17. An Unexpected Japanese Disaster
While the American torpedo bombers were getting slaughtered, a flight of American Dauntless dive bombers trying to locate the Japanese was lost. They had neared the point beyond which they wouldn’t have enough fuel to return to their carriers, but their leader, Lieutenant Commander Wade McClusky, decided to keep going. He was rewarded by spotting a lone Japanese destroyer below. Guessing that it was heading to rejoin its fleet, he used its wake as an arrow, and that led him to the Japanese fleet.
It was a Japanese fleet caught at the worst possible time for an attack from dive bombers. The carriers were rearming and refueling, so their decks and hangars were full of bombs and torpedoes and gas. There was also no fighter cover. The Japanese fighters had gone down to intercept and destroy the torpedo bombers that had attacked at low level and had not yet regained altitude when American dive bombers showed up high above and dove down. Within five minutes, three of the four Japanese aircraft carriers were burning. The fourth was sunk later that day.
