Pacifica Military History Free Sample Chapters.pmd

218 Pacifica Military History
Gaines, who had more fuel aboard than the other pilots and who rapidly
climbed far higher than anyone else.
The Dauntlesses, which were the slowest of the three American
aircraft types, had the lead so that the swifter Avengers could hold station
on them. This required the Avengers—flying in newly contrived steppeddown
diamond-shaped, four-plane defensive formations—to weave a
little in order to keep from overrunning the straining SBDs in the long,
slow climb. The two fighter divisions—LCdr Jimmy Flatley’s on the
right and Lt(jg) John Leppla’s on the left—were weaving back and forth
1,000 feet above and just ahead of the bombers in an effort to match
speed with the much slower Dauntlesses.
Flatley and Leppla were both veterans of the Coral Sea. Indeed,
both had won Navy Crosses in history’s first carrier-versus-carrier
battle—Flatley for his superb fighter leadership and Leppla for being
the most aggressive Dauntless pilot anyone could remember. (Leppla’s
rearseatman at Coral Sea, also a Navy Cross holder, was ARM2 John
Liska, who was returning home to the Enterprise at that very moment
with Scouting-10’s Lt(jg) Doan Carmody.)
Few of the Enterprise strike aircraft had turned on their radios
yet, the better to preserve radio silence. They were still climbing when
Gus Widhelm and Mike Sanchez broadcast their warnings to Task Force
61—which intercepted neither message—and no one in any of the
Enterprise aircraft heard the alert.
Lt Saneyasu Hidaka, leading nine Zuiho Zeros, was frustrated by
the lack of orders from Lieutenant Commander Murata to attack the
passing Hornet strikers, so he did not wait upon word from Murata when
he spotted the climbing Enterprise force. Though bouncing the second
wave of American bombers would deprive Murata’s force of close-in
support, Hidaka apparently thought that a quick hit-and-run pass from
14,000 feet would leave him with plenty of time to rejoin the bombers
before the attack on the American carriers commenced.
At 0840, Lieutenant Hidaka signed to the eight other Zuiho Zero
pilots to follow him down in string formation against the American carrier
bombers. After the Zeros had completed a descending 180-degree turn,