This made the Zeroes more vulnerable to defensive fire. As the swarms of Zeroes jockeyed for position for a kill, their 7.7-mm nose-mounted machine guns appeared to have little effect, forcing the Zeroes to rely on their wing-mounted 20-mm cannons, which required the Zeroes to remain steady for longer because it was harder to hit a target with a cannon. The Japanese were in for a rude shock as both types of aircraft proved incredibly difficult to shoot down. B-26s had flown their first combat mission in the Pacific only a month before, at Rabaul, but the Japanese carrier fighters had never encountered one before. The Japanese had never seen TBFs before (Ensign Albert “Bert” Earnest was flying the first TBF off the Grumman production line). They also ran headlong into 30 Japanese Zero fighters from four aircraft carriers. Arriving at the Japanese carriers at the almost the same time, shortly after 0700, the TBFs and B-26s conducted a near-simultaneous, but not coordinated, attack. Armed only with a range and bearing to a reported two Japanese carriers, both strike leaders led their flights on a direct line to the reported position. Regardless, Collins independently made the exact same decision as Fieberling to attack immediately and separately. Other accounts say there was no plan for a coordinated strike. Some accounts say Fieberling failed to wait to follow a plan to form up with Marine Corps dive-bombers that launched after the B-26s. Shortly after 0600, the TBFs launched immediately after the Marine Corps fighters that would attempt to defend Midway, and the faster B-26s launched right after the TBFs. None of the aircrews had combat experience, and none had ever dropped a live torpedo. The B-26s, led by Captain James Collins, were from two different USAAF bomb groups, diverted from their transit to Australia. The TBFs were led by Lieutenant Langston Kellogg Fieberling (commissioned as an aviation cadet), and were a detachment of USS Hornet’s (CV-8) Torpedo Squadron EIGHT (VT-8) that had been left behind in Norfolk several months earlier to transition from the TBD Devastator to the TBF, and had then made its way to Midway. The TBFs (the name “Avenger” would be bestowed after the battle) and the B-26s had only arrived on Midway a couple days previously. ![]() ![]() Upon warning by PBY Catalinas and radar of the incoming 108-plane Japanese strike, every operational aircraft on Midway was launched. ![]() Army Air Forces B-26 Marauder twin-engine bombers, each rigged to carry a torpedo. The first American strike aircraft to reach the Japanese carriers on the morning of 4 June 1942 were six new, state-of-the-art U.S.
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