Torpedo Squadron Eight
I ran this column two years ago at the old Taking Back North Dakota. This is my favorite column so I thought I’d run it again.
Have you ever heard of Lt. Commander John Waldron? That’s him on the left. He’s a neighbor of sorts as his hometown is Fort Pierce South Dakota.
On the morning of June 4th, 1942, he took off from the USS Hornet leading a squadron of 15 Torpedo bombers known as TB-8.
It was six months since the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor and things were not going well. The American Navy Commander Chester Nimitz had word that the Japanese planned an attack on the island of Midway, 1000 miles West of Hawaii. Nimitz decided to gamble his aircraft carriers in an attempt to ambush the larger Japanese fleet.
Lt Commander Waldron and his planes were the first to arrive at the Japanese fleet. It’s a miracle that any of the squadrons found the Japanese when you consider the information and the navigation tools they had.
Doctrine was that the Torpedo bombers which flew low and slow needed fighter cover. Well the fighters weren’t there so Lt. Commander Waldron and the rest of the crews attacked anyway. The low and slow planes were spotted and the Japanese Zeroes came in to attack. The Zero at the time was a superior fighter to our carrier planes. Their pilots were excellent. But still Torpedo Squadron 8 pressed on. They would have had to worry about the Zeroes and I assume murderous anti-aircraft fire from the Japanese ships.
Some of our guys managed to launch their torpedoes. One of the planes, piloted by George Gay, even flew over one of the Japanese carrier after he launched his torpedo. Every one of the planes in Torpedo Squadron Eight was shot down. George Gay was the only member of the squadron to survive when he was pulled out of the water the next day. The rest of them were lost at sea, their bodies never recovered, including our neighbor John Waldron.
Not one of their torpedoes caused any damage to a Japanese ships.
Soon two other Torpedo Squadrons from the USS Enterprise and USS Yorktown carried out their own attacks without fighter cover. They had a few planes survive, but they also inflicted no damage on the Japanese fleet.
During this time the Japanese fleet was unable to launch their planes. Their decks were full of fueled planes and munitions because of the Torpedo Bomber’s attacks. The Japanese fighter cover was down at the wavetops and low on fuel after dealing with the Torpedo Bombers.
At exactly this time several flights of Dauntless Dive Bombers showed up over the fleet. The Dive Bombers did their job quickly and efficiently. Within minutes three of the Japanese carriers were mortally wounded.
I doubt if any of the men of Torpedo Squadron Eight except for George Gay knew the results of their gallant attack. They did not know that the Dive Bombers were coming. They knew an attack without fighter cover was doomed.
They knew they had a job and they did it.
To sum it up I’m going to quote a great American, Colonel Jeff Cooper. Cooper is a contemporary of Torpedo Squadron Eight. Although a Marine he served as a gunnery officer on a battleship.
“The legendary attack of Torpedo Squadron 8 against the Japanese carrier force sacrificed the entire squadron, but it was not futile. When the Nip combat air patrol came down from aloft to destroy the torpedo planes, Wade McClusky’s dive bombers acquired a free hand and hit the carrier force while the latter was recovering and rearming aircraft. In a space of about five minutes the Japanese lost the war in the Pacific - or the US Navy won it, depending on your viewpoint. When we memorialize Midway, we should honor Torpedo 8 as more gallant perhaps than the Light Brigade at Balaclava, and certainly more effective than the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae. In the words of George Patton, “We should not be sad that such men died. We should be glad that such men lived.”
As I was reposting this I got to think about the thousands of people who aren’t remembered by name that sacrificed it all for the United States. Most of these men were doing their jobs and weren’t looking to be a hero. God Bless them.
pparets
The Whistler
laydownSally
Brian
Puzzlefeet
