VALOR Marauders at Midway Jim Collins and his four of the Battle of Midway, a US force Japanese carriers that lay 180 miles of three carriers supported by about to the northwest and that were pro- crews were given a mis- fifty other ships engaged the Japa- tected by a screen of fighters and sion that had never be- nese fleet of 150 ships built around escort ships. As the B-26s ap- fore been attempted by four heavy carriers. Yamamoto's proached their target, they were met AAF bombers. fleet was harassed by AAF B-17s head-on by Zeros that stayed with and Navy torpedo bombers that them right through a barrage of flak broke up his formations, diverted in a desperate attempt to save the his fighters, and enabled Navy dive carriers. BY JOHN L. FRISBEE bombers to sink the four carriers Collins led his Marauders in a cir- CONTRIBUTING EDITOR with the loss of only the Yorktown cle over the carriers' screen to set and one destroyer. Tales of heroism up the long, straight-and-level run by Navy and Marine aviators, espe- essential to the proper functioning cially the torpedo bomber crews, of a torpedo. Before the B-26s could I N the six months following Pearl only ten percent of whom survived, release, two were shot down by ei- Harbor, undermanned and ill- would fill a book. ther fighters or the dense wall of flak equipped US forces in the Pacific Before dawn on June 5, Yama- erupting from a battleship, three suffered a series of humiliating de- moto ordered a general withdrawal cruisers, several destroyers, and feats, mitigated only by Jimmy to save what was left of his fleet. two carriers. Doolittle's April 18, 1942, raid on From that day on, Japan was on the Collins was hit from below, losing targets in the Tokyo area and by the defensive in the Pacific. Midway his hydraulic system, before he standoff Battle of the Coral Sea in was one of the decisive battles of launched his torpedo at an altitude May. World War II. of 200 feet about 800 yards from a Buoyed by a string of easy victo- Buried in the many, often dispa- carrier. He and the fourth B-26, ries, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto rate, accounts of the battle is the flown by Lt. James Muri, roared sold the Japanese high command on story of a unique mission flown by across the fleet with throttles fire- his plan to extend Japan's perimeter four AAF B-26 Martin Marauder walled and made it into an overcast, by seizing the Midway Islands, our bombers led by Capt. James J. Col- pursued by an estimated fifty Zeros. westernmost outpost in the Pacific lins. In May, Jim Collins, assigned Both badly damaged bombers limp- still in American hands, while car- to the 69th Squadron, 38th Bom- ed back to Midway, where they rying out a simultaneous diversion- bardment Group, had led the first crash-landed and were junked. Col- ary attack on the Aleutians. flight of Australia-bound B-26s from lins's plane was riddled by 186 flak Yamamoto held all the high cards, the mainland to Hawaii, for which and bullet holes. or so he thought: numerically supe- he was awarded the DFC. A few of Captain Collins was given per- rior naval forces—including carrier the Marauders were detached in mission to return to Hawaii on a aircraft that were also qualitatively Hawaii and jury-rigged to carry tor- B-17, pick up another plane, fighter superior, flown by first-class veter- pedoes in anticipation of the attack or bomber, and rejoin the battle. an pilots—and surprise. on Midway. Collins and his crews The next morning at Hickam Field, He did not know that, several were given sketchy instruction by he was told that none of his B-26s weeks earlier, US Navy crypt- the Navy in torpedo bombing, the had been expected to survive—and analysts had broken the Japanese most nearly suicidal air tactic of the that the battle was over. code and knew in detail the disposi- war, but had never dropped a tor- On August 4, 1942, Capt. Jim Col- tion and timing of the attacks. With pedo when a flight of four, com- lins was awarded the Distinguished that knowledge, Admiral Chester manded by Collins, was sent 1,200 Service Cross for leading "the first Nimitz judged correctly that the miles westward to Midway on May torpedo attack ever entered into by main thrust at Midway would be a 29. an airplane of this type or by the US carrier battle. He held his three car- Elements of the Japanese naval Army Air Forces." Lt. James Muri riers, Enterprise, Hornet, and York- force were first sighted on June 3. also received the DSC. According town (which Yamamoto thought to Early the next morning, Jim Col- to Air Force historians, the AAF be out of action after the Coral Sea), lins's B-26s were on runway alert never again sent torpedo-armed and reinforced Midway as best he when word came that enemy bomb- bombers into combat. That mission could with some 100 aircraft, many ers were approaching Midway. The against one of the greatest armadas of them obsolete. B-26s took off immediately with no of naval history is unique in the Air On June 4, 1942, the decisive day fighter escort and headed for the Force chronicle of valor. • 140 AIR FORCE Magazine / April 1986 .