Decision at Sea

by Symonds, Craig L.

  4. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (Washington, DC: Naval History Division, 1963,1969), 8:533–38.

  5. W. J. Holmes, Double Edged Secrets: U.S. Naval Intelligence Operations in thePacific During World War II (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1979), 53.

  6. Edwin T. Layton, ”And I Was There”: Pearl Harbor and Midway—Breaking the Secrets (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1985), 405; interview of Captain Thomas H. Dyer, USN (ret), by Paul Stilwell, September 14,1983, U.S. Naval Institute Oral History Collection, Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy, 247; Ronald W. Russell to Otis Kight, June 27, 2004, letter forwarded to the author by Otis Kight.

  7. Joseph J. Rochefort interview, October 5,1969,1:249.

  8. Ibid., 211. Rochefort himself did not send the signal. Years later he suggested that perhaps Edwin T. Layton sent it, but Jasper Holmes, the civilian academic on the Hypo team, claimed authorship in his memoir. See Thomas Dyer inter view, September 14,1983,241; and Holmes, Double–Edged Secrets, 90. Hugh Bicheno asserts that the purpose of the message was mainly to show up rivals within the code–breaking community and ”was not the breakthrough of myth and movie.” Bicheno, Midway (London: Cassell, 2001), 85.

  9. Morison, Coral Sea, Midway, and Submarine Actions, 70–72.

  10. Mitsuo Fuchida and Masatake Okumiya, Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan, the Japanese Navy’s Story (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1955), 34–46.

  11. Prange, Miracle at Midway, 11; E. B. Potter, Nimitz (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1976); the quotation is from Joseph J. Rochefort interview, October 5, 1969,1:223.

  12. Potter, Sea Power, 800–802; Edward L. Beach, Submarine! (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1946,2003), 22–25.

  13. Lieutenant Fuchida thought the Kido Butai was wasted in carrying out minor operations all over the Indian and Pacific Oceans when it ought to have been focused on the main business of eliminating the American carrier force. See Fuchida and Okumiya, Midway, 44–47.

  14. Potter, Nimitz, 91–92.

  15. The decrypted messages are in Appendix III of the Edwin T. Layton Collection, Spruance Papers, Naval War College, Newport, R.I., 287–93. The quotations are from Rochefort interview, October 5, 1969, 217–19.

  16. Rochefort interview, October 5, 1969, 1:220.

  17. E. B. Potter, Bull Halsey (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1985); Thomas B. Buell, The Quiet Warrior: A Biography of Raymond A. Spruance (Boston: Little, Brown, 1974).

  18. Potter, Nimitz, 86.

  19. Action Report, Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet (Nimitz), June 28, 1942, from ”U.S. Navy Action and Operational Reports from World War II, Pacific Theater,” Part I: CINCPAC (Bethesda, MD: University Publications of America microfilm, 1990), reel 2. Hereafter cited as ”Action Reports microfilm.” All references are to Part I.

  20. Lundstrom, The First Team, 315–20; Bicheno, Midway, 116–17.

  21. Statement of Captain P. R. White, USN, June 6,1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 3.

  22. Interview of Lieutenant Commander John S. ”Jimmy” Thach, August 26,1942, microfilm NRS 527, Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy; interview of Admiral John S. Thach, USN (ret), by Etta–Belle Kitchen, November 6,1970, U.S. Naval Institute Oral History Collection, Special Collections, Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy, 1:218, 223.

  23. John S. Thach interview, August 26,1942, 5; author’s interview of Captain John W. “Jack” Crawford, USN (ret), May 5, 2004.

  24. George Gay, Sole Survivor: The Battle of Midway and Its Effects on His Life (Naples, FL: Midway Publishers, 1980), 122. Jimmy Thach, who was bitterly critical of the performance characteristics of American planes compared to their Japanese counterparts, claimed that the Devastator cruised at no more than 80 knots, or ”with the nose down, maybe 110.” Thach interview, November 6,1970,1:231.

  25. Thomas Wildenberg, Destined for Glory: Dive Bombing, Midway, and the Evolution of Carrier Air Power (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1998); Daniel Hernandez, SBD–3 Dauntless and the Battle of Midway (Torrent, Spain: Aeronaval Publishing, 2003).

  26. Fuchida and Okumiya, Midway, 105–6.

  27. Several histories of the battle offer the number 272 as the number of available Japanese aircraft at Midway. But this number is based on the maximum load rather than the actual number of planes aboard ship. In addition, some two dozen planes were disassembled Zeros intended for use on Midway’s captured airfields. While some of these got into the fighting at Midway, the total number of available combat aircraft in the Kido Butai was nearer 250 than 270. The number given here (249) is from Ikuhiko Hata and Yasuho Izawa, Japanese Naval Aces and Fighter Units in World War II (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1989), 148; and Lundstrom, The First Team, 331.

  28. Fuchida and Okumiya, Midway, 60.

  29. Ibid., 125–27.

  30. Ibid., 130.

  31. Ibid., 125–70.

  32. Prange, Miracle at Midway, 162–64.

  33. Ibid., 170.

  34. Ibid., 225–27.

  35. Dick Knott, “Night Torpedo Attack,” Naval Aviation News, June 1982,10–13; Prange, Miracle at Midway, 174–76.

  36. Bicheno, Midway, 60–61.

  37. Fuchida and Okumiya, Midway, 146–48.

  38. Ibid., 152–54; Prange, Miracle at Midway, 184–84.

  39. Fuchida and Okumiya, Midway, 148. Dallas Isom argues that the late takeoff by the Tone’s second search plane was actually fortuitous for the Japanese. The late departure, he argues, encouraged the pilot to begin his dogleg to the north sooner than scheduled in order to make up for the late start, and that enabled him to sight Spruance’s Task Force 16 sooner than he would have if he had left on time and adhered to the original course. See Dallas W. Isom, ”The Battle of Mid way: Why the Japanese Lost,” Naval War College Review, summer 2000,88–89.

  40. Action Report, Commander Task Force 17 (Fletcher), June 14,1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 2.

  41. Communication Log Relative to Midway Attack, Action Reports microfilm, reel 2; Crawford interview, May 5, 2004.

  42. Action Report, Commanding Officer Task Force 17 (Fletcher), June 14,1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 2.

  43. Alan Schom, The Eagle and the Rising Sun: The Japanese–American War, 1941–1945 (New York: W. W. Norton, 2004), 285; Action Report, Commanding Officer USS Enterprise (Murray), June 13,1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 2.

  44. Otis Kight to the author, June 28, 2004.

  45. Action Report, Commanding Officer USS Hornet (Mitscher), June 13, 1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 2.

  46. Action Report, Commanding Officer Task Force 16 (Spruance), June 16, 1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 2; Morison, Coral Sea, Midway, and Submarine Actions, 114.

  47. Interview of Captain James R. Ogden by Paul Stilwell, March 16,1982, U.S. Naval Institute Oral History Collection, Nimitz Library, 76–78.

  48. Interview of Lieutenant Colonel Ira Kimes, USMC, August 31,1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 2.

  49. Prange, Miracle at Midway, 206; Fuchida and Okumiya, Midway, 156.

  50. Fuchida and Okumiya, Midway, 160.

  51. The precise timing of the Tone’s message is a matter of some uncertainty. The message was dispatched at 7:28 but may not have been received aboard the Akagi until nearly 8:00 after being relayed en route. See Prange, Miracle at Midway, 217; Fuchida and Okumiya, Midway, 165; and Isom, “Battle of Mid way,” 68–70.

  52. Action Report, Commanding Officer Marine Scout–Bombing Squadron 241, June 12, 1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 3.

  53. Prange, Miracle at Midway, 216–230; statements of Captain Leon M. Williamson, USMC, Second Lieutenant Thomas F. Moore, USMC, and Private Charles W. Huber, USMC, all dated June 7,1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 3; Fuchida and Okumiya, Midway, 168.

  54. Fuchida and Okumiya, Midway, 168, 170.

  55. Gay, Sole Survivor, 93–95; Lundstrom, The First Team, 324. See also ”Memoran dum for the Commander–in–Chief,” by Ensign George Gay, June 7,1942, in Actio
n Reports microfilm, reel 2.

  56. Gay, Sole Survivor, 116.

  57. Memorandum of Stanhope Ring, March 28,1946, in Bruce R. Linder, ”Lost Letter of Midway,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, August 1999,32; Action Report, Commanding Officer, USS Enterprise (Murray), June 13,1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 2.

  58. Gay, Sole Survivor, 119.

  59. Ibid., 120–21; ”George Gay’s Fisheye View of Midway,” Naval Aviation News, June 1982,18–21.

  60. Gay, Sole Survivor, 127–29.

  61. Action Report, Commanding Officer, Yorktown Air Wing (Pederson), June 14, 1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 2.

  62. John S. Thach interview, November 6,1970,1:246; Action Report, Commanding Officer, VF–3 (Thach), June 4,1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 3.

  63. John S. Thach interview, November 6, 1970, 1:248.

  64. Prange, Miracle at Midway, 1:257.

  65. John S. Thach interview, November 6, 1970, 1:251.

  66. Fuchida and Okumiya, Midway, 177.

  67. Action Report, Commander in Chief U.S. Pacific Fleet (Nimitz), June 28, 1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 2.

  68. Action Report, Commanding Officer, Yorktown Air Wing (Pederson), June 14, 1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 2.

  69. John S. Thach interview, November 6, 1970, 1:252.

  70. Action Report, Commanding Officer VB–3 (Shumway), June 8,1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 2.

  71. Action Report, Commanding Officer Yorktown Air Wing (Pederson), June 14, 1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 2; Fuchida and Okumiya, Midway, 178.

  72. Fuchida and Okumiya, Midway, 179.

  73. Action Report, Commanding Officer USS Yorktown (Buckmaster), June 18, 1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 3.

  74. Interview of Lieutenant Commander C. C. Ray, USN, Communications Officer on the Yorktown, July 15, 1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 2.

  75. Message traffic is from Enclosure C of Action Report, Commander in Chief. U.S. Pacific Fleet (Nimitz), June 28, 1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 3.

  76. John S. Thach interview, November 6, 1970, 1:264.

  77. Message traffic is from Enclosure C of Action Report, Commander in Chief U.S. Pacific Fleet (Nimitz), June 28, 1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 3.

  78. Action Report, Commanding Officer USS Yorktown (Buckmaster), June 18, 1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 3.

  79. Ibid.; John W. Crawford interview, May 5, 2004.

  80. John S. Thach interview, November 6,1970,1:269; Prange, Miracle at Midway, 235–36.

  81. John S. Thach interview, November 6,1970,1:269; Action Report, Commanding Officer USS Yorktown (Buckmaster), June 18,1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 3.

  82. John W. Crawford interview, May 5,2004.

  83. Action Report, Commanding Officer USS Yorktown (Buckmaster), Action Reports microfilm, reel 3.

  84. Fuchida and Okumiya, Midway, 194; Bicheno, Midway, 174.

  85. Message traffic is from NRS 547 microfilm on the Battle of Midway, Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy.

  86. Action Report, Commanding Officer USS Yorktown (Buckmaster), June 18, 1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 3.

  87. John W. Crawford interview, May 5,2004; interview of Rear Admiral Ernest M. Eller, USN (ret), by John T. Mason, August 25,1977, U.S. Naval Institute Oral History Collection, Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy, 542.

  88. Action Report, Commanding Officer USS Yorktown (Buckmaster), June 18, 1942, Action Reports microfilm, reel 3.

  89. Fuchida and Okumiya, Midway, 231; James Schlesinger, “Underappreciated Victory,” Naval History, October 2003, 21; Stimson is quoted in Prange, Miracle at Midway, 365.

  PART FIVE: THE PERSIAN GULF

  1. “A Tragedy in the Gulf,” Newsweek, June 1,1987,19.

  2. Michael Vlahos, “The Stark Report,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, May 1988, 64–65.

  3. “A Tragedy in the Gulf,” 16–20.

  4. Ibid., 21.

  5. Navy Times, October 26,1987, 28. All the Navy Times articles cited in this section were written by staff writer William Matthews, who covered the Gulf for the Navy Times in 1987–88. See also Jeffrey L. Levinson and Randy L. Edwards, Missile Inbound: The Attack on the Stark in the Persian Gulf (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1997).

  6. Navy Times, October 12, 1987, 18, and October 26, 1987, 1.

  7. New York Times editorial, May 27, 1987, A22; Newsweek, June 1, 1987, 20.

  8. Navy Times, August 10,1987, 26.

  9. Michael A. Palmer, ”The U.S. Navy and the Persian Gulf: The Origins of the Commitment, 1945–1953,” in William R. Roberts and Jack Sweetman, eds., New Interpretations in Naval History (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1991), 146, 156n.

  10. Ibid., 147.

  11. Report of the USS Greenwich Bay (APV–41), August 12, 1948, in ibid., 149.

  12. Stephen Kinzer, All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2003).

  13. Michael A. Palmer, Guardians of the Gulf: A History of America’s Expanding Role in the Persian Gulf, 1833–1992 (New York: Free Press, 1992), 106.

  14. Martin S. Navias and E. R. Hooton, The Tanker Wars: The Assault on Merchant Shipping During the Iran–Iraq Crisis, 1980–1988 (London: Taurus Academic Studies, 1996), 15–22.

  15. Ibid., 50.

  16. Ibid., 31.

  17. William J. Crowe Jr., The Line of Fire: From Washington to the Gulf, Politics and Battles of the New Military (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), 173; Ronald O’Rourke, “Gulf Ops,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, May 1989,43; Wesley L. McDonald, “The Convoy Mission,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, May 1988, 37.

  18. Navias and Hooton, The Tanker Wars, 39.

  19. The insider was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral William Crowe, from author’s interview of Admiral William J. Crowe Jr. (ret), Annapolis, Maryland, August 13,2003; the Reagan quotation is from Michael A. Palmer, On Course to Desert Storm: The United States Navy and the Persian Gulf (Washington: Naval Historical Center, 1992), 109–10.

  20. McDonald, ”The Convoy Mission,” 37; New York Times, May 26,1987, A5.

  21. William Crowe interview, August 13, 2003.

  22. ”Why Europe and Japan Won’t Help,” Newsweek, June 8,1987,35; Palmer, On Course to Desert Storm, 116.

  23. The Weinberger quotation is from a speech before the American Defense Preparedness Association on May 20, 1987, quoted in Levinson and Edwards, Missile Inbound, 4; Newsweek, June 1, 1987, 20; New York Times, May 19, 1987, A10.

  24. Navy Times, October 12,1987,18; W. Hays Parks, ”Righting the Rules of Engagement,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, May 1989, 83; William Crowe interview, August 13, 2003.

  25. New York Times, May 19 and July 24, 1987, A10; McDonald, ”The Convoy Mission,” 43.

  26. Frank B. Seitz, ”SS Bridgeton: The First Convoy,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, May 1989, 56.

  27. Navy Times, August 10, 1987, 10.

  28. Navy Times, August 3, 1987, 37–38, and August 10, 1987, 10.

  29. Seitz, ”SS Bridgeton,” 52.

  30. Ibid.

  31. Crowe, The Line of Fire, 186.

  32. Navy Times, August 10, 1987, 10; New York Times, July 25, 1987, 5; William Crowe interview, August 13, 2003.

  33. Navy Times, September 14,1987,13; Commander Alfred Eakins, USN, to Commander Tom Schaefer, USN, January 18,2000, author’s collection.

  34. Palmer, Guardians of the Gulf, 135–37.

  35. Author’s interview with Captain James “Red” Smith, USN, Annapolis, MD, May 2, 2003.

  36. Norman Friedman, ”World Naval Developments, 1987,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, May 1988, 220.

  37. Kenneth Katzman, The Warriors of Islam: Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993), 134; Anthony Cordesman, Iran’s Military Forces in Transition: Conventional Threats and Weapons of Mass Destruction (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999), 192–93; ”Guerilla War on the Water
,” Newsweek, June 15, 1987, 41; James Smith interview, May 2,2003.

  38. New York Times, July 25,1987, A1.

  39. William Crowe interview, August 13, 2003; James Smith interview, May 2, 2003.

  40. Navy Times, October 5, 1987, 30.

  41. Ibid., 16.

  42. Navy Times, October 19, 1987, 2.

  43. Crowe, The Line of Fire, 200.

  44. Jerry O’Donnell to the author, July 29, 2003; James Smith interview, May 2, 2003.

  45. James Smith interview, May 2,2003; Navy Times, November 2, 1987, 4.

  46. O’Donnell to the author, July 29, 2003; Navy Times, November 2, 1987, 4; cartoon reprinted in U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, June 1988, 80.

  47. “Mideast Perspective: Interview with RADM Anthony A. Less,” Wings of Gold, Spring 1990, 50.

  48. O’Rourke, “Gulf Ops,” 43–44; author’s interview with Captain Henry Sanford, USN (ret), Annapolis, Maryland, June 6,2003; James Smith interview, May 2, 2003.

  49. New York Times, April 15,1988, A3; Navy Times, April 25,1988,3; Crowe, The Line of Fire, 200.

  50. Navy Times, May 2,1988, 6; Crowe, The Line of Fire, 200.

  51. Katzman, The Warriors of Islam, 134.

  52. New York Times, April 19,1988, A1, A10; Crowe, The Line of Fire, 201; William Crowe interview, August 13,2003.

  53. Crowe, The Line of Fire, 201.

  54. New York Times, April 19, 1988, A10.

  55. J. B. Perkins, “Operation Praying Mantis,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, May 1989, 70.

  56. Henry Sanford interview, June 6, 2003.

  57. Ibid.

  58. Ibid.

  59. Ibid.

  60. Perkins, “Operation Praying Mantis,” 70; Henry Sanford interview, June 6, 2003.

  61. James Chandler interview, November 1, 2003.

  62. Interview of Chief Petty Officer Reuben Vargas, USN, by Lieutenant Commander Donald Donegan, USN, on board USS Carl Vinson, May 30,2003; James Chandler interview, November 1, 2003.

  63. Author’s interview of Lieutenant Commander Leo Carling, USNR (ret), Annapolis, Maryland, October 5,2003; James Chandler interview, November 1, 2003; Reuben Vargas interview, May 30, 2003.

  64. Transcript of tape recording from the CIC of USS Wainwright, April 18,1988, tape in author’s possession; James Chandler interview, November 1, 2003.