There is one mystery concerning the June1942 Battle of Midway that has long confoundedhistorians: Why did not even one Hornet divebomber attack the Japanese carrier force? Reportedly, they were on the same course as theplanes from Yorktown and Enterprise and took off at the same time. Numerous official and unofficialexplanations all came down to simple bad luck.There is no denying that luck and chance playeda major role at Midway. In the case of HornetsAir Group 8, however, so did bad judgment, poorleadership, and arrogance. It was a simple $10 billthat provided the missing clue to the mystery.
A Friend’s Death and a Chance Encounter
Bowen Weisheit was a Maryland native and trial lawyer. Before the war, he had attended St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, and had studied celestial aerial navigation under the legendary Lt. Cmdr. P. V. H. Weems. One of his fraternity brothers was Markland Kelly Jr. Kelly was bound for a naval aviation career and soon joined Hornet’s Fighting 8 (VF-8) under Lt. Cmdr. Sam Mitchell. Kelly died at Midway when his Hellcat didn’t make it back to the carrier. Weisheit, who had joined the Marine Corps and served as a navigator, learned of his friend’s death after the battle. After the war, Kelly’s father had established an educational foundation in the name of his son and made Weisheit a trustee. At one meeting, Weisheit spotted a framed $10 bill on the wall. It was a “Short Snorter,” traditionally given to the pilot of a rescue plane by a downed aviator. A Fighting 8 pilot had given the bill to PBY pilot Ensign Jerry Crawford on June 8, 1942. On the bill were latitude and longitude coordinates. After making a copy of the bill, Weisheit went home and examined charts of the Pacific. After plotting the location where the VF-8 pilots had been found, he then read Walter Lord and Samuel Eliot Morison’s accounts of the battle and realized that the coordinates were more than 250 miles east of the location of where VF-8 had supposedly been flying back to Hornet. So began his quest to find the truth.
This story is from the December 2018 edition of Flight Journal.
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This story is from the December 2018 edition of Flight Journal.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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Scourge of the Allied Fighters
IT HAD TO BE THE MOST HELPLESS FEELING in the world: you're at 25,000 feet over Europe knowing that your primary function is to drop bombs-or flying escort for the bombers while being a slow-moving target for some of the world's finest shooters. However, you have John Browning's marvelous .50 caliber invention to give some degree of protection. Unfortunately, you're absolutely helpless against flak. Piloting and gunnery skills play no role in a game where sheer chance makes life and death decisions. For that reason, the Krupp 88 mm Flak 18/36/37 AA cannon could be considered WW II's ultimate stealth fighter. You never saw it coming.
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