The Unsolved Disaster of Midway - The Flight to Nowhere

The Battle of Midway went down in history as perhaps the most important victory of the US Navy in World War 2 - but beyond this success lies a tragic story of how a whole US carrier strike group collapsed within only a couple of hours.

- Get our Book -

- Task Force Admiral -

- Voice Acting -
Big thank you to Chris Voltsis

and Heath Douglass for their VO

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- Sources -
Amazon links are affiliates

Craig Symonds, The Battle of Midway, Oxford University Press: 2011

John Lundstrom, The First Team, Naval Institute Press: 2013

Jonathan Parshall & Anthony Tully, Shattered Sword, Potomac Books: 2007

Stephen L. Moore, Pacific Payback, Dutton Caliber: 2015

Roland Russell, No Right To Win: A Continuing Dialogue with Veterans of the Battle of Midway, iUniverse: 2006

- Timecodes -
00:00 - The Battle of Midway
01:40 - The Flight to Nowhere: The Squadrons
04:22 - Hard Calls
06:31 - Get Off My Deck
08:30 - Intermission
09:24 - Two-Six-Five
11:14 - Waldron Breaks
12:17 - A House of Cards
13:52 - Torpedo Eight
16:48 - Bingo Fuel
17:49 - The Beacon is Lit
19:30 - Midway
20:27 - Home Sweet Home
22:10 - Unmitigated Disaster
26:58 - Recommendations

- Audio -
Music and Sfx from Epidemic Sound

[MilitaryAviationHistory]

Hope you enjoyed this one, big thank you to TFA, Chris Voltsis and Heath Douglass for their assistance. All important links are in the description.
*Important* TFA and I tried to recreate the footage as close to what the sources tell us (incl. plane codes etc) where possible: certain things we just don't know & TFA is still a work in progress. Any errors are my own. Corrections: 01:17 caption reads VB-8. Should be VS-8 (although some VB-8s joined in). 03:48 *Marc (Thanks Craig!) 07:12 *Departure

[CharlesConover]

I'm reminded of a classic line : "The enemy can't predict our actions if we don't know what we're doing."

[danielphillips]

In my opinion, it makes Waldron and Torpedo 8's virtually suicidal charge all the more impressive--not only were they unsupported, flying slow lumbering Devastators into Zero hell, they had to basically mutiny and defy direct orders to even get into position to attack in the first place. It ranks with the charge of the Taffy 3 escorts at Leyte as amongst the most courageous, self-sacrificing attacks in the history of the USN.

[TheGearhead]

Great video! My name is John Doey Waldron and I am John Charles Waldron's grand nephew. It's really sad that Great Uncle John wasn't awarded the MOH amd even sadder that Ring was not prosecuted for cowardice or incompetence after the war! Hell, the USN was blissfully unaware for months that their torpedoes were defective! After the war, VT-8's bravery and their crap torpedoes was swept under the rug-I met NO one on active duty during my time in the USN who knew anything about VT-8, what really happened or the defective torpedoes. Even my assistant company commander at boot camp, who retired a Master Chief Petty Officer Torpedoeman's mate was ignorant of all of this!-John Doey Waldron

[raycollins]

Cristian, great video! In 1976 I had the privilege of going to an IPMS convention at which George Gay was the keynote speaker. He had just completed being the technical advisor for Midway Sensurround and so I got to hear his memories first hand around 30 years following the battle. Your account is 100% consistent with what he told us that day but adds in details he either didn’t know or elected not to mention in order to avoid “diming out” his shipmates. Thank you for filling in the gaps.

FYI, something that Gay told us and that doesn’t normally appear in the accounts of the battle is that he floated near where he was shot down for about three days following the battle until a PBY saw him and picked him up. He was medevaced in stages back to Pearl Harbor where he spent a number of months recovering from his wounds. While there he recounted two things that were interesting.

First, the doctors by that time were accustomed to seeing sailors with wounds covered in oil or marines with muddy wounds and asked him how he kept his wounds so clean, to which he answered “Oh, I’ve been soaking them in sea water for about 72 hours.” Second, because he was the only U.S. eye witness to see all of the crucial moments of the June 4 SBD attacks on the Kido Butai, he had a string of one admiral after another visit him in his room and just listen and listen to him to learn what he had seen. This made the medical staff wonder who was this random ensign that all the admirals in the PAC Fleet listened to him instead of him listening to the admirals.

[authormikemontie]

As someone who has read at least five books about the Battle of Midway, and also read the after action report, written by Commander McClusky, this is new information. Well done.

[wkrg]

Being a former US Navy Sailor, the incompetence of some Naval Officers, and the covering up of that incompetence, comes as NO surprise to me.

[matchesburn]

17:37
When you go to from being in command of a strike force of a whopping 58 planes to flying by your lonesome simply because people got tired of following your insane orders to just keep flying despite running out of gas and being told you're flying on the wrong heading... You have so utterly failed as a leader that it's almost impressive.
Every leader is going to make mistakes, but when you're being stubborn to the point of putting your men's lives at risk that's no longer a mistake. That's negligence. And it's crossing a line. You need a very damn good reason to disobey orders and I feel that the men of Hornet's strike group that broke off were justified in doing that. I just wish that maybe Ring would've heard out Waldron and headed his words. Can you imagine if the entire strike group had found and attacked the Kido Butai alongside Waldron?

[charleslarrivee]

“Did you ever hear the tragedy of the USS Hornet’s air group at Midway?”
“No...”
“I thought not. It’s not a story Admiral Mitscher likes to tell.”

[peterlento]

As a retired Naval aviator, I was not surprised by the "flight to nowhere" Ring was incompetent and the others covered for him. I saw that many times in my career. Mitscher thought he could/should run the battle and blew it badly. Spruance showed his allegiance to the Naval Academy protective association by accepting Mitscher's report but advising Nimitz to ignore it. When you come down to it, Midway was a "Miracle" with a few good men (like Dick Best) and a bucketful of luck letting us squeak through to victory.

[jamesschardt]

One point I'd like to make: By not mentioning the mutinies, Mitscher didn't just cover for his men, he also covered for himself. Mutinies don't just come out of nowhere. While his men would be in a LOT of trouble for what they did, Mitscher would likely have been relieved as well.

[sampavlick]

A Dawn Like Thunder, by Robert Mrazek, covers this and goes one step further in an addendum that is now in the US Naval Academy library. A survivor picked up by a Catalina gave his rescuer his highest bill from his wallet, a tradition, and the rescuer wrote on it the position. This led Mrazek to the truth of the cover-up. The Navy has this in their library as a lesson on point of Honor.

[ProwlerGuy]

As the nephew of Henry Kenyon of VT8 and retired Naval Flight Officer with 700 carrier traps I greatly enjoyed your video. The 265 v 240 argument and John Waldron's decision to break formation is one of the moments of decision that change history. I think it would have been worth including the relative success of torpedo squadrons at Coral Sea in the discussion. I do believe that VT8 sacrifice was not without its tactical significance. It definitively located the Japanese, it brought it under attack, it absorbed time, gas, and ammunition. Most importantly it caused the Japanese to change their plan and induced hesitation

[patrickwentz]

Ring was a self absorbed career man. He made Flag rank and even commanded a light carrier later in the war. It was Naval Academy grads protecting each other. He was a made man before the battle and his piss poor performance did not change anything.

[gasperpoklukar]

Oh God I was going to go to sleep but then you dropped this. I know the story of "The Flight to Nowhere" and VT-8 but I have to listen to this because I'll never get tired of Midway-related content.

[bernardmitchell]

I've never heard anything about this. Thank you for shedding light on this fascinating series of events

[d.b.cooper]

My only observation on the battle is: it was still early in the war and skill, tactics, and leadership had not yet reached their highest point. My opinion on your vids however, is that they have already reached perfection and I feel this is your best yet. EXTREMELY informative and entertaining enough to keep one interested during a history lesson. Well done!

[LoosMoose]

I was a member of the CAF in Harlingen TX back in the early 80s and we had George Gay there for the October AirSho a couple of year. He was signing autographs and models of the airplane but he didn't really have too much to say about the event. I am sure that he had retold that story thousands of times so no one really wanted to push it (among us pilots away from the crowd) he was just a really nice guy and thankful for all his good fortune. We all tried to think of an intelligent question but no one could come up with anything that had not already been said many times over.

[randmn]

Having just finished "Shattered Sword", I was aware of the Hornet's air group abject failure. Ring's blunder is an striking testament to the uselessness of the "Because I said so" leadership style.

[knutboehnert]

Now I am torn. Your "ads" actually are well done and executed. So I have to admit that I find those entertaining in their own right. Getting good ad content in the video executed by the Narrator plus great historical content is a Win/Win.