Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway by Jonathan Parshall & Anthony Tully

Author:Jonathan Parshall & Anthony Tully
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Potomac Books
Published: 2005-11-29T11:00:00+00:00

16-1: Japanese early afternoon search plans. Haruna’s 1300 search, as well as the routes ordered by Nagumo at 1315, are both indicated. Which of these individual search lines were actually flown, and by whom, remains a mystery.

At around 1315, while Tomonaga’s unit was still being briefed, the first of Kobayashi’s dive-bombers began returning. Finding the flight deck already spotted, one of them buzzed the ship and dropped a message, which Cdr. Kawaguchi Susumu, Hiry’s hikch, retrieved. According to the note, the attack force had left the enemy force at a bearing of 080 degrees and ninety miles distant. It was composed of five heavy cruisers and a carrier, the latter burning heavily. Kawaguchi entrusted this information to Lieutenant Hashimoto, not knowing that Tomonaga’s backseater would not be with him on this flight. Thus, Tomonaga was not in possession of the most current information on Yorktown’s location as he started his mission.19

At last all was in readiness. Hiry began launching at 1330, watched intently by every man fortunate enough to be topside. None was more attentive than Admiral Yamaguchi, who stood gazing solemnly as the aircraft went up one by one. Hiry’s final strike force assembled, wheeled, and made their way toward the eastern horizon. Win or lose, it was all down to this. Near at hand, Captain Kaku was already giving orders to begin landing Kobayashi’s aircraft. After recovering them, Hiry would swing out of the wind and take up a northerly course, intending to converge with Nagara and Nagumo.

When Tomonaga was on his way, Commander Kawaguchi cleared the deck and recovered aircraft. First to come down was Sry’s Type 2 recon bird, followed by the remnants of the dive-bomber strike force. Of the twenty-four aircraft Hiry had sent aloft with Kobayashi at 1057, just six were landing now–five kanbaku and a Zero. The fighter and one of the kanbaku were both shot up to such a degree as to be unserviceable. Lieutenants Kobayashi and Kond were not among the returning aircraft. The details of the mission were difficult to discern from the survivors–their accounts didn’t jibe terribly well. As such, Hirys officers found it difficult to piece together a cohesive account from the men until long after the battle was actually over.

Kobayashi’s mission seemed to have started out well enough. After launching, the strike force had proceeded at relatively low altitude, because the visibility seemed better, though they climbed as they got closer to the suspected location of the American fleet.20 Then at 1132 had come the welcome signal from Chikuma No. 5 that would guide the attack birds to the target, followed by Hiry’s own message ten minutes later rebroadcasting the location of the Americans.

However, at about the same time, Kobayashi’s bombers had lost their fighter cover. Lieutenant Shigematsu’s Zeros spotted what appeared to be enemy torpedo aircraft below and ahead of them. He asked for, and received permission to engage them.21 In retrospect, this was clearly a mistake. Indulging in a taste for combat against enemy aircraft

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