An edited version of the John Ford tribute to the men of Torpedo Squadron 8, 30 29 of whom died in the first strike against the Japanese assault forces gathering around Midway island, 4 June 1942.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsK1PeoMfNQ[/youtube]
I can’t imagine what it felt like to be in that formation, watching your wingmen and squadron mates go down in flames one by one, cartwheeling into the sea. Seeing the nimble Zeros move from one to the next until – knowing that any other choice only delays the inevitable – they finally saddle at your six as you Stay. On. Target. What it felt like to hear their rounds strike home. To see the ocean loom up in the windscreen, the joyous dance of the sun sparkling on the wave tops, through the oil smoke and the pain.
I’ve often wondered what it felt like to be Ensign George Gay, fished out of the water at last and returned to the Hornet. Walking into that ready room; now an empty mausoleum. Personal things in suspense everywhere – a flight jacket draped over a chair. A necktie. A paperback novel left open to its place. Coffee cups hanging from their hooks. Letters from home that would never be read. Stern tactical guidance on the chalk board written in a dead man’s hand. The echoes of fled voices.
In every modern day air strike, training or tactical, the strike lead will brief “abort criteria” – the airborne fallout of a critical asset, or the presentation of an unanticipated type or number of threats which would tend to make the mission risk unacceptable. We always brief it, but it seems so often to be merely an intellectual exercise – we almost never abort a strike once it has “pushed.” Some of the bombers launched into Lebanon against anti-aircraft artillery in 1983 weren’t even loaded with ordnance. They went anyway. To help out, maybe. By drawing fire.
This “damn the torpedoes” thing is a cultural foible of ours. Torpedo Squadron 8′s example may be a part of the reason why.
“Stern tactical guidance on the chalk board written in a dead man’s hand.”
“If there is only one plane left to make a final run-in,” he told his men, “I want that man to go in and get a hit. May God be with us all. Good luck, happy landings, and give ‘em hell.”
–LCDR John C. Waldron
I watched a History Channel presentation on this last week. Their courage was astounding.
Well spoken, gentlmen.
At the Mighty Eight Air Force Museum in Pooler, GA, there is a video tribute to the men who ripped the roof off of Nazi Germany. I have seen it several times and keep coming back to one point…despite the massive casualties caused to the USAAF doing daylight bombing missions, not a single mission of the 8th ever turned back. Every mission fought its way to the target and dropped.
To paraphrase…Uncommon Valor was a Common Virtue in that War
It’s a dam shame when the portal used here at work won’t let me see a John Ford tribute to Torpedo Squadron 8. Have you a direct link?
b2
And were it not for the grim warriors of TorpRon 8, the attack of the Dauntless Dive bombers might never have happened. The torpedo attack drew virtually the entire CAP down low, and before they could re-group and get to altitude, their carriers were turned into flaming wrecks.
I’ve lost count of the times I’ve read “The Big E”, and I think I’m on my third copy. Every time I read this part, I get a shiver just trying to imagine what it was like. God bless all of them, they were Naval Aviators, Aircrew, and warriors all.
Very minor correction, just because it irritates me in an otherwise excellent post: Torpedo Eight lost 29 of 30 men who went on the strike that morning. Fifteen planes, two men each. Ensign Gay was the sole survivor.
Maybe the creepiest thing about Torpedo Eight, though, is the one plane that survived. After the battle, the remaining TBDs were flown off their carriers and parked at Ford Island NAS. Five airplanes: three from Enterprise, one each from Yorktown and Hornet. Three of the five had the same plane number: 3-T-7 from Yorktown, 6-T-7 from Enterprise, and 8-T-7 from Hornet.
That is kind of creepy.
I don’t know if I would compair the two Lex. Midway was a case of throwing everything you had at the enemy because it was all you had. Lebanon in 1983 was an example of political meddling. As I recall we only had a couple of hours to load and launch that strike, after having a properly planned and armed strike stood down a few days before. At Midway, lives were put in jeopary because there was no choice. At Lebanon they were put at risk on a whim.
#7 – Jim, you are correct.
Cooper/Palmer have an excellent summary of our “Disaster in Lebanon” caused by last minute, Washington meddling.
http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_278.shtml
I think it’s a fair comparison – at some point, when the Zero is living in your six and you’re starting to take hits you know you’re not going to do any damage to the enemy. Your only chance to survive is to jettison your ordnance and maneuver, hoping that the bandits choose someone more threatening to their carriers shoot at next. It’s your only chance to live, but of course, it would mean betraying your wingman and squadron mates to an earlier death.
The guys going over the beach at Lebanon had nothing to contribute to the fight but their presence. They might have easily begged off, but that would have reduced the numbers of targets for the Syrian gunners to choose from.
Remember, I am talking men, not politicians.
#7 & #8 – My personal take was that Lex was infering to the personal valor, not the political.
Check the times on Lex’s post and mine… Great minds…
I am truly amazed at the men that fought in that war. They went and did a hard job, and then came home and built this country into the powerhouse that it is now. And they did all of this with little or no complaining. It’s just what they needed to do. That was a hard fought war too. I don’t think this country has ever faced as ruthless and determined an enemy as we did when fighting against the imperial Japanese and Germans… Except for maybe the violent Jihadis that we’re up against now.
Jim C
NSFW – because people wonder why you have tears in your eyes sitting in your cube.
Thanks so much for the post.
The VT-8 crews totally bought the Dauntless crews the time to do their work, and paid for it with their lives. Courage, indeed.
Is a full version available somewhere?
I just picked up a copy of “Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway” and look forward to reading it. I’ve been interested in all things Midway ever since my dad took me to see the “The Battle of Midway” starring Charlton Heston, et al, back in 1976.
Total torpedo plane losses:
TBDs: 35 of 41 (all carrier-based).
TBFs: 5 of 6 (all land-based).
B-26: 2 of 4 (all land-based).
I don’t remember the Vindicator losses during their glide-bombing runs, but they were steep as well.
Every air squadron engaged at Midway took heavy losses, except the B-17s (who earned their name of Flying Fortresses, but no points for accuracy). Fifty percent was a low loss ratio that day.
There was a book published a couple of years ago that rewrites pretty near the entire Japanese side of the battle: Shattered Sword, by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully. HIGHLY recommended.
The great monument of Torpedo EIGHT is that they were the key to breaking the back of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and turning the tide of the war in the Pacific. Just six months after the Attack on Pearl Harbor the torpedo planes drew the Zero CAP down on the deck and the dive bombers were free to make their attack. In minutes KAGA, AKAGI,and SORYU were on their way to the bottom. Hours later HIRYU was to join them. Only SHOKAKU and ZUIKAKU of the Pearl Harbor force survived, and both were sunk off the Philippines in 1944.
The men of Torpedo EIGHT echoed the hallowed words of John Paul Jones — I Have Not Yet Begun To Fight!
# 9
Knowingly flying into harm’s way unarmed stretches the limits of credibility, if not sanity.
I can understand, given the confusing and untimely circumstances at the time, that many aircraft may not have had the appropriate weapons-load for the mission. But to go in with no weapon load at all, and no mission? That is not smart.
Flak/SAM absorption is not a mission. And additional aircraft in the sky only means more targets for the enemy to hit, thereby foolishly increasing the risk, and odds of an expensive aircraft, not to mention highly trained crews and valuable lives of being hit and downed.
Going into a gunfight with only a knife is ill advised. But going into a gunfight unarmed, and unnecessarily risking crew and aircraft? I believe that ranks as stupidity.
Now I can maybe understand crews who have long trained for, but never having had the opportunity to get into the game for real, having buck fever and eager to maybe naively fly into the fight. Or maybe there was some air-medal envy. Maybe they even mistakenly thought they were helping. Regardless, any wing commander who would allow any of his flight crews to go into such a hostile air environment, unarmed , should be held accountable.
There is no valor in unnecessarily risking man and machine without having a mission. Being a flak-magnet increases the odds of losing both, for no good reason.
If this did happen, then what ever happened to discretion being the better part of valor?
…At the Patriot’s Point Naval Museum in Charleston (and should you ever find yourself in the area I’d be honored to treat you to a tour) there is a sobering display aboard USS Yorktown of VT-8′s sacrifice. The pictures of the lost men are painful enough, but some of the aviators didn’t even leave pictures behind, and their places are taken by a picture of a 1940′s flying helmet adrift on the waves. I have seen that display literally a dozen times, and a dozen times I have had to step away to compose myself. When those men left Hornet that morning, they knew what was coming – and they launched anyways.
I also had the pleasure of meeting one of VT-8′s plane chiefs in 2002 at the Doolittle’s Raiders 60th anniversary reunion. I will never forget his voice as he told us how they stood on the deck, knowing that any moment now, any moment, LCDR Waldron would bring them back aboard…and how hardened Chiefs wept when they realized what had happened.
Mike
I know this story, yet the words used to describe the same events above bring that days events into a completely new and more fitting context.
The added comments add more details, especially Mike’s sobering report of the men who watched the horizon form men who never returned. Well done.
CO, VT-8 John C. Waldron was honored by having a Sumner class destroyer (DD-699) bear his name. She served honorably until decommissioned in 1973 and transferred to Colombia as ARC Santander, where she was eventually scrappped after a few more years in their service.
That was when we had enough ships to name some after warriors, not mere politicians.
Believe it was the first time some crews of VT-8 flew off the deck with live odinance. “Shattered Sword” is a wonderful read, and will clarify many of the misconceptions. VT-8 stands as the primary reason I got interested in naval aviation in the first place. There is an outstanding B&W photo of the group forming up at departure. Its worth putting up or looking for if you have never seen it.
OMG!!! Torpedo 8. One of the first books I read through as a kid was Incredible Victory. It tells both sides story very well. The battle of Midway is always something special to me. Some who aren’t up to it just may come across that event and see that Torpedo 8 was wiped out. However when looking closer, Torpedo 8′s skipper , Waldron was described as the classic Navy Squadron leader not unlike a football coach that was bigger than life in the way they lead their team.
Thanks for remembering these guys sir.
The stakes were enormous at Midway – ultimately the war hinged on how well we did there. The men on the ships and in the attack squadrons could not know precisely how key the battle would be at the end, but they did know that America was threatened, and apparently believed that the mission was more important than individuals.
Very humbling, very difficult to sit and consider how you might act in similar circumstances when knowing that your personal survival is threatened. Those guys were incredible. We owe their memory much, as we do the people who are doing things today in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places.
Fliterman, I believe you are off-base and hence out of line here, not through any logical mishap but precisely because unit cohesion and spirit cannot be explained by logical thinking.
Flying a torpedo plane in World War 2 was a stupid thing to do, if you had a choice. They were slow, had limited armor and defensive firepower, they had to go down under 100 knots and 50 feet to drop their ordinance before having any chance to escape, making them the perfect sitting ducks for any enemy fighter. Nobody volunteered for torpedo plane duty, you volunteered for the war and that was the assignment you were given and going to do.
Probably how the German ME-262 pilots felt about take-off and landing once the allies had air superiority. You have the weapon, you have the potential, unfortunately a lot of other folks need to be covering your back while you’re vulnerable.
Now Torpedo 8 executed an attack run and came up empty, a point not unexpected given the fighters arrayed against them. What Torpedo 8 did was what is known in baseball as a “sacrifice fly.” They drew away the defensive fighters, allowing later flights to have less opposition in their runs.
VT-8 was followed by VT-6, Admiral Spruance being of the belief that steaming toward the enemy and launching attacks was preferable to sitting idle until a perfect plan could be formed and executed.
While VT-6 and VT-8 were shot down (VT-8 flying the TBD Devestator) the Japanese CAP was brought down, VT-3 later occupied their attention. This gave The Dauntless dive-bombers an unobstructed shot at the carriers.
All without fighter escort, as any comprehensive plan would have included.
It wasn’t meant to be done that way, ony a fool would send in torpedo planes without fighter escort, and the misdirection by the US submarine Nautilus is generally unmentioned in most accounts.
Fact remains, these men did their duty. They had no idea what part they were playing, how their actions would influence events, they saw squadron-mates dropped into the sea and continued on, on mission.
Smart or dumb, they weren’t in the position to be able to question their orders, or congureup a grand scheme of battle that made their attack a diversion. They flew into that battle group with only trust and a sense of duty on their mind.
They were vindicated by the dive-bombers. However, I think you do a disservice to them to opine they did so out of a lack of sanity. The same is true of the pilots in Lebanon.
Men don’t fight for a plan, or an idea. They fight for each other. They’ll fly unarmed planes to draw fire rather than sit on the ground, if they can do so.
Harness that spirit and you can do anything.
– Max
Why did the “100″ do what they did Flit? The Alamo? Obviously, they were foolish too, eh?
b2
It is true that many foolish things were done in 83, that we learned from later.
In many ways we were lucky at Midway, in the sense of taking full advantage of what Torpedo 8 bought with their lives.
But as Lombardi used to define luck, it happens when “opportunity meets preparation.” We were perhaps better prepared to be lucky in 1942 than we were in 1983.
And to toss another tale of brave men without ammo in planes, take some time to read about the Battle Off Samar. Many CVE pilots, seeing the massive IJN strike force heading towards their “home plates” had them making numerous strafing runs without a single bullet left for the guns…for the same purpose as discussed about Lebanon above…to draw fire and add to the complicated tactical decision making on the surface by the Japanese command structure
‘I’ve often wondered what it felt like to be Ensign George Gay, fished out of the water at last and returned to the Hornet. Walking into that ready room; now an empty mausoleum.’ I believe that Gay went straight to a hospital after being rescued, having been in the water for 2 – 3 days. So this scene never happened.
It should be noted with Ensign George Gay’s passing he was cremated and his ashes where cast upon the watery grave of his ill-fated brethen.
God Speed, Sir
George Gay graduated from my alma mater, and in 1979 he was the speaker at my senior banquet. This post reminds me of how fortunate I am to have been able to shake his hand, and hear him tell his story in person.
MaxD, et al. … My comments were very specific, and limited only to certain reported actions in the 1983 Lebanon incident. In no way was my commentary even remotely about the Battle of Midway, [which incidentally holds a special place for me] Ens. Gay and the courageous efforts of VT-8 personnel, any other armed conflict, or any of many acts of unselfish valor throughout our history.
Each situation and action must be examined within their own unique circumstances, and never broad-brushed. Without all the facts, assumptions are often flawed. However, in the specific circumstances pertaining only to the Lebanon strike, I stand by my original posted opinion.
Xformed
REF # 28 I am proud to include my uncle in that group ENS(T) J. E. Buchanan of VC-3. Made 15 passes at the Japanese Fleet in his FM-2…9 with no gun ammo.
And don’t forget the men of the 4 DEs and 3 DDs who charged the Japanese fleet.
I have a flight log book of an AOM 3/C that flew with VT-8 just before Midway, transferring out the week before to attend radio school (which saved his life). The entries in the log book include a lot of personnel that were killed in the Devastator attack. There are also eight entries where this guy flew with George Gay in March of 42′. It continues in mid-June with his return to the unit and there are several entries from the Guadalcanal battles when VT-8 flew as part of the Cactus Air Force from Henderson Field. Read “A Dawn Like Thunder” if you want to get a detailed description of this part of VT-8′s combat history.