Torpedo Squadron 8

(The last of Torpedo Eight's TBDs, T-16 (BuNo 1506), flown by LCDR John C. Waldron with Horace Franklin Dobbs, CRMP, in the rear seat, taking off Hornet on 4 June 1942.)


The John Ford DVD documentary I received for Christmas with the Ford At Fox Collection (see post below) had on it a "special feature" the Documentaries John Ford made during World War II while he was in the U.S. Navy. They include the well know Academy Award winning documentaries on Pearl Harbor and on the Battle of Midway. It also included a little known, and not distributed, documentary called "Torpedo Squadron 8" a documentary made only for the family's of the squadron members who died in the Battle of Midway. Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8) was a United States Navy squadron of torpedo bombers operating from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. It was an emotional experience watching this color documentary, last night for the first time, showing these young American navy flayers taken shortly before their deaths. So young ... so alive....so "boy next door" joking and smiling." I've seen a few excerpts from the documentary in the Documentary "John Ford Goes to War" but until now no one has seen the entire film except the producers and a few families on the home front.

Ford was on the island of Midway during the battle in 1942 and personally supervised, or himself filmed, the action there. Others of his crew were at sea aboard carriers. A good deal of color footage was shot. By happenstance, some of the footage focused on the pilots and crew members of Torpedo Squadron 8 who all except one died a few hours later. Some of the shots showed them as a group, and others showed them as individuals, going about their business, laughing and joking around their airplanes. The Navy men flew obsolete torpedo planes, called Devestators. Because of what Clausewitz called "the fog of war," they arrived at their targets unescorted by fighters and all of the torpedo planes were shot down. There was only one survivor. Of course Ford knew this when he was assembling the film, so among the opening credits is a plaque reading, "In Memoriam." Releasing a film like this for general distribution was out of the question in wartime, so, as I understand it, Ford saw to it, or tried to see to it, that copies of the film went only to the families of Torpedo Squadron 8. (from the IMDB)

Now 65 years later it's available on DVD in the Ford At Fox Collection.

From Wikipedia:

The squadrons first and best-known combat mission came during the Battle of Midway on 4 June 1942. Flying the vulnerable Douglas TBD Devastators, Commander John C. Waldron's 15 planes were all shot down during their unescorted torpedo attack on four Japanese aircraft carriers. The squadron did not destroy any enemy aircraft with their rear .30-caliber machine guns, nor did they damage any of the Japanese carriers.

All members of Torpedo Squadron 8 who flew from the Hornet on that day perished in the action, with the exception of Ensign George Gay.

A separate detachment of six TBF Avengers from Midway Island saw two survivors, Ensign Albert K. Earnest and CDR (then Radioman 2/c) Harry Ferrier.

A List of Fallen:

Lt. Commander John C. Waldron
Lt. Raymond A. Moore
Lt. James C. Owens, Jr.
Lt.(jg) George M. Campbell
Lt.(jg) John P. Gray
Lt.(jg) Jeff D. Woodson
Ens. William W. Abercrombie
Ens. William W. Creamer
Ens. Harold J. Ellison
Ens. William R. Evans
Ens. Henry R. Kenyon
Ens. Ulvert M. Moore
Ens. Grant W. Teats
Robert B. Miles, Aviation Pilot 1c
Horace F. Dobbs, Chief Radioman
Amelio Maffei, Radioman 1
Tom H. Pettry, Radioman 1
Otway D. Creasy, Jr. Radioman 2
Ross H. Bibb, Jr., Radioman 2
Darwin L. Clark, Radioman 2
Ronald J. Fisher, Radioman 2
Hollis Martin, Radioman 2
Bernerd P. Phelps Radioman 2
As well L. Picou, Seaman 2
Francis S. Polston, Seaman 2
Max A. Calkins, Radioman 3
George A. Field, Radioman 3
Robert K. Huntington, Radioman 3
William F. Sawhill, Radioman 3

Failure of the Hornet's captain and air group commander to provide proper coordination led to the disaster[citation needed], though in fairness, VT-3 from Yorktown (CV-5) and VT-6 from Enterprise (CV-6) fared little better. Of all 41 torpedo planes which sortied that day, only six survived. However, it is possible that the act of drawing away the Japanese Zero fighters during the doomed attack allowed a subsequent wave of American dive bombers to later sink three of the four Japanese carriers.

To see pictures from that documentary click on the title above for a link to a web site where the web site creator obtained a copy of the documentary from the daughter of John C Waldron the squadron commander who was killed with the rest of his squadron.

Herman Wouk in his novel "War and Remembrance" has listed the members of torpedo squadron 8 and two other torpedo squadrons from the U.S.S. Yorktown and U.S.S. Enterprise and said this about the naval aviators that attacked the Japanese aircraft carriers that day

"So long as men choose to decide the turns of history with the slaughter of youths--- and even in a better day, when this form of human sacrifice has been abolished like the ancient superstitious, but no more horrible form--- the memory of these three American torpedo plane squadrons should not die. The old sagas would halt the tale to list the names and birthplaces of the men who fought so well. Let this romance follow the tradition. These were the young men of the three squadrons, their names recovered from an already fading record."

Wouk then lists the names and home town of all of the crew member in the three squadrons with those who died outlined in black. It is the most haunting section of his great novel.

All together, these three torpedo Squadrons lost 33 pilots and 45 radiomen-gunners that day. The slow obsolete American torpedo planes were slaughtered by Japanese Zeroes and AA fire. Herman Wouk had this to say:

"In a planned coordinated attack, the dive-bombers were supposed to distract the enemy fighters, so as to give the torpedo planes their chance to come in. Instead the torpedo planes had pulled down the Zeroes and cleared the air for the dive-bombers. What was not luck, but the soul of the United States of America in action, was this willingness of the torpedo plane squadrons to go in against hopeless odds. This was the extra ounce of martial weight that in a few decisive minutes tipped the balance of history."

The Japanese lost four aircraft carriers and the U.S. lost the Yorktown in this naval battle fought from the air. The Japanese attack on Midway failed and it was the turning point in the war in the Pacific.