YORKTOWN AT THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY
Yorktown departs Pearl Harbor for Midway
As the Mighty "Y" went to sea for the last time, Captain Buckmaster announced over the speaker system: "Men, I have a message from your Commander in Chief, Admiral King. When you return from the battle in which you are about to engage, you are going back to the States, and I don't mean for three weeks either!" I also recall another message: "Hit them in the prop and make the bastard flop. Hit them in the rudder and you'll only make them flutter." When we went to sea this last time on the mighty Yorktown, we left our skipper and Executive Officer at Pearl Harbor and picked up the pilots and skipper of Fighting Three (VF-3). We also acquired a new torpedo squadron, Torpedo Three (VT-3).
We were advised that we would fight this battle as VF-3 vice VF-42. The VS and VB squadrons remained the same. Our squadron received all new F4F-4 aircraft. The new planes had six 50-caliber machine-guns instead of four, but many of the guns were not installed, and we worked forty-eight hours straight after they flew aboard just getting them in working order. A most tragic accident occurred as the aircraft were coming aboard. The VF-3 Executive Officer, LCDR Don Lovelace, landed and taxied forward of the barrier. The next plane coming aboard flew over the barrier and landed on top of Don's plane, killing him. His body was still aboard the ship when she sank (Ed: after Midway).
From the reports we received before the battle, it was apparent that the Japs had overwhelming superiority, with four aircraft carriers to our three, and many more battleships and cruisers. I just didn't see how we could survive. We rendezvoused with the carriers Hornet and Enterprise, although we remained quite some distance from their group.
On the morning of the 4th of June, our task force found the Jap force and they discovered us at about the same time. I stood on the starboard catwalk just forward of the island and watched the Jap planes approaching. Fairly close to the ship they were attacked by our fighters. At one time there were so many enemy aircraft on fire and falling that it appeared to be a huge curtain coming down out of the sky.
When the surviving Jap planes neared the Yorktown, I took shelter in a crew's head adjacent to the catwalk forward of the island. We received three bomb hits as a result of this raid. One bomb hit the flight deck aft of the island, killing the men manning two 1.1 gun mounts and many of the men on the after end of the island structure. Another hit caused a fire below the forward aircraft elevator. The third hit caused severe damage to the fire room uptakes, blowing out all the boiler fires and causing us to go dead in the water. The fires were re-lit, and after about an hour, we slowly got under way. I remember that our flag during the battle was a huge battle flag which had numerous shrapnel holes through it.
After the first attack, we finally worked up enough speed to take aboard a few of our fighter planes and a few of our dive bombers. We rearmed these planes, but could not refuel them as all the ship gas lines had been drained and the lines filled with C02 gas. Before the arrival of the second attack, some of these planes were launched even though they had as little as 30-35 gallons of fuel aboard. One of our fighters shot a Jap plane out of the air as he was still climbing from launch.
During the second attack, several of us again took shelter in the crew's head forward of the island on the starboard side. I was sitting in the shelter when Jap torpedo planes launched torpedos. Two torpedos hit abeam on the port side. I have never felt such a jolt in my life. The ship began to list immediately. After two or three minutes, I came out of the shelter and climbed out to the flight deck. The Yorktown was listing twenty-six degrees to port, and it was very difficult to stand upright on the deck. We waited for a few minutes until the order to abandon ship was given.
Yorktown is abandoned
I went down to the hangar deck, took off my anti-flash clothing, folded them, and made a neat pile of the clothing, my shoes, gas mask, and a steel helmet. Using a line that had been secured to the ship, I went over the high side of the ship below the island. As the armor belt was only a few inches above the water, I stood on the armor belt for a few seconds, and even tested the temperature with my foot before entering the water. There was a lot of fueI oil on the water and I was soon covered with it, but my life jacket kept my head up. I finally took my dungaree pants off and let them go, as my legs were beginning to tire. There were many crewmen around me in the water and we all kept swimming away from the ship.
Several destroyers were in the area and were picking up survivors. I swam, finally reaching a whale boat from the destroyer Balch, and was helped aboard. When the whale boat could hold no more men, the boat officer stopped letting men aboard. Those of us in the boat all leaned over the side and held on to some men still in the water. I took off my life jacket and threw it to a man in the water who didn't have one. I requested permission to get in the water to make room for the man I was holding, because he had broken bones. The whale boat trailed two lines to which men were hanging. I got back into the water and hung on to the side of the whale boat until we approached the side of the destroyer Balch.
When we were fairly close, I turned loose the whale boat and swam to a net hanging over the port side of the ship. I didn't realise how tired I was until I attempted to climb the netting. It took all the strength I could muster to make it, and when I was finally helped aboard, I sat down near one of the stacks where the deck was warm. I sat there for quite some time until a corpsman helped me below. I was given vasoline to help remove the fuel oil and then a shower. But it was many days before my skin returned to normal color because of the oil.
None of us rescued by the Balch will ever forget the men of that ship. They opened their lockers and gave us everything they had. A Balch sailor took one of his blankets and tore it, giving me half and the other half to another survivor. I went up into one of the forward 5-inch ammunition handling rooms and sat with some of the ship company men at their general quarters station. They were eating canned strawberries. I ate some, and was told by one of the men that during all the excitement of the battle they had raided the officer's pantry. They were good berries. One of the men told me that he would be on duty all night and that I could use his bunk; a kindness I shall never forget.
My last view of the Yorktown was the sun setting as she listed terribly to port, and feeling an almost unbearable sadness. Early the next morning, all the survivors were transferred by high line, about ten or twelve men at a time, in canvas sacks to the cruiser Portland. As soon as we arrived aboard the Portland, we were put to work helping high line the rest of the survivors across from the Balch. I brought my half a blanket with me, and kept it throughout the war. My wife bound it, and all three of my children used it as infants. I still have it, and wish I knew the name of the man on the Balch who gave it to me.
On the Portland my bare feet were soon burning from the hot decks. I found some sacking and bound them up using sacking and string, which helped quite a bit. When the destroyer Hammann came alongside the Portland, I shouted across to a friend and he told me they were going to the Yorktown to attempt to salvage her. I asked him to get my photo album out of my locker and try to save it.
We stayed on the Portland the rest of the day. I was issued a pair of socks and a set of underwear. I slept that night up on the superstructure outside the captain's sea cabin, using my half a blanket to lie on. The next day, we were transferred to the submarine tender Fulton for the trip back to Pearl Harbor. Life on the Fulton was like a hotel and the living conditions excellent. While aboard, I was issued toilet articles, shoes and a suit of dungarees.
The end of VF-42
When we docked at Pearl Harbor , we were taken by truck to Camp Catlin where we lived with the marines for several days before being split up by ship's company and squadron. It was here that we finally learned that the Yortown had sunk. About three days later, the salvage party arrived and with it the story of the last days of the ship. My friend brought me my photo album, telling me that when he went back aboard the Yorktown, the first thing he did was get my album and put it aboard the tug that had come out from French Frigate Shoals to tow the ship. This was how he managed to save it.
After a few days, VF-42 was sent to the Ewa Marine Air Base where, within two weeks, VF-42 was decommissioned and we ceased to exist as a squadron. Some of us went back to carriers, some to new squadrons, and to various activities in the Hawaiian area,
I don't suppose any of us will ever forget our year on the Yorktown. The monotony of endless days at sea, the doing without, and the knowledge that we and a few like us were all that stood between the Japs and certain attainment of their goals. The events of that year are forever etched in my memory. Looking at our present day man-of-war men, I see only a group of youngsters. And I think back and muse .... so were we when our war started, but we were men when the going got rough, and I take comfort in this and the belief that the Navy is no softer now than it ever was, and that when the going gets rough our youngsters will deliver.