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Eight went after the Japs. They lost contact with the other
squadrons off the HORNET during the first hour, so when they
finally topped the horizon and spotted the Jap warships moving
away from Midway, they were completely alone.

Breaking radio silence, they notified the HORNET .of the
position and strength of the enemy, then dropped to torpedo-
attack level. Skipper Waldron wiggled his wings, opened the
throttle, and headed straight for the target, the squadron
screaming after him.

The sky swarmed with Zeros. Torpedo Eight had neither
fighter cover nor accompanying dive-bombers to divert some of
- the concentrated defensive fire from the Jap warships. The
; squadron hit the curtain of fire like a pine plank heading into a

te

i LyInc LOW beneath broken clouds, Torpedo Squadron

 

buzz saw. Anti-aircraft bursts were searing faces and tearing
off chunks of fuselage from the old planes but the Jap carriers
were dead ahead, crowded with planes rearming and refueling.
Torpedo Eight had a mission and nothing was going to stop
them!

The odds were heartbreaking. Plane after plane of the gallant
squadron plummeted into the sea; yet the few who were left
kept boring in, dropping their torpedoes at point blank range
almost under the shadows of the carriers. In this way they
made certain for the task force and for the Navy that the Japs’
air power was crippled from the start.

One last plane dropped its torpedo, zoomed over the carrier,
‘then disappeared into the sea. Forty minutes later, dive-
bombers from the HORNET arrived and pounded the confused