Реферат: The Battle Of Midway In The Pacific

from the 6th Defense Battalion under the command of Lt. Col. Harold D. Shannon,

a veteran of World War I and duty in Panama and Hawaii. Shannon and Simard

meshed into an effective team right away. World War II began for Midway at 6:30

a.m. December 7, 1941, when the garrison received word of the Japanese attack on

Pearl Harbor. At 6:42 p.m., a Marine sentry sighted a flashing light out at sea

and alerted the garrison. Three hours later, the Japanese destroyers Sazanami

and Ushio opened fire, damaging a seaplane hangar, knocking out the Pan American

direction finder and destroying a consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat. The

Japanese retired at 10:00 p.m., leaving four Midway defenders dead and 10

wounded. On December 23, 1941, Midway’s air defenses were reinforced with 17

SB2U-3 Vought Vindicator dive bombers, 14 Brewster F2A-3 Buffalo fighters, and

pilots and aircrews originally intended for the relief of Wake Island. The

Buffaloes and Vindicators were cast-off aircraft, having been replaced by the

Douglas SBD-2 Dauntless dive bombers and Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat fighters on U.S.

aircraft carriers. The Buffaloes became part of MarineFighter Squadron 221 (VMF-

221), while the Vindicators were put into Marine Scout Bombing Squadron 241

(VMSB-241), both making up Marine Air Group 22 (MAG-22) under Lt. Col. Ira B.

Kimes. Midway settled into a routine of training and anti-submarine flights,

with little else to do except play endless games of cards and cribbage, and

watch Midway’s famous albatrosses, nicknamed gooney birds, in action (Stevens

56). Then, in May 1942, Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, commander in chief of the

Japanese Combined Fleet, came up with a plan, called Operation Mi, to draw out

the U.S. Pacific Fleet by attacking Midway. Using Midway as bait and gathering a

vast naval armada of eight aircraft carriers, 11 battleships, 23 cruisers, 65

destroyers and several hundred fighters, bombers and torpedo planes, Yamamoto

planned to crush the Pacific Fleet once and for all. Alerted by his code-

breakers that the Japanese planned to seize Midway, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz,

commander in chief, Pacific Command, flew to the atoll on May 2, 1942, to make a

personal inspection. Following his inspection, Nimitz took Simard and Shannon