The Battle of Midway (Pivotal Moments in American History) (63 page)

5
. Ibid., 95–96, 118; Ronald H. Spector,
Eagle against the Sun: The American War with Japan
(New York: Free Press, 1985), 36–37; Samuel Eliot Morison,
History of United States Naval Operations in World War II
, vol. 3,
The Rising Sun in the Pacific, 1931–April 1942
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1948), 13.

6
. The text of the “Fundamental Principles”: is available at
http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/timeline/144app01.html
. See also Spector,
Eagle against the Sun
, 42.

7
. Asada,
From Mahan to Pearl Harbor
, 164–66, 194–97.

8
. Yamamoto is quoted in Peattie,
Sunburst
, 83. See also Agawa,
Reluctant Admiral
, 46–52.

9
. Agawa,
Reluctant Admiral
, 13.

10
. Yamamoto to Admiral Shimada, Sept. 4, 1939, quoted in Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon, eds.,
The Pearl Harbor Papers: Inside the Japanese Plans
(Washington, DC: Brassey’s, 1993), 114; Agawa,
Reluctant Admiral
, 13, 124, 186; Matome Ugaki,
Fading Victory: The Diary of Admiral Matome Ugaki, 1941–1945
, ed. Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon, trans. Masataka Chihaya (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1991), 6. To some extent, the Imperial Japanese Navy acquiesced to the pact with Germany in exchange for assurances that it would get an increase in steel allocation in the budget. In effect, therefore, national policy was subordinated to service ambitions. See Asada,
From Mahan to Pearl Harbor
, 243.

11
. Yamamoto to Navy Minister Oikawa, Jan. 7, 1941, quoted in Goldstein and Dillon,
Pearl Harbor Papers
, 115; Asada,
From Mahan to Pearl Harbor
, 238; Peattie,
Sunburst
, 83; Agawa,
Reluctant Admiral
, 192.

12
. H. P. Willmott,
The Barrier and the Javelin: Japanese and Allied Pacific Strategies, February to June 1942
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1983), 28–30.

13
. Atsushi Oi, “The Japanese Navy in 1941,” in
The Pacific War Papers: Japanese Documents of World War II
, ed. Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon (Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2004), 16; Agawa,
Reluctant Admiral
, 127, 195.

14
. Peattie,
Sunburst
, 76.

15
. Jisaburo Ozawa, “Outline Development of Tactics and Organization of the Japanese Carrier Air Force,” in Goldstein and Dillon,
Pacific War Papers
, 78–79; Peattie,
Sunburst
, 149, 151.

16
. Agawa,
Reluctant Admiral
, 264; Gordon Prange interview of Genda (Sept. 5, 1966), Prange Papers, UMD, box 17; Ugaki,
Fading Victory
, 13 (diary entry of Oct. 22, 1941).

17
. The quotation is from Admiral Yonai Mitsumasa and is quoted by Hiroyuki Agawa in
The Reluctant Admiral: Yamamoto and the Imperial Navy
, trans. John Bester (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1979), 191.

18
. Yamamoto to Navy Minister Oikawa, Jan. 7, 1941, quoted in Goldstein and Dillon,
Pearl Harbor Papers
, 116; Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 14–15.

19
. Masataka Chihaya, “Concerning the Construction of Japanese Warships,” in Goldstein and Dillon,
Pacific War Papers
, 86.

20
. The “modern expert” is Mark Peattie, in
Sunburst
, 100. See also Oi, “The Japanese Navy in 1941,” 22–23.

21
. Peattie,
Sunburst
, 166; Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 89; Agawa,
Yamamoto
, 202; Oi, “The Japanese Navy in 1941,”12.

22
. Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 130; John Campbell,
Naval Weapons of World War Two
(London: Conway Maritime, 1985); Peattie,
Sunburst
, 95. The Kate was also used as a level bomber against land targets when it carried a heavy (1,760–pound) explosive (fragmentation) bomb whose purpose was to suppress antiaircraft fire from a surface target. Such bombs wrecked the superstructure of the USS
Arizona
in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

23
. Peattie,
Sunburst
, 91–92; Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 78; and Spector,
Eagle against the Sun
, 46–47.

24
. Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 256; Oi, “The Japanese Navy in 1941,” 25.

25
. John B. Lundstrom,
The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1984), 455 (Appendix 1).

26
. Oi, “The Japanese Navy in 1941,” 23; Peattie,
Sunburst
, 133–34; Lundstrom,
First Team
, 455–56.

27
. Ugaki,
Fading Victory
, 48 (diary entry of Dec. 9, 1941). The notion that Nagumo ought to have attacked the U.S. oil-tank farm on Oahu is mostly hindsight. The tank farm was not part of the initial target list, and even if Nagumo had launched a third strike, its purpose would most likely have been to mop up elements of the fleet that remained afloat.

28
. Martin Middlebrook and Patrick Mahoney,
Battleship: The Loss of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse
(London: Lane, 1977).

Chapter 3

1
. Steve Wiper,
Yorktown Class Carriers
(Tucson, AZ: Classic Warships, 2000); Robert Cressman et al.,
“A Glorious Page in Our History”: The Battle of Midway, 4–6 June 1942
(Missoula, MT: Pictorial Histories, 1990), 202. I am grateful to Bert Kinzey and to Ronald W. Russell for their help with this chapter.

2
. John B. Lundstrom,
Black Shoe Carrier Admiral: Frank Jack Fletcher at Coral Sea, Midway, and Guadalcanal
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2006), 100.

3
. Thomas Wildenberg,
All the Factors of Victory: Admiral Joseph Mason Reeves and the Origins of Carrier Airpower
(Washington, DC: Brassey’s, 2003), 155.

4
. William F. Halsey and J. Bryan III,
Admiral Halsey’s Story
(New York: Whittlesey House, 1947), 50–55. The quotation is from 52.

5
. Ibid., 14.

6
. The “modern scholar” is John B. Lundstrom in
Black Shoe Carrier Admiral
, 21; 1902
Lucky Bag
, USNA; Samuel Eliot Morison,
History of United States Naval Operations in World War II
, vol. 3,
The Rising Sun in the Pacific, 1931–April 1942
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1948), 211n.

7
. Noel Gayler oral history (Feb. 15, 2002), 4, Naval Historical Foundation.

8
. Stephen D. Regan,
In Bitter Tempest: The Biography of Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher
(Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1994), viii; 1906
Lucky Bag
, USNA. The critic was Lieutenant Richard Best, in an interview (Aug. 11, 1995), 30, NMPW.

9
. Lundstrom,
Black Shoe Carrier Admiral
, 53.

10
. J.J. Clark, with Clark G. Reynolds,
Carrier Admiral
(New York: McKay, 1967), 78; Lundstrom,
Black Shoe Carrier Admiral
, 55.

11
. John B. Lundstrom,
The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1984), 51.

12
. Harold L. Buell,
Dauntless Helldivers: A Dive-Bomber Pilot’s Epic Story of the Carrier Battles
(New York: Orion Books, 1991); Barrett Tillman,
The Dauntless Dive Bomber of World War II
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1976); Cressman et al.,
Glorious Page
, 206.

13
. The quotations are from ENS Clayton Fisher, who flew in VB-8, “The SBD in Combat,” BOMRT, available at
http://www.midway42.org/fisher-sbd.htm
, See also Buell,
Dauntless Helldivers
, 61.

14
. The pilot was Max Leslie, skipper of VB-3 on
Yorktown
, in Leslie to Smith, Dec. 15, 1964, Prange Papers, UMD, box 17. Bill Burch made the same analogy. See Stuart D. Ludlum,
They Turned the War Around at Coral Sea and Midway: Going to War with Yorktowns Air Group Five
(Bennington, VT: Merriam, 2000), 86.

15
. N. J. “Dusty” Kleiss, “Remembrance of a Rear-Seater,” BOMRT, posted April 27, 2007,
http://www.midway42.org/vets-kleiss.html
; Richard Best interview (Aug. 11, 1995), NMPW, 16; Cressman et al.,
Glorious Page
, 209.

16
. Richard Best interview (Aug. 11, 1995), NMPW, 25; Frederick Mears,
Carrier Combat
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1944), 22; Clayton E. Fisher, “Officer and Enlisted Airmen,” BOMRT,
The Roundtable Forum
, issue 2010–15, April 10, 2010.

17
. John S. Thach oral history (Nov. 6, 1970), U.S. Naval Institute Oral History Collection, USNA, 1:231; Richard Best interview (Aug. 11, 1995), NMPW, 18.

18
. John Campbell,
Naval Weapons of World War Two
(London: Conway Maritime, 1985), 206; Mears,
Carrier Combat
, xv.