The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-07-15

TWO DOluD QlJS on an enemy DaCJie- ship, which was left smoking and listing" three hits on enemy carriers. One carrier was left smoking heavily"
 Midway was attacked on June 4th by Japanese bombers. Most marine planes were at sea seeking contact with the enemy although badly out numbered, the few remaining fight CTS accounted for at least 40 enemy planes and others were damaged. The material damage to Midway's installations, though serious, was not disabling"
 The Japanese forces did not ap- pear at that time to be checked al- though at least 10 of their 30 ships were badly damaged. But in reality, 48 hours of this was too much for the Japanese and while American planes were refueling and rearming, the enemy turned tail. That was fairly costly for the United States, for many of her flyers were forced down at sea-uSing up their gaso- line in search for the ships.
 Carrier Force Lined Up Meanwhile, an American aircraft carrier force was being brought in- to position. It was then that a flight of IS torpedo planes found the enemy and attacked repeatedly until all of their planes were shot down. Only one man-Ensign G. H. Gay, Jr., of Houston, Tex. - sur- vived. He was rescued while floun- dering in the ocean. He reported torpedo hits on some of the ships.
 Fifteen torpedo planes from this (Gay's) group located the enemy to the westward and proceeded to at- tack at once without protection or assistance of any kind," the con- munique said.
 Although some hits were report ed by radio from these airplanes and although some enemy fighters were shot down, the total damage inflicted by this squadron in this attack may never be known. None of these 15 planes returned.
 "Other carrier based groups of torpedo planes proceeded to press the attack after the enemy had been located. In spite of heavy losses during these attacks, the tor pedo planes engaged the attention of the enemy fighters and anti-air- craft batteries to such a degree that our dive bombers were able to drop bomb after bomb on the enemy ships without serious interference"
 The Japanese had been ap- preaching in two formations. An occupation force was sweeping in from the north out of protection of loW-hanging clouds. When the two forces began to retreat, a U. s. carrier force swept in between them and its planes attacked the enemy at fairly close range.
 The Yorktown, one of the navys fastest carriers was hit the after noon of June 4. Despite fighter plane protection and an intense anti-air- craft fire, a few enemy torpedo planes scored direct hits. She was listing badly and, although planes could not land on her, her planes, using other carriers, were able to sink the enemy carrier Hiryu.
 On the same afternoon, A U. s. submarine scored three torpedo hits on the smoking carrier Soryu, caus- ing the ship to burst into flames. The Soryu sank during the night. Army bombers on the afternoon of the same day blasted another car rier, and smashed several Warships
 Mastery at Shutdown
 By sundown June 4 the U. s. forces had complete mastery of the air in the Midway sector.
 On June 5, Japanese submar- inc shelled Midway briefly, but caused no damage. By then enemy forces were scattered and were in full retreat. Despite unfavorable weather, flying fortresses again con- tacted the enemy and scored fur ther hits.
 The battle turned into a chase then, and American carriers steamed westward in pursuit of the enemy. On the morning of June 6 contact was re-established and planes from U. s. carriers dropped bombs OH cruisers and destroyers. It was that same afternoon that a Japan csc submarine sank the Hammann Most of the men aboard the Ham, mann were rescued.
 By June the battle was nearly over-the enemy had fled out of range. However, long range bomb- CTS continued to search for the fleet. It was during one of those searches that Maj. Gen. Clarence L. Tinker, commander of American air forces at Hawaii, was lost when his plane was forced down at sea, many miles from shore.