The Battle of Midway: The Strike That Never Left, 4 June 1942

On the morning of 4 June 1942, Japan's Carrier Division One reported that its torpedo planes would be ready to take off at 1030, Midway time. The American dive bombers struck at 1022. The Pacific Fleet's report of 28 June has the Japanese planes on deck, set alight as the carriers tried to launch them. Japan's own record puts them below. Akagi's captain told American interrogators in 1945 that about forty of her planes were in the hangar, loaded with bombs, when she was hit. The order to arm the reserve for Midway came at 0715, thirteen minutes before a floatplane from the cruiser Tone reported American ships, and the first report of a carrier did not come until 0820. The strike was late because the search had failed, not because the bombs were changed. This video is built from the documents: the Japanese carrier force's own battle report and message log, in the 1947 Navy translation; American interrogations of the Japanese officers who were there; the Pacific Fleet's report; Torpedo Squadron Six's attack report; the patrol report of the submarine Nautilus, which watched from inside the Japanese screen; and wartime plates. Full sources, the claims that are contested, and the corrections made before publication: https://actionreporthistory.com/video... CHAPTERS 0:00 Still in the hangars 2:11 The Search That Never Flew 4:11 Minutes Short 8:20 Below Decks 10:35 Aoki's Answer 11:47 Blamed on the Search 13:15 The Strike That Never Left SOURCES Photographs: Naval History and Heritage Command, 80-G and NH series, and U.S. Air Force photographs it holds, each identified on screen. Its online library's Battle of Midway pages, for which photographs survive. Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet, Battle of Midway, serial 01849, 28 June 1942, as reprinted in serial 034372 of 13 December 1945. NARA naId 77610520. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/77610520 Commander in Chief, First Air Fleet, Detailed Battle Report No. 6, 15 June 1942, translated as The Japanese Story of the Battle of Midway, OPNAV P32-1002, Office of Naval Intelligence, June 1947. Read from HathiTrust mdp.39015011383000. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i... Interrogations of Japanese Officials, USSBS Naval Analysis Division: Nav No. 13 (Captain Watanabe Y.), No. 39 (Captain Ohara H.), No. 4 (Captain Aoki Taijiro), No. 64 (Rear Admiral Takata Toshitane), No. 108 (Commander Fujimori Yasuo) with Plate 108-1, No. 60 with Plate 60-1, No. 1 (Captain Amagai Takahisa), and No. 66. Read from National Diet Library PID 8821719. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/8821719 Naval War College, serial 895, 10 December 1942, comments on the Pacific Fleet's Midway report. NARA naId 134017510. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/13401... Torpedo Squadron Six, report of torpedo attack, 4 June 1942. NARA naId 77627390. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/77627390 Commander Submarines Pacific, patrol report No. 45, serial 0801, 16 July 1942, USS Nautilus first war patrol. NARA naId 133935198. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/13393... WHAT THE RECORD DOES NOT SETTLE What the carriers' decks held at 1022. The Pacific Fleet's report puts the planes on deck and burning; Soryu's executive officer puts her strike in the lower hangar, and Kaga's air officer puts about thirty planes in her hangar and the rest on deck. Whether Kaga's planes flew against Midway. Her air officer said none did. Nagumo's own table of the Midway strike puts eighteen bombers under Kaga's division commander. Whether any carrier had radar. Three officers said none did. Kaga's air officer said Hiryu did, and perhaps Soryu. How many torpedoes hit the transports on the night of 3 June. The Japanese record counts one, on Akebono Maru. The Pacific Fleet's report claimed two. What is still missing. Nagumo's war diary, the fourth part of his report, was already gone when it was translated. Yorktown's own action report has not been found in the National Archives catalog. A Bombing Squadron Six gunner's reported film of a Japanese carrier appears in no action report. ABOUT THE NARRATION The narration is synthetic. Nothing in this video is a recording of a person speaking, and the voice is not a person, real or invented. The script, the research and the editorial judgments are human work, and so are any errors. No generated imagery appears anywhere in this video. Every document is the scan, every photograph is the print, and every chart is the sheet as drawn, with Plate 108-1 turned upright because the volume prints it sideways.