Evening star., 1942-06-13

in his hand and was picked up by
one of our destroyers.
The whole fight lasted five min
utes. Tootles courage and tenacity
of purpose typified the rest of the
pilots and ships personnel"
Ensign Tootle, member OF a prom
inent Missouri banking family, who
got into naval aviation in preference
| to a bank job because he wanted
| some excitement, gave his own ac-
count in these words:
II didn't know there was SO much
action when I started from the
carrier. Our radio had said enemy
torpedo planes were coming in OH
| the port quarter I saw ack ack
shells hitting the water but no en-
emy planes. Out about half mile
1 turned to the left and saw them
(torpedo planes coming. AS soon
as 1 singled out one I just got on
his tail and followed him for 200
or 300 yards. I don't think he knew
I was following him. I wanted to
get that plane but I think what
scared me more than anything else
was our own anti-aircraft fire.
Tracers Go Into Ship.
Il got close to him and saw I
could get him. I squeezed the trig-
ger and could see the stream OF
tracers going into the belly OF his
ship
He was going like hell and I
soon saw fire coming out Of his
plane. He just made slight turn
to the left and glided down into
the sea in flames
"I soon found I had been hit by
our ack ack. When I pulled up,
smoke filled my cockpit. I Joined
up alongside another flyer and
sensed that things were not as they
should be- He told me to go down
and land alongside some destroyer.
"I started down. but decided that
if I got too low couldn't jump and
would just be sunk. So unbuckled
my safety belt. turned the plane
over and dropped out.
After the war I guess desk In
bank will be exciting enough
for me"
Comdr. Arnold continued his ac-
count:
"At 6 pm. we returned the visit
paid to us by the fourth Jap car
rier. We left it burning and at
tackled it again on the morning OF
June 5. We are pretty sure that
carrier never got back to japan. 1t
was about o,00O-tonner.
Japs Knocked Out June s.
ut is to be understood that the
extreme damage done to the enemy
was not accomplished solely by our
| carrier forces. Marine planes and
| Army bombers based on Midway re-
peatedly struck enemy ships and
| continued to do so as long as they
remained in range.
Some came in during the tor
pedo attack on the Japs the morn
| ing of the 5th, when the Japs were
completely knocked out.
"All our forces turned the morn
ing of June into field day, knock
ing out japanese battleships, cruis-
ers and destroyers. These started to
retreat together but soon got into
smaller units scattered all over the
ocean in wild retreat.
"On Midway, June 3, we knew we
were in for something interesting
before the next day was over. The
island got set for heavy attack.
| Army, Marine and a few Navy
planes were ready to beat the
enemy.
fortunately. on the morning OF
the 4th. the enemy didn't catch a
single plane on the ground in its
dawn attack on the island.
Terrific "A Barrage.
"As the attack started. could see
from the air the terrific AA bar
rage set up by the Marines from
the ground. I was told later this
had a devastating effect on the
enemy and their fighter escort.
Luckily, also. we had the direct
positions of the enemy carriers.
while enemy planes were making
their attack on Midway, our Marine
dive bomber force had gone in
search of the Jap carriers and found
them at 7:55 am. There were three
of them.
"Our damage to the enemy was
not heavy, but it set them ablaze, so
that they could be located easily
by our carrier planes later.
1--WE found the main body Of the
enemy under bank of heavy clouds
which were 5000 to 5000 feet up.
After the clouds opened. the enemy
force was an easy target.
"As we approached, the carriers
were In formation abreast Of each
! other showing We had completely