Excerpt
Arming Midway Island ( 1941
The Admiral is fuming mad! Even though he used extraordinary means to conceal the manning and fortification of that great ring of coral called Midway Island, it was no use. All Hawaii was talking about it when we returned. The Admiral says there are too many leaks and he wants them stopped. I have my doubts ( is it possible to seal a sieve?
From bulkhead-to-bulkhead (wall-to-wall) folding cots filled the spacious below deck hangar in the high speed light cruiser U.S.S. Brooklyn, a favorite of Franklin D. Roosevelt(s, who authorized its heavily armed (pact beating( design years before she could be built. To make room for the cots, the four scout planes were hoisted out of the hangar at night and stored on the catapults. As the Brooklyn sortied from Pearl Harbor before sunrise, 500 Marines were below in those cots with the hangar hatch closed tight over them after they secretly boarded that night. Ensign Cragg remembers all the secrecy well, though stationed in the engine room, for getting underway at night in peacetime was most unusual. Until we were out of sight of land, the Marines were kept hidden below and invisible. This was the (extraordinary means( of the Admiral; for no observer, seeing us leave, would guess that a small army was going to sea hidden in the Brooklyn. After all, the Brooklyn is a sleek cruiser, not a transport ship. A transport would be obvious ( a dead giveaway of the Admiral(s secret.
When well at sea, we passed five cargo ships going the same direction. (Scuttlebutt( (rumor) in the Brooklyn had it that these ships were loaded with heavy artillery, both surface and anti-aircraft. Scuttlebutt also had it that ammunition ships would follow later.
After we steamed west for a thousand miles, I saw my first tropical atoll, Midway Island. No one knew in February, 1941 that just over a year later, Midway would be the focus of the most pivotal battle of the WW II Pacific theater.
Picture a coral reef five miles in diameter enclosing a lagoon. At its eastern edge is a narrow channel, turning sharply to the left just inside the reef. Out of this channel a current is always flowing. Waves break over the opposite or western wall of the coral ring; and all the added water exits through this one vent. Inside the lagoon on each side of the channel lies an island. The larger island (Sand Island) to the left of the channel, has docking for large ships like the Brooklyn, as well as fuel tanks, buildings, and an airstrip. There are trees. The right hand arid Bird Island, later named East Island, has swarms of birds continuously circling. A year later, an airstrip and other construction had been added. One wonders what happened to all the (gooney( birds ( a hazard to the Navy and Marine aviators who heroically took off from that runway to help devastate a Japanese fleet.
Our 500 Marines are to be released from their cramped quarters in the Brooklyn and landed on the dock on Sand Island.
Recently there have been strong winds with huge seas breaking over the western reef causing high water inside the lagoon. The outflow, now a raging torrent, was too strong for the Brooklyn. She could not negotiate the sharp turn without being bashed into the coral. The Marines had to be unloaded promptly before we ran out of food. Brooklyn had to wait outside the reef, but her small boats, due to their shortness, were capable of transiting the channel, making the turn easily. Boatload after boatload, the 500 Marines were taken through the channel to be landed on Sand Island. The other ships could wait outside --. (artillery and ammunition eat nothing.) The Brooklyn returned to Hawaii and Pearl Harbor, but these ships remained for better weather and inside docking to unload their deadly cargoes.
In Honolulu, there was widespread gossip of the (secret mission( to fortify Midway Island. Perhaps it was even mentioned in the Honolulu Advertiser. The next time I had shore leave, my Hawaiian friends, the Husseys, asked, (How was your trip west? Did you go ashore on Midway Island?( My short (No.( was all the answer I gave them. Even to my trusted friends, I saw no need to add to the rumors, those leaks which so enraged Admiral Kimmel. Japanese spies were teeming throughout the islands, even in fishing (sampans( with short wave radios, and all the precautions which at times seemed extreme were actually not thorough enough. If we only knew!
Public knowledge or not, a strong bastion of the United States has been established far out in the Pacific Ocean. Two thirds of the way to Japan, Midway backs up the outposts of Guam, Wake Island and the Philippines, all three of which might be impossible to defend because of their remote locations. Now no secret, fortified Midway Island will have to be reckoned with by our potential foe, Japan.
A year later, the Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island had been lost, but the (Battle of Midway( in June, 1942 was the turning point of the War in the Pacific. The Brooklyn played a proud part in the arming of Midway which made this triumph possible.
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