Flight Deck of USS Yorktown After Being Hit by the Japanese

Image size: 3000 x 2107 pixel. 1.1 MB
Date: Thursday, 4 June 1942
Place: Pacific Ocean
Photographer: unknown

Looking forward on the flight deck of USS Yorktown (CV-5) shortly after she was hit by two Japanese aerial torpedoes, 4 June 1942. Men are preparing to abandon ship. Island's port side is at right, with the curved supporting structure for the Primary Flight Control booth at top. Knotted lines in the foreground were apparently used to evacuate the island's upper platforms. The planes which scored torpedo hits were shot down either in passing the Yorktown or in attempting to pass through the fire of her escorting vessels. Not one of the attacking squadron returned to its carrier. By 1447 firing ceased. The Yorktown, listing heavily to port, was losing speed and turning in a small circle to port. She stopped and white smoke poured from her stacks. The screening vessels began to circle. Inside the Yorktown all lights had gone out. The Diesel generators were cut in, but the circuit breakers would not hold and the ship remained in darkness. The list gradually increased to 26 Degrees. Without power nothing could be done to correct it. The Commanding Officer and the Damage Control Officer thought it probable that the ship would capsize in a few minutes, and at 1455 orders were given to abandon ship. Inside, men clambered over steeply sloping decks in total darkness to remove the wounded. After an inspection on which no living personnel were found, the Commanding Officer left the ship. Destroyers closed in to pick up survivors.


Source :
United States Naval Historical C
https://worldwar2database.com/gallery/wwii1301

USS Yorktown After Bomb Hits in the Battle of Midway

Image size: 1600 x 1283 pixel. 249 KB
Date: Thursday, 4 June 1942
Place: Midway, Oceania
Photographer: Unknown

Fires are burning in USS Yorktown's (CV-5) uptakes. USS Portland (CA-35) stands by. With her boiler rooms out of action through the effects of the bomb hit in her uptakes, Yorktown coasted to a stop, while her escorts circled around her. Her crewmen fought fires in her smokestack and elsewhere, patched holes in her uptakes and flight deck, treated casualties and stayed alert for another possible enemy attack. The crew of one boiler room heroically worked amid heat and smoke to keep the ship's auxiliary systems operating. To maintain his mobility, Task Force 17 commander Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher shifted his flag to USS Astoria. Ships were sent from the nearby Task Force 16 to reinforce those clustered around the stricken carrier. Meanwhile, Yorktown aircraft returning from attacks on the Japanese carrier Soryu were diverted to USS Enterprise. Some, however, were too short of fuel to fly on, and ditched nearby. As damage control parties made progress, flight deck crews respotted several fighters aft to takeoff position and the engineering force began to bring other boilers back into service. After nearly two hours' hard work by all hands, Yorktown was underway again, though only capable of about twenty knots speed. To the west, as yet undetected, Japanese torpedo planes from IJN Hiryu were approaching. The Japanese aircraft penetrated heavy air and gunfire opposition to hit Yorktown with two torpedoes, opening a huge hole on her midships port side. The stricken ship again went dead in the water and took on a severe list. Concerned that she was about to roll over, her Captain ordered his crew to abandon ship. After a further torpedo hit by IJN I-168, Yorktown rolled over on her port side and sank by the stern on the morning of June 7. 

Source:

http://einestages.spiegel.de/static/entry/seeschlacht_um_die_vogelinseln/100012/angriff_auf_die_uss_yorktown.html?o=position-ASCENDING&s=0&r=48&a=24923&of=14&c=1

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1137

USS Yorktown (CV-5) Lists After Two Torpedoes

Image size: 1600 x 1472 pixel. 614 KB
Date: Thursday, 4 June 1942
Place: Midway, Oceania
Photographer: Unknown

After the 4 June mid-morning U.S. Navy attacks on the Japanese carrier force, only the Hiryu remained operational. Shortly before 1100 she launched eighteen dive bombers, escorted by six fighters, to strike a retaliatory blow. At about noon, as these planes approached USS Yorktown (CV-5), the most exposed of the three American aircraft carriers, they were intercepted by the U.S. combat air patrol, which shot down most of the bombers. Seven, however, survived to attack, hitting Yorktown with three bombs and stopping her. While Yorktown's crew worked to repair damage and get their ship underway, a second force left Hiryu, this one consisting of ten torpedo planes and six fighters. Though the U.S. carrier was moving again by 1430, and even launched more fighters, the Japanese aircraft penetrated heavy air and gunfire opposition to hit Yorktown with two torpedoes, opening a huge hole on her midships port side. The stricken ship again went dead in the water and took on a severe list. Concerned that she was about to roll over, her Captain ordered his crew to abandon ship. On 6 June 1942 the Japanese submarine I-168 scored another two torpedo hits on the crippled aircraft carrier and she sank on 7 June. Destroyers spent an entire day seeking out the Japanese submarine that sunk the Yorktown and her escort destroyer, USS Hammann (DD-412), but failed to sink I-168. The submarine was finally sunk by the USS Scamp (SS-277) on 27 July 1943.

Source:
U.S. Navy photo 80-G-17062; National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 2003.001.223
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sinking_of_the_USS_Yorktown_%28CV-5%29_02.jpg
http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1020

Destroyers Stand By to Pick Up Survivors as USS Yorktown (CV-5) is Abandoned

Image size: 1600 x 1308 pixel. 363 KB
Date: Thursday, 4 June 1942
Place: Midway, Oceania
Photographer: Unknown

Destroyers stand by to pick up survivors as USS Yorktown (CV-5) is abandoned during the afternoon of June 4, following Japanese torpedo plane attacks. Destroyers at left are (left to right): USS Benham (DD-397), USS Russell (DD-414), and USS Balch (DD-363). Destroyer at right is USS Anderson (DD-411). Photographed from USS Pensacola (CA-24). At about 1400 on June 4, 1942, soon after Yorktown began to move again following bomb damage repairs, her radar detected a second incoming raid from the Japanese carrier Hiryu. This formation included ten torpedo planes commanded by Lieutenant Joichi Tomonaga, plus six escorting fighters. As they approached, Yorktown steadily increased her speed to about twenty knots and launched additional "Wildcats", some with very little fuel. Despite losses to the defending F4F fighters and heavy anti-aircraft fire, the Japanese planes pushed on to deliver a beautifully coordinated torpedo attack. Approaching Yorktown from both sides, in an attack designed to divide her defenses and make it impossible for her to maneuver to avoid all their "fish", the Japanese strike force dropped several of the very effective Type 91 torpedoes. Those coming from starboard missed, but one hit Yorktown squarely amidships on the port side. She immediately took a slight list and started to turn. Then a second torpedo hit, in almost the same place. The two warheads opened a very large hole, flooding machinery spaces and other compartments. Her propulsion knocked out once again, Yorktown coasted to a stop and began to list dangerously. Within a few minutes of her torpedoing, USS Yorktown had listed heavily to port, almost bringing her hangar deck to sea level. More importantly, she had lost all steam and electrical power, and therefore could not effectively control and counter flooding. Facing a threat that the stricken carrier might capsize, drowning most of her crew, her Commanding Officer, Captain Elliot Buckmaster, made the reluctant decision to abandon ship. At about 1500 hours on 4 June, the grim process got underway, as crewmen began to go down knotted ropes into the oily water surrounding their ship. Escorting destroyers sent boats and stood by to pick up the survivors. One destroyer, USS Benham (DD-397) took in over 700 men, three times as many as in her own crew!

Source:

Official U.S. Navy Photograph #80-G-21694, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-pac/midway/mid-8a.htm

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1043

Renzo Kita, Last Moment of Admiral Yamaguchi

Image size: 1600 x 1152 pixel. 685 KB
Date: Friday, 5 June 1942
Place: Midway, Pacific, Hawaii, United States
Painter: Kita Renzo

'Last Moments of Admiral Yamaguchi' painting by Kita Renzo, 1942; Captain Tomeo Kaku, with moustache, is next to Yamaguchi in the painting. Tamon Yamaguchi was born in the Shimane prefecture in Japan in 1892, and graduated from the Japanese Naval Academy in 1912. In 1918, as a navigation officer, he was exposed to naval aviation while escorting German submarines en route to be delivered as repatriation payments. Between 1921 and 1923 he studied American History at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, though did not pursue a formal degree; instead, he returned to Japan and completed his studies at the Naval Staff College in 1924. However, he was described as enthusiastic about the American university. After participating in the London Naval Conference in 1929, the diplomatic Captain Yamaguchi was Japan's last naval attaché to Washington D.C., which lasted from 1934 to 1937. He returned to Japan for sea-bound service once again, filling the role of Chief of Staff to the Japanese 5th Fleet from 1938 to 1940. In 1940, he was promoted rear admiral and assigned the 2nd Carrier Division which consisted of the Hiryu and the Soryu. By this time, he was often understood as the successor to Isoroku Yamamoto for the position of the commander of the Combined Fleet. Commonly credited as being perhaps Japan's most gifted carrier admiral, Yamaguchi was astute, aggressive, and ambitious. Unfortunately for Japan's war effort, he was also heavily steeped in the Bushido Code, which meant that he was pretty much obligated to do away with himself after having lost his carrier Hiryu during the closing stages of the Battle of Midway. "He was, in short, the epitome of the traditional samurai - hot tempered, aggressive to a fault; a man who valued honor as the ultimate virtue", as described in the book Shattered Sword; or as Japanese navy officer Masatake Chihaya said, the "Oriental Hero Type". When he determined that Hiryu was unsaveable, he gathered the 800 men who were still aboard the ship, including the wounded, on the flight deck near the bridge, and led them in yelling banzai three times toward Tokyo, followed by the playing of the national anthem. After the ceremony, the order to abandon ship was issued. It was recorded that Yamaguchi and Tomeo Kaku (Hiryu's captain) had this exchange as they shared naval biscuits and water while the ship being abandoned, the exchange signifying how much the two officers had in common.

"Let us enjoy the beauty of the moon", Yamaguchi said to Kaku.

"How bright it shines," Kaku responds.

"It must be in its 21st day."

The foundation of the decision to go down with the ship probably was established when his top pilot Joichi Tomonaga bravely headed off to attack the carrier Yorktown in a damaged torpedo plane that carried too little fuel for a return trip. "I will gladly follow you", Yamaguchi said to Tomonaga before the pilot boarded the plane. He probably could have saved himself to fight another day, but that was not the Bushido way. His idealistic devotion to Bushido was likely one of the key reasons why Japan, after three fleet carrier on the verge of sinking (and eventually would sink), was unable to steer Hiryu from the same fate. Yamaguchi placed Hiryu in increasingly more dangerous positions by sailing toward the enemy, therefore eventually sacrificing assets for his personal honor instead of preserving the strength for his country in a later fight.

Source: 

Book "Nihon Kaigun, the Pacific Campaign, Shattered Sword", Wikipedia, World War II Plus 55.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamon_Yamaguchi

http://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=39