Реферат: The Battle Of Midway In The Pacific

report from the submarine USS Tambor of a large enemy force possibly within

striking distance. The Midway garrison still had every reason to believe that an

invasion was imminent. Within 15 minutes, eight B-17s took off from Eastern

Island to counter the threat. The Army pilots could not locate the enemy ships

in the early morning fog, and by 6:00 a.m. the B-17s were circling nearby Kure

Atoll waiting for information. At 6:30, a Midway-based PBY reported, “Sighted 2

battleships bearing 256 degrees, distance 125 miles, course 268 degrees, speed

15.” Two minutes later the PBY added, “Ships damaged, streaming oil.” The

Japanese ships were retreating, and the island’s defenders breathed a collective

sigh of relief. Marine Aircraft Group 22 sent up two flights from VMSB-241, six

Dauntlesses under Captain Marshall A. Tyler and six Vindicators led by Captain

Richard E. Flemming, to attack the two “battleships,” actually the heavy

cruisers Mikuma and Mogami, damaged in a collision the night before. Forty-five

minutes later, the Marine pilots spotted the oil slick left by the damaged

cruisers and followed it to Mogami and Mikuma. Tyler led his six Dauntlesses

into an attack on Mogami amid heavy anti-aircraft fire. The Marines dropped

their bombs, scoring a few near-misses. At 8:40, minutes after Tyler’s attack,

Flemming led his Vindicators out of the sun, through heavy flak from the

Japanese ships, against Mikuma. Captain Leon M. Williamson, a pilot in

Flemming’s flight, saw Flemming’s engine smoking during his dive. As Flemming

pulled out, his Vindicator burst into flames. Flemming–either by accident or

design–crashed his blazing Vindicator into Mikuma’s aft 8-inch gun turret. The

crash started a fire that was sucked into the cruiser’s starboard engine room

air intakes, suffocating the engineers. After the Marines finished their attacks,

the eight B-17s from Midway, led by Lt. Col. Brooke Allen, appeared and dropped

their bombs, scoring a near-miss on Mogami. The damaged cruisers continued

limping westward, and Mikuma sank at sunset the next day after attacks by

aircraft from Enterprise and Hornet. At 10:45 on June 6, 1942, Captain Simard

dispatched 26 B-17s from Midway in search of Japanese cruisers reported heading