Between June 4th and 6th 1942 one of the greatest naval battles in history took place, the Battle of Midway. The battle ended in a great victory for the U.S. Navy and a devastating loss for the Imperial Japanese Navy, who lost four aircraft carriers, a cruiser, almost 250 aircraft and over 3,000 men. In comparison the Americans lost one carrier (USS Yorktown CV-5), a destroyer (USS Hammann DD-412), about 150 aircraft and just over 300 men. The battle has been covered in depth from every respect and from every angle, nothing I could write here would bring anything new or undiscovered to the story, but I do want to put the spotlight on one small story in a large battle.

In the early morning hours of June 4, 1942 eleven Catalina PBY5As of VP-44 Squadron took off from Midway Atoll in search of the Japanese force. One of the aircraft, 44-P-12 piloted by Lt. (j.g.) Robert S. Whitman, Jr. located Vice-Admiral Kondo's invasion force and was shadowing the ships about 340 miles west of Midway. Even though the force had been discovered, the Japanese could not allow an American plane to fly unchallenged reporting their every move so three Mitsubishi F1M "Pete" seaplanes were launched from the seaplane carrier Chitose to take down the American plane.

The three Japanese planes made several runs at the lumbering Catalina scoring a number of hits and killing (or wounding) the pilot and co-pilot and wounding others. The gunners fought back and damaged one of the attackers. The PBY, ablaze, crashed (or made a semi-controlled crash landing) into the sea, five of the ten crewmen were dead, the others got out of the plane and into a rubber liferaft (which had to be repaired due to battle damage).

One of the men was badly wounded, but the others tended to him as best they could, they were fortunate in that the Japanese did not fly over and shoot them in the water and none of the Japanese ships bothered to either pick them up or shoot them. They had sent a distress signal indicating they were under attack and giving their location and a recovery would be made.

It was two days later, at 1445 June 6 when Lt. (j.g.) Norman Brady finally located the five men in the raft, after forty-five minutes and a skillful landing and takeoff in heavy seas the survivors were safe and en route to shore. Sadly the wounded man succumbed to his wounds at Midway. Aviation Ordnanceman Philip L. Flughum, Ensign Lee C. McCleary, Aviation Machinist's Mate 1st Class Virgil R. March and Aviation Machinist's Mate 2nd Class John C. Weeks were the only survivors of the only PBY lost during the Battle of Midway.