MIDWAY BATTLE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20837, 16 July 1942, Page 3

MIDWAY BATTLE

JAP. SHIP LOSSES 20 SUNK OR DAMAGED SMALL AMERICAN TOLL (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (10 a.m.) WASHINGTON. July 15. Further details of the Midway Island sea and air battle, released by the Navy Department, reveal that ot 80 Japanese ships which participated in the attack. 20 were sunk or damaged, 275 aircraft destroyed, and 4800 enemy personnel either killed or drowned. The United States carrier Yorktown, of 20,000 tons, was put out of action and the destroyer Hammann was torpedoed and sunk. American personnel losses were 92 officers and 215 men. The number of American aircraft lost is not revealed. During the battle, a Marine Corps pilot, Major Lofton Henderson, dived his blazing plane into a Japanese carrier’s funnel. Major Henderson led a squadron of scout bombers in the first attack against the Japanese fleet. Enemy fighters swarmed up from the carrier’s deck and intercepted the squadron. Flames burst from the wing of Major Henderson’s plane as he was beginning his final approach, but he continued the attack.