.A. Morgan

On August 7, 1942, Petty Officer 1st Class Saburo Sakai was piloting his Mitsubishi A6M2 “Zero” fighter in the skies over Sealark Channel in the Solomon Islands. Read more

Battle of Midway

Shootout in the “Slingshot”: First Day of the Guadalcanal Campaign

By John J. Domagalski

The fading daylight of August 6, 1942, found the American heavy cruisers Astoria and Chicago as part of Task Force 61, under the command of Vice Admiral Jack Fletcher, steaming toward the South Pacific island of Guadalcanal. Read more

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 Hipperson

BACKSTORY: 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 Niderost

Lieutenant (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. Chaisson

Shortly 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. Hull

With 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 Haskew

Six 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 Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, or the Consolidated B-24 Liberator?

By Sam McGowan

One 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 Shell

By 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 Domagalski

The 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 McGowan

Thanks 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 Bismarck Sea: A 15-Minute War in the South Pacific

By Sam McGowan

Most 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. Whitman

Japan 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 Johnson

The 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 Domagalski

Admiral 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