Minute Men

Minute Men

As previously mentioned, the 68^th Anniversary of D-Day was this week.  However another battle from World Was II also took place, except it was two years earlier in 1942.  Without it’s outcome, the United States may never have gotten to the point of being able to pull off D-Day.  It was a naval and air battle for a tiny island in the Pacific.  Had the Japanese been able to accomplish their mission, the destruction of our ships, there would have been nothing standing between them and California.  There are always individual battles within a battle itself.  It was four minutes during the Battle of Midway Island that changed the course of history.

By the time D-Day came along, the tide of the war had already turned in favor of the Allies.  Most felt we were going to win, it was just a matter of when.  The Battle of Midway however was only 6 short months removed from Pearl Harbor.  We were an isolationist country not prepared for war…and it showed.  The fighting men’s spirit was there, it was the fighting equipment that was not.  One thing we had going for us, we would not allow ourselves to get caught with our pants down again.  Countless hours were spent trying to break the Japanese secret code…and it paid off.  At Midway, the Japanese had hoped to lure our ships out to sink them.  What they did not know is that we would already be there, waiting for them.  Even though, it would be a near impossible task for the American fleet.  The Japanese had more ships, more planes and more men.  They also had better ships, better planes and more experienced men.  What they did not have was OUR men.  Men who performed in a way many of us will never know…or can even imagine.

We knew the Japanese ships were coming and that helped us find them first.  Our planes were launched to attack their ships even though they were still a few hundred miles away.  It would be like finding a needle in a haystack…and the needle would be moving.  The attack planes of the era carried either bombs or torpedoes.  The ones with the bombs come in high, the ones with torpedoes come in low…sort of a one-two combo punch.  A hit ‘em high, hit ‘em low strategy that needed to be carefully coordinated.  This did not happen.  Two things were about to occur that ordinary men might never do.  Or maybe these men were just ordinary, and that is what made them heroes.

The torpedo planes arrived at the Japanese fleet first, the low attack.  They looked above them for the bomber planes to coordinate…but to no avail.   The commander pressed on their attack anyway, knowing they would be sitting ducks without them.  It is easy to stop a one-two combo punch when there is no two.  None of planes would get close enough to get a hit.  Of the 47 torpedo planes that attacked, 44 of them never returned.

Meanwhile, the separated bomber planes arrived, or at least they thought they did.  They wound up off course.  What they found was empty ocean where they assumed the Japanese fleet would be.  They did happen to see one enemy ship on the horizon.  But one ship alone in the vast ocean?  Not likely.  It had to be heading to join the rest of the fleet and the planes would follow.  There was only one problem, they were now running low on fuel.  Most of the planes were near the halfway mark, the point of no return.   The commander, well aware that this ship may not lead them to the fleet AND even if it did, they might not have enough gas to get home…decided it was worth the risk to follow.  The risk would pay off.

These two occurrences will forever be intertwined…both commanders continuing on with their mission, seemingly facing certain death.  The torpedo bombers drew all of the Japanese fleets attention and resources.  Moments later, when the bomber planes arrived well above the enemy fleet, there was nothing there to stop them.  In a way, the one-two punch had worked, just not the way it was designed to.  It was never meant to sacrifice one group over the other.  In the next 4 minutes the bomber planes would sink three Japanese Aircraft Carriers.  It effectively ended the Japanese dominance in the Pacific.

Take some time to think of all the things you can do in four minutes.  You can listen to your favorite pop song…you can run a mile if you are really, really fast…you can serve a double minor penalty in hockey…or you can get 18% of the world if you are listening to 1010 WINS news.

Then think of what they did…