MIDWAY 10/27/1946 0730 LOCAL

The force of one hundred and three planes took off and headed west, fifteen bombers, eighteen guard planes and seventy tankers. The fifteen bombers each carried one bomb and had been stripped of all possible weight including all guns except the tail gun. Even it had only a minimal number of rounds of ammunition, such was the bomb load they were carrying. Each bomber would be accompanied to the target by a guard plane, a B17-VG that had not been stripped of it’s guns but was carrying no bomb and extra ammunition. One of these planes would fly in formation with the bomber and provide protection. Such was the nature of the mission that the orders for the guard planes stated that they would remain on station with the bomber even if the result would be the loss of the guard aircraft and its crew. There were three extra guard planes and four extra tankers, these would replace any planes that fell out because of mechanical problems.

JUST WEST OF MIDWAY – 10/27/1946 0800 LOCAL

Captain Osaka of the I-211 pushed the periscope through the surface of the ocean and took a very quick look around. He had now spent three days of surfacing in the dead of night to charge his batteries and watching the islands through the periscope during the day. He and his men were just about at the end of their wits. Four subs sent to monitor the activities at Midway in the last six weeks were all overdue and presumed lost. His orders were to find out what was happening and come home with the information. He was not to risk his boat in any offensive action.

The days had been hard. There were many surface targets and he longed to sink them but every time he raised his periscope for more than ten minutes he found himself being attacked by aircraft. Apparently they had radar that could find his periscope. There had been some close calls and the boat already had several compartments which were leaking. He had already decided to withdraw that night. Whatever was happening, there was one thing he knew. The Americans wanted it to remain a secret.

As he made his sweep he saw a massive flight of aircraft—he recognized them as B-17’s—taking off and heading west. He knew the dreaded planes would be flying over the homeland. Although they almost never dropped bombs it was well known that after flights over coastal cities the dreaded rocket boats often came and burned the city. He dropped below the waves and prepared a radio message. It gave course, direction and number of planes in the formation and briefly what they had learned about the Midway defenses. He didn’t expect to return to Japan after sending the message. Certainly his transmission would lead the enemy to him. He and his crew would most likely not survive the next attack.