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The American fighter planes were nowhere to be found, so there was no protection for the torpedo planes. But the attack was all wrong: Slow, low-flying torpedo bombers went in first, and they were easy targets for the Japanese fighters. And every minute that passed brought the Japanese closer to finding the American fleet with its own scout planes.įinally, thanks to sheer dumb luck, the Americans found the Japanese. Cloud cover made the ocean surface difficult to see. It's hard to imagine any admiral would have stayed calm knowing what was going on with the American planes as they struggled to find the enemy fleet. What happened in the air, like the launch, was out of his control. Other commanders would have fumed and shouted (admirals are not immune to temper tantrums), but Spruance watched the proceedings silently, knowing that anger wouldn't speed things up. Planes circled over the Enterprise and the Hornet burning valuable fuel and wasting flying time as they formed up. The launch was a tangled mess instead of a precision exercise. (They were.)Īt maximum possible range to the target, Spruance ordered the launch. Halsey's staff asked if they should wait for orders from Fletcher (who was senior to Spruance), and Spruance said, no, the orders would be forthcoming. Spruance quietly thanked him and ordered the launch delayed until the distance could be closed.
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A junior officer pointed out that the range was so long that some of the planes would be unable to return. Spruance ordered the carriers to turn toward the wind (airplanes have to take off into the wind) and prepare to launch. Shortly thereafter, the enemy was sighted. Spruance calmly suggested that as the flight crews were going to be in their planes for a very long time and could be scrambled to launch in two minutes, they should be left in their lounges until the enemy had been found. Spruance asked if the enemy had been sighted. First Halsey's staff-which was serving as Spruance's staff, since they had carrier experience and he didn't-ordered the pilots to the ready. On the morning of June 4, 1942, all hell broke loose. Chuichi Nagumo, the victor at Pearl Harbor and the world leader in naval-aviation warfare. Navy was operating on the flimsiest of evidence that the Japanese were proceeding toward Midway and, if it turned out to be true, they'd be coming with a fleet more than double the size of the Americans', commanded by Vice Adm.
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As Herman Wouk wrote in War and Remembrance, Spruance's orders could be interpreted as "rock 'em, sock 'em, but don't lose your shirt."Įasier said than done. Frank Jack Fletcher, lie in wait for the Japanese and then pounce. His assignment: Rendezvous at "Point Luck," a dot on the Pacific Ocean map, with Task Force Seventeen under Rear Adm. He was in the Navy, he had his orders, and he had a job to do. Spruance himself was surprised by the assignment, but he calmly accepted it. Chester Nimitz, in command of the Pacific fleet, had agreed. Raymond Spruance was junior to many admirals, and he wasn't a flier, which made him a strange choice to command the task force, which included the carriers Enterprise and Hornet. But 68 years ago, as his Task Force Sixteen left Pearl Harbor in late May 1942, he was an unknown quantity to most of the men under his command.