The Battle of Midway

A US Navy documentary film, on the Japanese aerial attack on Midway Island and U.S. ships in the area. Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature (1943) A Navy patrol plane. Routine patrol. Only behind every cloud may be an enemy. Midway Island. Not much land, right enough. But it's our outpost, your front yard. These are the natives of Midway. Tojo has sworn to liberate them. The birds seem nervous. There's something in the air. Something behind that sunset. Excitement this morning: the dawn patrol have sited an enemy fleet. During the night, Flying Fortresses have landed at Midway. "That fellow's walk looks familiar. My neighbor's boy used to amble along just like that." "Why, that's young Will Kinney. He's from my hometown, Springfield, Ohio. He's not gonna fly that great big bomber?" "Will's Dad is an engineer. Thirty-eight years on the old Ironton Railroad." "And his mother. Uh! Well, she's just like the rest of us mothers in Springfield or any other American town. And his sister, Patricia, she's about as pretty as they come." Navy planes roared from the decks of our carriers. Army bombers, Marines, under destruction over a three hundred-mile battle area. Men and women of America, here come your neighbor's son, home from the day's work. You want to meet them. There's Jimmy Thatch. Seven meatballs on his plane. "Get those boys to the hospital. Please do, quickly! Get them to clean cots and cool sheets. Get them doctors and medicine. A nurse's soft hands. Get them to the hospital. Hurry! Please!" There was a hospital. Clean, orderly, a hundred beds. And on its roof the red cross plainly marked, the symbol of mercy the enemy was bound to respect! The next morning, Divine services were held beside a bomb crater, that had once been a chapel. At eventide, we buried our heroic dead. The last salute from their comrades and their officers.