The Silver Waterfall Read online

  Copyright © 2020 by Kevin P. Miller

  Cover Art Copyright © 2020 by Wade Meyers

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author or publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Braveship Books

  www.braveshipbooks.com

  Aura Libertatis Spirat

  The Silver Waterfall is a work of historical fiction. Apart from the actual people, events and locales that figure in the narrative, the telling of characteristics, places, and incidents of this battle are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.

  This book was edited by Linda Wasserman,

  owner of Pelican Press Pensacola:

  Pelican Press Pensacola

  PO Box 7084

  Pensacola, FL 32534

  850-206-4608

  http://www.pelicanpresspensacola.com

  Proofreading by Incantation Ink

  Cover art by Wade Meyers.

  Cover design by Ivica Jandrijević.

  Back cover photo courtesy of Rusty Buggy

  Chart courtesy of Naval History and Heritage Command

  Book layout by Alexandru Diaconescu

  www.steadfast-typesetting.eu

  ISBN-13: 978-1-64062-116-9

  Dedicated to:

  My fellow dive-bomber pilot George Walsh,

  who sought the truth

  To the Reader

  This is the story of the Battle of Midway, told through the eyes of the men who fought it on both sides, as they experienced it. It depicts real men who lived and actual events of this remarkable battle. No facts were knowingly changed.

  However, this is a work of fiction, historic fiction inspired by the classic novels of Shaara and Crane…the sincerest form of flattery, and the highest compliment that I as a writer can pay them.

  Volumes of material concerning this battle are available from which to construct such a work and in the acknowledgements section I cite those to whom I and the reader owe so much. Over several decades, “facts,” including eyewitness testimony, have been disproved, and long-standing myths refuted. That said, the text here is written from what the men experienced during those uncertain days in June, 1942 amid the pressures of war – and with flawed human pride, institutional agendas, and bigoted perceptions on both sides. Knowledgeable readers know how history has treated certain events, yet my hope is that all readers come away with a sense of admiration for the men depicted here as they wrestled with their mortal fears and confusion as the battle and the year 1942 unfolded. Another hope is that readers are inspired to delve deeper into the narrative non-fiction about this battle, first to be entertained, and also to better understand Midway’s meaning in world history.

  The Midway narrative is full of amazing vignettes and heroic stories of courage and survival. Not all are included in this work. My deep interest in what happened on the waters and in the skies north and west of Midway Atoll aligns with my background in carrier aviation. As Shaara said, I hope I will be forgiven that.

  The interpretation of character is my own.

  CAPT Kevin Miller USN (Ret.)

  Spring 2020

  Glossary of Jargon and Acronyms

  1MC — ship’s public address system

  AA — Antiaircraft; aka “flak” or “ack-ack”

  CAP — Combat Air Patrol

  CarDiv — Carrier Division

  Chutai — 9-plane Japanese formation

  CINCPAC — Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet

  CO — Commanding Officer

  F4F — Fourth Fighter design, Grumman (aka Wildcat)

  g — the force of gravity. “4 g’s” is four times the force of gravity.

  HIJMS — His Imperial Japanese Majesty’s Ship

  JO — Junior Officer – lieutenant commander (O-4) and below.

  Kido Butai — Mobile Force

  Knot — nautical mile per hour (One nautical mile is 2,000 yards)

  LSO — Landing Signal Officer, aka “Paddles”

  Nugget — first-cruise pilot

  PBY — Patrol Bomber design, Consolidated (amphibious flying boat)

  SBD — Scout Bomber design, Douglas (aka Dauntless)

  SB2U — Second Scout Bomber design, Vought (aka Vindicator)

  Shotai — 3-plane Japanese formation

  Trap — arrested landing

  Type Zero — Mitsubishi A6M fighter, aka Zero-sen aka Zero

  Type 97 — Nakajima B5N2 torpedo bomber, aka kankō

  Type 99 — Aichi D3A dive-bomber aka, kanbaku

  TBD — Torpedo Bomber design, Douglas (aka Devastator)

  VB — Bombing Squadron

  VF — Fighting Squadron

  VS — Scouting Squadron (sometimes VSB – Scout Bombing)

  VT — Torpedo Squadron

  VMSB — Marine Corps Scout Bombing Squadron

  XO — Executive Officer

  My dear family,

  What a day – the incredulousness of it all still gives each new announcement of the Pearl Harbor attack the unreality of a fairy tale. How can they have been so mad? Though I suppose we have known it would come sometime, there was always that inner small voice whispering – no, we are too big, too rich, too powerful, this war is for some other fools somewhere else. It will never touch us here. And then this noon that world fell apart.

  …Tonight I put away all my civilian clothes. I fear the moths will find them good fare in the years to come. There is such a finality to wearing a uniform all the time. It is the one thing I fear – the loss of my individualism in a world of uniforms. But kings and puppets alike are being moved now by the master – destiny.

  It is growing late and tomorrow will undoubtedly be a busy day. Once more the whole world is afire – in the period approaching Christmas it seems bitterly ironic to mouth again the timeworn phrases concerning peace on earth – goodwill to men, with so many millions hard at work figuring ways to reduce other millions to slavery or death. I find it hard to see the inherent difference between man and the rest of the animal kingdom. Faith lost – all is lost. Let us hope tonight that people, all people throughout this great country, have the faith to once again sacrifice for the things we hold essential to life and happiness. Let us defend these principles to the last ounce of blood – but then above all retain enough reason to have “charity for all and malice toward none.” If the world ever goes through this again – mankind is doomed. This time it has to be a better world.

  All my love,

  Bill

  Ensign Bill Evans, Torpedo Squadron Eight

  December 7, 1941

  Age 23

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1. HIJMS Hiryū, June 2, 1942

  Chapter 2. Ready Room Four, USS Hornet, June 2, 1942

  Chapter 3. Flag Bridge, USS Yorktown, June 2, 1942

  Chapter 4. HIJMS Akagi, June 2, 1942

  Chapter 5. Aft Berthing, USS Yorktown, June 3, 1942

  Chapter 6. HIJMS Hiryū, 0430 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 7. Flag Shelter, USS Enterprise, 0535 June

  Chapter 8. VMSB-241, Northwest of Midway, 0655 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 9. Navigation Bridge, HIJMS Akagi, 0700 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 10. Flight Deck, USS Enterprise, 0710 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 11. HIJMS Akagi, 0800 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 12. Torpe
do Eight, Southwest of USS Hornet,. 0810 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 13. Torpedo Eight, North of Midway, 0825 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 14. LCDR Wade McClusky, Northwest of Midway,. 0930 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 15. HIJMS Hiryū, 0945 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 16. McClusky, Northwest of Midway, 0950 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 17. LCDR Max Leslie, Bombing Three, 0940 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 18. LTJG Bud Kroeger, Bombing Six, 1005 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 19. Navigation Bridge, HIJMS Akagi, 1023 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 20. HIJMS Hiryū, 1035 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 21. Navigation Bridge, USS Hornet, 1140 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 22. Flag Bridge, USS Yorktown, 1150 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 23. Flight Deck, USS Yorktown, 1230 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 24. Flight Deck, HIJMS Hiryū, 1320 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 25. Hiryū B5N strike group, 1430 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 26. Hiryū B5N strike group, 1440 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 27. Scouting Six Ready Room, USS Enterprise,. 1505 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 28. HIJMS Nagara, 1615 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 29. SBD 6-B-2, 1655 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 30. Ensign Clay Fisher, Bombing Eight, 1720 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 31. Midway, Eastern Island, 1740 June 4, 1942

  Chapter 32. HIJMS Hiryū, 0230 June 5, 1942

  Chapter 33. Midway, Eastern Island, 0430 June 5, 1942

  Chapter 34. USS Enterprise, 0815 June 5, 1942

  Chapter 35. Sick Bay, USS Enterprise, 1030 June 5, 1942

  Chapter 36. Bombing Eight, Northwest of USS Hornet,. 1630 June 5, 1942

  Chapter 37. HIJMS Nagara, 2100 June 5, 1942

  Chapter 38. USS Enterprise, 0740 June 6, 1942

  Chapter 39. Flag Shelter, USS Enterprise, 0930 June 6, 1942

  Chapter 40. USS Hornet, 1100 June 6, 1942

  Chapter 41. Bombing Eight, 1430 June 6, 1942

  Chapter 42. Over HIJMS Mikuma, 1730 June 6, 1942

  Chapter 43. USS Monaghan, 0455 June 7, 1942

  Chapter 44. HIJMS Nagara, 0850 June 10, 1942

  Chapter 45. Naval Hospital Pearl Harbor, 1910 June 14, 1942

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States

  and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory.

  But then, if the war continues after that,

  I have no expectation of success.

  — Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

  Prologue

  In the weeks and months after Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto did indeed run wild. In quick succession, the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, and Singapore fell. Rabaul and Wake were captured. The Royal Navy battleships Repulse and Prince of Wales were sunk, and the U.S. Navy Asiatic Fleet was attacked with many ships lost, among them the Navy’s first aircraft carrier Langley. Darwin was attacked and neutralized, and, in the Indian Ocean, Yamamoto’s carriers under Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo’s command sank the British carrier Hermes and attacked their base at Trincomalee. By April 1942, Imperial Japan had command of the territories and waters of the Western Pacific and Eastern Indian Ocean.

  Still reeling, the United States Navy responded with what it had, mainly carrier forces, and, within months, attacked Japanese Central Pacific outposts in the Carolines and Marshalls. Militarily insignificant, the Japanese largely ignored these raids, considering them little more than a nuisance. American carriers, however, remained in the forefront of Yamamoto’s mind.

  The Doolittle Raid in April 1942 stunned the Japanese. While again militarily insignificant, this attack on the Japanese home islands was a severe blow to the Japanese psyche. That the Emperor was placed at risk was unacceptable, and resources were diverted to defend the main Japanese islands from future attacks.

  One month later at Coral Sea, an American task force, under the command of Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher, met and turned back a Japanese force that threatened the sea lines of communication to Australia. In the first naval battle in history where opposing ships did not see each other, each side lost a carrier and suffered severe damage to the surviving flattops. Despite heavy American losses, the Japanese advance was thwarted.

  Yamamoto and the Imperial General Headquarters now agreed that the American carriers had to be destroyed – or otherwise neutralized – to allow Japan to solidify gains in the Central Pacific in order to repel future American thrusts. Yamamoto sought decisive battle by capturing territory the Americans would defend.

  He settled on Midway, a tiny atoll over 1,000 miles from Hawaii that before the war was a fueling stop for Pan Am Clipper trans-Pacific flying boat service. Once captured, Hawaii faced imminent attack. Surely the Americans would come out of Pearl Harbor to defend it, and, off Midway, Yamamoto himself would wait. He would take the Americans under his big guns, as Togo had against the Russians at Tsushima in 1905, a battle young Yamamoto participated in as a midshipman, losing two fingers of his left hand.

  While the Americans were busy elsewhere, Yamamoto directed a carrier striking force to attack Dutch Harbor – and capture the Aleutian islands of Attu and Kiska – in order to secure the empire’s northern flank.

  Nagumo’s Mobile Force, the undefeated Kido Butai consisting of four of the six Pearl Harbor carriers, spearheaded the attack to neutralize Midway the day before an amphibious invasion force could secure the atoll. The Americans would then come out to give battle, and Yamamoto’s Main Body of battleships and cruisers would meet and smash them.

  To offer the Americans decisive battle, almost the entire Combined Fleet put to sea in late May 1942, led by eight carriers including Akagi, Kaga, Hiryū and Sōryū. Japan deployed eleven battleships, 24 cruisers, dozens of destroyers, submarines, transports and auxiliaries, arguably the most powerful naval force the world had ever seen.

  Pearl Harbor veterans Shokaku and Zuikaku, damaged weeks earlier at the Battle of Coral Sea, did not participate in the Midway actions.

  The American carrier Yorktown, damaged during the same battle, did.

  Chapter 1

  HIJMS Hiryū, June 2, 1942

  Moist North Pacific air buffeted Petty Officer 1/c Taisuke Maruyama as he squinted into the gloom from the port side gallery of the Imperial Japanese Navy carrier Hiryū. The morning sun, now halfway up the sky, had not broken through the mist as the carrier ploughed across the relentless swells. Another day of bad weather, and the dim horizon shrouded the Mobile Force, with unseen escorts encircling the carriers and big-gun combatants at close intervals to remain in contact. To his beam was sleek Sōryū, a wisp of spray exploding off her bow. Ahead, the flagship Akagi and fat Kaga rose and fell as they led the Kidō Butai southeast.

  Had he been here before? These very waters? Last December the transit had been freezing, inside as well as outside the ship. Those who had ventured topside encountered low ceilings, high winds, morning sea smoke, and stinging rain. Inside, Maruyama and the others had kept warm in their flying togs as the steel decks and bulkheads radiated cold from the sea below and air above. He now dropped his head and contemplated the dark water’s surface, the sounds of it swishing along the hull and breaking over itself as bow waves emanated out from the great ship, audible amid the steady wind as Hiryū pushed ahead into the mist at 10 knots.

  At 19 years old, Maruyama was a veteran observer in the Type 97 kankō torpedo bomber. Six months ago, after transiting the Central Pacific, he had tasted combat at Pearl Harbor. Since then he had helped torpedo ships at anchor in Darwin, and had bombed Ceylon. But nothing matched that first morning as he and his mates swooped down in a right-hand turn as geysers erupted on a battleship ahead. His pilot then lined up on the one to the left of it.

  “Konnichiwa.”

  Maruyama turned to see his squadron mate Miyauchi dog the hatch behind him as he joined Maruyama for some fresh air.

  “Ohayu, Miyauchi-kun.”

  “Ohayu,” Miyauchi replied as he
joined Maruyama at the rail. Away from the officers, the enlisted pilot pulled out a cigarette and lighter, cupping his hand to shield the flame from the gusts.

  “Anything new?” Maruyama asked.

  Miyauchi took a long drag and exhaled. “I saw the captain and Lieutenant Tomonaga climbing the ladder to the bridge. More conferences…involving us, no doubt.”

  “Tomonaga is eager to make his mark.”

  Maruyama studied the blinking light signal from Akagi. Course change.

  “As am I. We must finish the job this time.”

  “I hope you get a carrier, Maruyama, instead of the sitting duck you sank at Pearl Harbor.”

  Miyauchi, upon his return that morning, had told Maruyama of the capsized battleship hull among all the flame and smoke of the second wave attack. The last time Maruyama had seen his target, it was listing to port. Then a flash, and a massive column of fire had shot from a battleship at the northern end of the line. The strong concussion swept them seconds later; it shook their kankō violently as they ran away to the west. All of Ford Island seemed to be on fire and was obscured by roiling black from the Arizona, hit by his mates in a level attack. After their triumphant homecoming, they saw the newsreel images of their work.

  He learned his target also had a name; Oklahoma. Named after a province in the American interior known for cowboys and open plains. The ship was a sitting duck.

  Maruyama watched Akagi flash the execute signal. Moments later Hiryū heeled slightly then steadied up, a change of only a few degrees.

  Miyauchi extinguished the butt on the sole of his boot and placed it in his pocket. Flicking it overboard could cause it to be carried up on a draft to the flight deck. As a pilot he would probably avoid a beating, but why take the chance?

  Maruyama continued to gaze northeast at the Mobile Force moving east. Since that morning, he had thought of Pearl Harbor every day.

  Where are the carriers?

  Maruyama peered through his binoculars at the western side of Ford Island. Empty! He scanned the docks, the long pier next to the submarine wharf. No carriers.