We go to "Condition Red"
The day the Japanese attacked Midway will never leave my memory. At one hour before sunrise all personnel on the island went to Condition Red. This had been a normal routine every morning. Word had been passed down that the IJN was close, and an assault on the island was imminent. Not many of us had slept that night. I had spent four hours on beach patrol during the night and my adrenaline was very active on this morning.
During the battle, I was to remain stationed at my machine-gun position on the south-eastern tip of Sand Island. We were charged with guarding the southern tip of Sand Island. Our sole job was to deny the enemy any foothold on the island. I had a .30 caliber water-cooled machine-gun, a .30 caliber BAR, a .45 cal. pistol, 50 fragmentation hand grenades, and two rolls of toilet paper. We joked about the TP. We figured that if we expended all our munitions we'd sure as hell need the TP.
A short time after sunrise, we stood down from Condition Red to a lesser alert. But then, as we ate our cold breakfast, the sirens began to sound, returning us to Condition Red. The IJN had been sighted! My machine-gun bunker was pretty well covered with coral sand and foliage, and had a single open port towards the sea. Sitting waiting, watching the sea out that small port was nerve racking. The Marines manning the beach MG bunkers had to stay underground so as not to draw fire or reveal the location of our bunkers to the Japanese.
Japanese
carrier-launched bombers have withdrawn after striking Midway on the morning
of 4 June 1942. In this view of Sand island, the camera is facing south-west
and shows
the bomb-damaged laundry building in the foreground and burning oil
tanks in the distance. Ed Fox's machine-gun bunker was located beyond the burning
oil tanks and on the shore line.
The Japanese bombs begin to fall
Now it was a waiting game. I do not remember the exact time but the sirens sounded again. Word was passed on the sound power phones that the IJN planes were sighted and to take cover. I waited in my mole hole. Anti-aircraft (AA) fire could be heard, and bombs that were dropped on the island could be heard. The bombardment lasted only a few minutes. The nearby AA guns ceased firing. I then went topside to get a view of the island, and observed the north end in smoke and flames. A single IJN plane came in from the south-west at a low altitude, seemingly headed right for me. I headed for my safe hole again.
So few of our planes return
Later that morning, as I waited for our returning planes - sitting in the foliage - hardly a Midway-based plane returned; only a few of our planes - from a carrier, I was told later. So many flew off that day to deny the enemy access to Midway and to protect me; many never to return. To this day, I have the highest respect for those men. They did not know me, nor I them. What they did was their job, that they were trained to do. They gave the ultimate sacrifice though. I have often wondered if I could have been that brave.
Midway in Retrospect
On paper our Midway defenses may have looked great, but the issue would have been in doubt if we'd been invaded. At the time I was untried, untested, too young and cocky to realize the consequences of combat. Iwo Jima taught me how foolish I had been at Midway.
Had the IJN begun to shell us, my position would not have held up. Even a near miss would have brought the coral sand down in front of the port, blinding us for sure. Had the enemy gained the island where would we go? We would stay and fight, doing what we had been trained for.
Since then, I have given much thought to that "what if". Here we are holding off the IJN landing parties. Just maybe, the Army Air Corps or Navy air from Pearl could come to our rescue. We should have had a sizable force in Hawaii air and afloat, at least enough to distract the enemy from landing.
We would have held the ground we were assigned to protect at a terrible loss. I just pray that I would have been as brave as the Navy and Marines that attacked the carriers that day, but were unable to return.
After Midway, I trained as a forward observer for artillery and air support with the 5th Marine Division. I was on the third wave at Iwo Jima and called in several emergency barrages from a battleship. It might have been the Iowa. I experienced then what a Navy bombardment and two divisions of Marine artillery can do. If the tables had been turned around, we would have been hurting at Midway.
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