The boy tried his luck in Philadelphia. He worked for cement-industry supplier Fuller Co. as a draftsman and sales engineer, retiring in 1985. I don’t know why I never got sick to my stomach. Hundreds of guys with toolboxes came swarming aboard the minute we pulled into dry dock.
The other Midway survivor who will be going to the premiere is Jack Holder of Arizona, who flew a PBY Catalina seaplane during the battle.
He was searching for their dog tags, and he would not allow the corpsmen to pull the drawstring until he found them. As far as I knew, Midway was just a Naval Air Station and that’s all that was there, except for the Marines that guarded the place. “I want that carrier,” Kudzik remembers the captain saying. I just wanted to keep listening to that frequency, and that’s what I was doing when we got the next radar warning: Another large group of planes was approaching the The ship was still not up to full speed, but it must have been something close to 20 knots because I saw fighter planes taking off from the flight deck. If they listened to Tokyo Rose as much as we did, maybe they would believe they were bombing a ghost ship. The diving officer across the room asked him for a reading on how much water was moved.
He was not. He was jumping up and down like a crazy man. The plotting to attack began. Ensign George Gay (right), sole survivor of VT-8 at Midway, standing beside his TBD Devastator before the Battle of Midway.
It was only 700 or 800 yards away when it dropped the torpedo. I though maybe I’d get a chance to go back and hit them again someday and as long as there’s life there’s hope, so I pulled up and went over them, dropped back down next to the water, just after I passed over the fantail and then I heard the torpedo go off. 2 Comments. We spent all night sleeping on the deck, covered with oil.”The Battle of Midway, June 4-7, 1942, was a major turning point in World War II for the United States Navy. Categories: WWII. The other radiomen were worried, too. There was a trail of fire and smoke behind it and a huge splash when it hit the water. Everybody gave a yell, and the captain was tickled as all hell. You’re going to see a lot of planes, a lot of aircraft carriers, a lot of planes being shot down and a lot of ships being bombed, because that’s what it was — a tremendous battle.” Though he was beneath the waves 77 years ago and didn’t see the combat unfolding above him, the film still resonated with him and brought tears. We just cursed the war.There was a regular mob of workers waiting for us.
He stepped out again, because the helmsman couldn’t hear his turning orders, and another plane was coming toward the bridge, and there was another big explosion, and I fell down again.The dials on the radios were flickering, and I didn’t believe this was how I was going to die because I’d just turned 22. The Battle of Midway (Japanese: ミッドウェー海戦, Hepburn: Middowē kaisen) was a significant naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. Times when the very landscape appears to shift. But I know that he wasn’t concentrating very well when we played acey-deucey that day. I turned and ran with the guys who were going down to the hangar deck to get it for them.There were a lot of casualties on that level, too.
There have been countless thousands of published works devoted to all or of it. In this exclusive portrait featuring new interviews, meet Aviation Radioman Charles Monroe, 96, and Chief Aviation Ordnanceman Ervin Wendt, 103, two decorated flyers who met at the Battle of Midway and have remained friends for 77 years. At least three planes are visible, the nearest clearly having already dropped its torpedo. Kept busy by the plucky sub, it fell behind its task force. His name was James Thomas Lee.It was a shock to learn of the passing of Bill Hall, Sr., Chairman of our Board. The pilots needed a headwind to help slow the planes when they touched down. Siwash was not with them. I saw several sailors refuse to wait their turn. Of course the captain was sorry. Hank Kudzik, 94, of Allen Township, recounts his experience during the Battle of Midway in 1942, when he was 17 years old and stationed on the submarine Nautilus. He appealed to a chaplain on board, who tried to talk him out of it by citing the hazards of undersea duty. “Big loud bang! All the radiomen thought so, until the I was still waiting for the mission announcement when I felt the ship’s speed increasing, and we were turning into the wind. From Tolkien to Hitler: Famous Soldiers of World War IThe Battle for Omaha Beach: The Men of the D-Day InvasionNapoleon Bonaparte’s Last Campaign: The Battle of WaterlooThe Battle of Gettysburg: Turning Point of the American Civil War