What It Was Like to Ride Backwards in a Dive Bomber at Midway

June 4th, 1942, just after ten in the morning, northwest of Midway. Don Hoff is eighteen. He rides in the back seat of a Navy dive bomber, facing the tail, with two machine guns and a microphone. His pilot pushes the bomber into its dive, rolls too far, and the plane goes over onto its back. Hoff's ammunition belts float up out of their cans toward his face. Below them, behind his back, is the Japanese carrier Kaga. This is the Battle of Midway the way the rear-seat gunners lived it: the ready room at 3 a.m., the empty ocean, the six minutes over the Japanese carriers, and the long way home. 00:00 Intro 01:38 Part 1: The back seat: riding into battle backwards 05:21 Part 2: The empty ocean: how 31 bombers found a fleet 07:54 Part 3: Six minutes: from the push-over to the bomb 12:00 Part 4: The way home: why so many never came back 15:00 Outro Subscribe and enjoy a video!