January 02, 2009
Knight Ridder

Jan. 1—WASHINGTON — High above the Pacific Ocean in June 1942, two U.S. pilots argued as they searched for a Japanese fleet menacing the naval base at Midway Atoll.

“We’re going the wrong way,” insisted John Waldron, commander of Torpedo Squadron 8 from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet.

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“Stay in formation,” angrily replied the commander of the dive-bomber squadron.

“The hell with you,” Waldron snapped back.

He turned his 15 obsolete torpedo bombers southwest, toward the Japanese fleet. Within an hour, Waldron and all but one of his airmen were dead after they pressed home a gallant but hopeless attack.

Through interviews with key participants and access to letters written by the dead pilots, Robert J. Mrazek has produced a compelling account in A Dawn Like Thunder.

Mrazek shed light on a second attack that day by six other planes from Torpedo Squadron 8. Taking off from Midway, five of those six planes were shot down.

By day’s end, 45 of the 48 squadron members were dead; 40 planes were lost without scoring a hit.

But they so preoccupied Japanese fighters that other U.S. dive bombers destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers and changed the course of the war in the Pacific.

The narrative revolves around pilots Waldron and Swede Larsen. Waldron was admired by his men for his attention to detail.

The night before the attack, he wrote a note to them declaring that “If there is only one plane left to make the final run-in, I want that man to go in and get a hit.”

The next day, Ensign George Gay pressed home his attack after every other plane had been shot down. He crashed and was found by Americans after floating in the ocean for 30 hours.

Larsen, who assumed command of Torpedo Squadron 8, was disliked by his men.

But during the battle of Guadalcanal later in 1942, Larsen led his pilots in a series of successful attacks on the Japanese. When Torpedo Squadron 8 was disbanded at the end of 1942, its pilots had won 39 Navy Crosses.

Mrazek is sharply critical of Adm. Marc Mitscher, commander of the Hornet group, who denied Waldron’s pilots fighter protection; and Stanhope Ring, the commander who argued with Waldron.

“Waldron’s squadron had been the only one to locate and attack the Japanese carriers,” Mrazek writes, “and that was solely because he had disobeyed a direct order.”

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