Реферат: BATTLE AT MIDWAY Essay Research Paper Battle

minutes to clear the decks of all four Japanese carriers. These planes were headed toward

Midway Island.

The next order that came was to launch the reconnaissance planes who were to fan

out to the east and southeast to assure there were no American fleets. They launched five

planes with no trouble, but the sixth had catapult trouble and had to be relaunched. When

Nagumo asked how long of a delay that was, the response was 30 minutes. Admiral

Nagumo’s response was “It’s good the American Fleet is still in Hawaii or that delay could

have been costly”. But little did he know that that mistake was costly for if that plane had

left on time it would of surely spotted the American fleet and the Battle at Midway would

of changed direction. But Nagumo was still certain that the American fleet was still many

miles away.

On Midway, Lieutenant Howard Ady was taking off to scout the ocean for enemy

ships in his Catalina search plane. When it was time, Lt. Ady lowered his altitude. When

he cleared the clouds, he was stunned to see the largest mass of ships that he had ever

seen! He then quickly pulled back up into the clouds where he would be safe and radioed

“enemy carriers”. The next time he descended he came up low behind them. The fleet

consisted of 2 carriers and several more ships in formation battleships.

About 25 minutes after Lt. Ady spotted the radar at Midway showed blimps. Two

minutes later the Midway Islands filled with air raid sirens and warnings that repeated over

and over. The soldiers that were station there were stationed at Midway started

scrambling every which way. Some went to their airplanes that were waiting on the

runways for them and others to battle stations. These planes included 6 Navy Avenger

torpedo planes,4 Army Marauders.The ten aircraft were to intercept the Japanese Zeros

that were headed for Midway.

The Marine pilots complained about the Brewster Buffalo and the Gruman

Wildcats that they had to fly. As they were taking off, one of the pilots said “these tin cans

actually got off the ground” this message must have distracted some of the pilots because

the next thing they knew they were in a swarm of Japasnese Zeros. Fifteen U.S. planes

went down.