- 2 months ago
When a B-26 Marauder flew over Akagi’s carrier deck at masthead height, Japanese gunners couldn’t fire a safe shot. James Muri’s split-second decision in the middle of the Battle of Midway turned a doomed torpedo run into one of the most unforgettable moments in World War II aviation history.
This military history story follows the crew of Susie-Q as they launch from Midway, face Zero fighters and anti-aircraft fire, and somehow bring a shattered bomber home on one engine. It’s a dramatic account of courage, damage control, and the chaos that surrounded the Japanese carrier force before the dive bombers arrived.
If you enjoy WW2 stories, aviation history, battlefield narration, and true accounts of impossible odds, this Midway story delivers both action and historical insight. It also works well for listeners who like documentary-style war stories, combat aviation, and detailed military storytelling.
Created for fans of World War 2 history, Battle of Midway stories, B-26 Marauder missions, military aviation documentaries, and narrated war stories. Ideal for history listeners, aviation enthusiasts, and anyone searching for Midway battle analysis, carrier strike stories, and classic WWII combat narration.
This military history story follows the crew of Susie-Q as they launch from Midway, face Zero fighters and anti-aircraft fire, and somehow bring a shattered bomber home on one engine. It’s a dramatic account of courage, damage control, and the chaos that surrounded the Japanese carrier force before the dive bombers arrived.
If you enjoy WW2 stories, aviation history, battlefield narration, and true accounts of impossible odds, this Midway story delivers both action and historical insight. It also works well for listeners who like documentary-style war stories, combat aviation, and detailed military storytelling.
Created for fans of World War 2 history, Battle of Midway stories, B-26 Marauder missions, military aviation documentaries, and narrated war stories. Ideal for history listeners, aviation enthusiasts, and anyone searching for Midway battle analysis, carrier strike stories, and classic WWII combat narration.
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LearningTranscript
00:00At 7.10 on the morning of June 4, 1942, 1st Lieutenant James Murie dropped to 200 feet above the
00:07Pacific Ocean,
00:08watching 30 Japanese Zero fighters diving toward his B-26 Marauder from 12,000 feet.
00:1523 years old. First combat mission. Zero training for what came next.
00:21The Imperial Japanese Navy had positioned four aircraft carriers 150 miles northwest of Midway Atoll,
00:28protected by 11 destroyers, two battleships, and three heavy cruisers.
00:33Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo commanded the most powerful naval striking force ever assembled in the Pacific.
00:40Murie's B-26 was never designed for this.
00:43The Martin Marauder earned its nickname Widowmaker for a reason.
00:47Landing speed 150 miles per hour, wing loading 53 pounds per square foot,
00:53small wings, massive engines, unforgiving handling characteristics.
00:58Pilots called it the flying coffin. Some called it worse.
01:02Nobody at Wright Field ever imagined hanging a 2,000-pound torpedo under a marauder's belly.
01:08Nobody trained B-26 crews to drop torpedoes at wave-top height
01:13while Japanese carriers threw up walls of anti-aircraft fire.
01:17Nobody briefed Murie's squadron on torpedo attack tactics
01:21before they scrambled from Midway's runway at 600 hours that morning.
01:25Four B-26s took off.
01:27Captain James Collins led the formation.
01:30Murie flew Susie Q, named after his wife Alice's nickname.
01:34Two crews had never dropped a live torpedo.
01:37The other two had dropped exactly one practice torpedo each.
01:41Between them, four crews possessed zero combat experience
01:44and approximately 90 minutes of torpedo training.
01:48Two of those four B-26s would never return to Midway.
01:51The crews knew the mathematics before they climbed into their aircraft.
01:55Navy torpedo squadrons attacking this same Japanese fleet three hours earlier
02:00lost 45 aircraft out of 51 launched.
02:0445 crews.
02:05225 men.
02:07Most died in the first eight minutes.
02:09The B-26 Marauder carried a seven-man crew.
02:12Pilot, co-pilot, navigator, bombardier, three gunners.
02:18Moody's co-pilot was 2nd Lieutenant Prenn Moore.
02:21His bombardier was 2nd Lieutenant Russell Johnson.
02:24Staff Sergeant John Gogoyge manned the dorsal turret.
02:28Corporal Frank Mello handled the waste gun.
02:30Private Earl Ashley covered the tail position.
02:34Navigator William Moore tracked their course to the Japanese fleet.
02:37They found Vice Admiral Nagumo's carriers at 0700,
02:41four massive flattops steaming in formation.
02:44Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu, Soryu.
02:48Between them, these four carriers had launched the attack on Pearl Harbor six months earlier.
02:54These four carriers had sunk more Allied tonnage than any naval force in history.
02:59These four carriers held 300 aircraft and 12,000 sailors.
03:03Thirty zero fighters rose to meet four B-26s.
03:08The mathematics weren't complicated.
03:10Moody watched Captain Collins' aircraft ahead of him.
03:13Collins banked hard left.
03:15Tracers from zero cannon fire ripped past Susie Q's cockpit.
03:19Moody dropped lower.
03:21150 feet.
03:22100 feet.
03:2450 feet above the waves.
03:25The B-26's propellers threw salt spray across the windscreen.
03:30Moore called out the range to target.
03:323,000 yards.
03:342,000 yards.
03:351,500 yards.
03:37Akagi's anti-aircraft guns opened fire.
03:4025-millimeter shells created black clouds ahead of the formation.
03:45Heavier shells from the destroyer screen joined in.
03:47The sky filled with steel and smoke and tracers.
03:51Moody held course.
03:53Zero fighters attacked from above and behind.
03:56Go-Go-J's turret hammered back.
03:58The dorsal gun's vibration shook the entire airframe.
04:02If you want to see how Moody escaped the killing zone around Akagi, please hit that like button.
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04:13Back to Moody.
04:141,000 yards from Akagi's bow.
04:16Moore shouted the torpedo release point.
04:195 seconds.
04:214 seconds.
04:223 seconds.
04:23Muri's hands locked on the yoke.
04:25Suzy Q shook from zero cannon hits punching through the fuselage.
04:29Something exploded behind the cockpit.
04:31Smoke poured through the radio compartment.
04:34Moore released the torpedo at 800 yards.
04:36The B-26 jumped upward as 2,000 pounds dropped away.
04:41Muri banked right to clear Akagi's path.
04:43Then, every anti-aircraft gun on the Japanese flagship locked onto Suzy Q.
04:50Shells tore through the wings.
04:51Through the tail.
04:53Through both engines.
04:54And Muri realized he had exactly one chance to survive the next 10 seconds.
05:01Muri yanked the yoke hard left.
05:04Not away from Akagi.
05:06Toward Akagi.
05:08The Martin B-26 screamed across the water at 280 miles per hour.
05:1450 feet became 40 feet.
05:1640 became 30.
05:19Japanese gunners tracked Suzy Q through their sights.
05:22Tracers converged on the bomber from every angle.
05:26Muri aimed straight for the carrier's port side.
05:2920 feet above the waves, Akagi's flight deck rose ahead like a steel cliff.
05:35860 feet long, 102 feet wide.
05:38The flagship of Japan's first air fleet.
05:41Home to Vice Admiral Nagumo and his entire battle staff.
05:46The most important ship in the Imperial Japanese Navy after Emperor Hiroshima's personal yacht.
05:5315 feet above the water.
05:55Japanese gun crews on Akagi's deck saw the B-26 coming straight at them.
06:00Some dropped flat.
06:03Others kept firing.
06:05Muri held his course.
06:06The carrier's bow filled his windscreen.
06:10Steel and rivets and aircraft parked wingtip to wingtip.
06:1410 feet.
06:155 feet.
06:173 feet above the Pacific.
06:19Then, Muri pulled back on the yoke and Suzy Q cleared Akagi's bow by less than 6 feet.
06:26The B-26 thundered down the carrier's flight deck at masthead height.
06:31Japanese sailors threw themselves flat against the wooden planking.
06:36Anti-aircraft crews abandoned their guns.
06:39Muri flew so low, the bomber's propeller wash knocked men off their feet.
06:44Zero fighters parked on deck rocked on their landing gear from the turbulence.
06:49Vice Admiral Nagumo stood on Akagi's bridge.
06:53He watched an American bomber pass 20 feet in front of his position, traveling at 280 miles per hour.
07:00The noise was overwhelming.
07:03The prop wash shattered three windows.
07:06Nagumo's staff officers hit the deck.
07:09The Admiral stayed on his feet.
07:11Bombardier Russell Johnson grabbed the nose gun.
07:14He opened fire as Suzy Q crossed Akagi's deck.
07:1850 caliber rounds raked the flight deck from bow to stern.
07:23Two Japanese sailors died instantly.
07:26An anti-aircraft gun position took direct hits.
07:29Three more sailors went down wounded.
07:31Shell casings poured from Johnson's gun position and scattered across Muri's windscreen.
07:37Behind the cockpit, Frank Mello fought a fire in the radio compartment.
07:42The waste gun position was shot to pieces.
07:45Hydraulic fluid sprayed everywhere.
07:47Mello grabbed an extinguisher with one hand and kept firing his gun with the other.
07:52Smoke filled the fuselage.
07:55The aircraft's electrical system was failing.
07:58Half the instruments showed nothing.
08:00Prenn Moore left his co-pilot seat.
08:02He crawled aft through the smoke.
08:05Three gunners were wounded.
08:07Gogoy had shrapnel in his shoulder.
08:09Ashley took hits in the leg and arm.
08:12Mello's face was cut from flying metal fragments.
08:15Moore pulled the first aid kit and started working on the wounded while the aircraft shook from continuous zero attacks.
08:23860 feet of flight deck passed beneath Suzy Q in three seconds.
08:28Muri cleared Akagi's stern and dropped back to wavetop height.
08:32Every anti-aircraft gun on every Japanese ship tried tracking the bomber.
08:36They couldn't shoot without hitting their own flagship.
08:40The B-26 disappeared into the smoke and chaos of the battle.
08:45Muri banked right.
08:46Altitude 40 feet.
08:48Airspeed 270 miles per hour.
08:52Both engines running rough.
08:54Oil pressure dropping on the right engine.
08:56Coolant temperature climbing on the left.
08:59Zero fighters swarmed behind him.
09:02Gogoy's turret was jammed.
09:04Ashley couldn't man the tail gun with his wounds.
09:07Johnson's nose gun had fired its last rounds.
09:10Suzy Q had no defensive armament.
09:13No way to fight back.
09:15No way to outrun zero fighters that cruised at 330 miles per hour.
09:20The bomber was a flying wreck with a seven-man crew and 150 miles of ocean between them and Midway.
09:29Captain Collins' B-26 appeared off Muri's port wing.
09:33Collins' aircraft looked worse than Suzy Q.
09:36Smoke poured from one engine.
09:39The entire tail section was shot through.
09:42Both bombers were dead meat if the Zeros pressed their attack.
09:45Then the Japanese fighters broke off.
09:47All of them.
09:4930 Zeros climbed away and headed back to their carriers.
09:53Muri watched them go and couldn't understand why.
09:55He didn't know that at that exact moment, American dive bombers were approaching Nagumo's fleet from 20,000 feet.
10:04Muri leveled Suzy Q at 100 feet and checked his instruments.
10:09Airspeed holding at 260 miles per hour.
10:13Fuel gauges showed half tanks.
10:15Compass worked.
10:16Altimeter worked.
10:17Everything else was dead or dying.
10:21The right engine's oil pressure dropped into the red zone.
10:24Temperature climbed past safe limits.
10:27Black smoke streamed from the cowling.
10:30Muri reduced power on that engine.
10:31The B-26 could fly on one engine if it wasn't shot full of holes and carrying three wounded men
10:38and a fire-damaged radio compartment.
10:40Moore crawled back to the cockpit.
10:43Blood covered his flight suit.
10:45Not his blood.
10:46He'd bandaged three wounded gunners in a smoke-filled fuselage while the aircraft bucked and shook from battle damage.
10:54Gogoy was stable.
10:55Ashley was stable.
10:57Mello refused to stop manning his gun despite facial lacerations.
11:02Moore dropped into the co-pilot seat.
11:04He scanned the instruments and said nothing.
11:06Both men understood the mathematics.
11:09150 miles to Midway.
11:11Fuel for maybe 200 miles if the tanks weren't leaking.
11:15One engine failing.
11:17No hydraulics for landing gear.
11:20No radio to call ahead for crash crews.
11:22They flew in formation with Captain Collins for 20 minutes.
11:26Collins' B-26 fell behind gradually.
11:29More smoke.
11:31Lower altitude.
11:33Muri held his speed.
11:34Every pilot knew the rule.
11:36You can't help a damaged aircraft by damaging your own.
11:40Collins waved from his cockpit.
11:43Muri waved back.
11:44Both bombers continued alone.
11:47Behind them, Vice Admiral Nagumo stood on Akagi's bridge and made the decision that would lose Japan the Pacific War.
11:54The American bomber attack convinced Nagumo that Midway's air defenses remained strong.
12:01B-26s carrying torpedoes.
12:03B-17s bombing from high altitude.
12:06Navy torpedo bombers.
12:08The attacks achieved nothing, but they came in waves.
12:12Nagumo believed more attacks would follow.
12:14His carriers held aircraft armed with torpedoes for attacking American ships.
12:19Nagumo ordered those aircraft re-armed with bombs for attacking Midway's airfield.
12:25Deck crews began the changeover.
12:26They pulled torpedoes from aircraft and hauled up bombs from the magazines.
12:31The process required 90 minutes.
12:34Torpedoes stacked on the hangar decks.
12:36Bombs stacked beside them.
12:37Fuel lines ran everywhere.
12:39At 0740, a Japanese scout plane radioed a report.
12:44American carrier spotted.
12:46The entire tactical situation reversed in one transmission.
12:50Nagumo needed his aircraft armed with torpedoes again.
12:53He ordered another changeover.
12:56Deck crews scrambled to reverse everything they'd just done.
12:59Muri knew none of this.
13:01He flew across empty ocean watching his right engine die slowly.
13:05Oil pressure dropped to zero.
13:07Temperature maxed out.
13:09Metal parts inside the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 were welding themselves together from heat and friction.
13:15The engine could seize completely at any moment.
13:1850 miles from Midway, more spotted smoke on the horizon.
13:22Japanese strike aircraft returning from their attack on the island.
13:25Two dozen bombers and fighters in formation.
13:28The Japanese formation spotted Susie Q.
13:31Several fighters broke away and headed toward the damaged B-26.
13:36Muri pushed the left engine to maximum power.
13:39The single Pratt & Whitney screamed.
13:41Coolant temperature climbed into dangerous territory.
13:44The B-26 accelerated to 280 miles per hour on one engine and a prayer.
13:50The Japanese fighters fell behind.
13:53They were low on fuel from attacking Midway.
13:55They couldn't chase damaged American bombers all the way back to base.
13:5920 miles from Midway, the right engine finally quit.
14:03The propeller windmilled uselessly.
14:06Muri feathered it to reduce drag.
14:08Susie Q flew on one engine now.
14:11Altitude dropped to 50 feet.
14:13The bomber couldn't maintain height on single engine power with all the battle damage and dead weight.
14:1810 miles out.
14:20Muri saw Midway's runway through the haze.
14:23The island looked impossibly small.
14:25A tiny strip of coral and sand in the middle of the Pacific.
14:29The runway was 6,500 feet long.
14:31That was plenty for a healthy B-26.
14:34For a shot-up bomber flying on one engine with no hydraulics and three wounded men aboard, it might not
14:41be enough.
14:42Moore prepared for crash landing procedures.
14:44He couldn't lower the landing gear normally.
14:46The hydraulic system was destroyed.
14:49Manual gear extension required two men and 30 seconds they might not have.
14:54Moore lined up his approach and discovered one more problem with Susie Q that nobody had mentioned yet.
15:01The left main landing gear tire was gone.
15:04Shot away over Akagi's flight deck.
15:07The wheel rim remained, but the rubber tire had disintegrated from cannon fire.
15:11Moore couldn't see it from the cockpit, but Moore spotted it during his trip through the fuselage.
15:17Landing on one tire and a bare rim meant the aircraft would pull violently left the moment it touched down.
15:25Five miles from Midway.
15:27Altitude 30 feet.
15:28Single engine power barely keeping them airborne.
15:31Moore worked the manual gear extension system.
15:34He cranked the handle in circles.
15:36The mechanism resisted.
15:38Battle damage had bent something in the linkage.
15:40Moore kept cranking.
15:42Sweat poured down his face.
15:45The manual extension required 40 complete rotations under normal conditions.
15:49With damaged components, it might require twice that.
15:53Three miles out.
15:54The main gear locked down.
15:56The nose wheel wouldn't budge.
15:58Moore cranked harder.
16:00The handle wouldn't turn.
16:01Something was jammed or broken or both.
16:04Landing on main gear without a nose wheel meant the aircraft would pitch forward violently.
16:10The props would strike the runway.
16:12The nose would dig in.
16:14The B-26 would cartwheel or break apart or both.
16:17Two miles from the runway.
16:19Moore kept cranking.
16:21His hands bled from the effort.
16:23Moore held altitude at 20 feet.
16:25The single engine howled at maximum power.
16:29Coolant temperature was 50 degrees past red line.
16:31The engine could fail any second.
16:34One mile out.
16:35The nose wheel suddenly dropped.
16:37Moore felt it lock into place through the manual extension system.
16:41All three wheels were down.
16:43One main tire was missing, but all three wheels were down.
16:47That was something.
16:47Moore crossed Midway's Beach at 15 feet, doing 190 miles per hour.
16:53Too fast.
16:55Normal B-26 approach speed was 150 miles per hour on two engines.
17:00On one engine with battle damage, he needed extra speed for safety margin.
17:05But extra speed meant extra distance to stop on a runway that suddenly looked very short.
17:11Eastern Island's runway stretched ahead.
17:136,500 feet of crushed coral and sand.
17:16Several bomb craters from the Japanese attack that morning.
17:19Ground crews had filled the craters with coral, but the patches showed clearly.
17:24Aircraft wreckage littered both sides of the runway.
17:27Burning fuel sent black smoke across the approach path.
17:31Moody cut throttle on the left engine.
17:33The B-26 dropped toward the runway.
17:36160 miles per hour.
17:39150.
17:40140.
17:41The bomber fell like a brick with wings.
17:44B-26s didn't glide well.
17:47With one engine out and massive battle damage, they didn't glide at all.
17:52Suzy Q hit the runway at 135 miles per hour.
17:56The right main gear touched first.
17:58Then the left gear hit on a bare wheel rim.
18:01Sparks exploded from the metal rim scraping coral.
18:04The aircraft pulled hard left.
18:07Moody stomped right rudder.
18:08The nose wheel slammed down.
18:11Both propellers were still windmilling.
18:13The right prop tips hit the runway and shattered.
18:16Metal fragments scattered everywhere.
18:19The B-26 swerved left despite full right rudder.
18:23Moody stood on the brake pedal.
18:25The brake system used the last pressure remaining in the shot-up hydraulic lines.
18:30Suzy Q slowed.
18:31100 miles per hour.
18:3390.
18:3480.
18:35The runway was running out.
18:3770 miles per hour.
18:4060.
18:41Wreckage from a destroyed aircraft blocked the far end of the runway.
18:45Moody aimed for a gap between burning fuel and twisted metal.
18:4950 miles per hour.
18:5140.
18:52The B-26 rolled to a stop with 800 feet of runway remaining.
18:57Fire trucks and ambulances raced toward the bomber.
19:00Moody shut down the left engine.
19:02The sudden silence was overwhelming.
19:04His hands shook on the yoke.
19:07Moore sat motionless in the co-pilot seat.
19:10Behind them in the fuselage, three wounded gunners waited for medical help.
19:15Ground crews surrounded Suzy Q.
19:17Medics climbed aboard to extract the wounded.
19:20An intelligence officer appeared at Moody's window and asked for a mission report.
19:24Moody climbed out of the cockpit and stood on Midway's Coral Runway looking at his aircraft.
19:29He started counting bullet holes.
19:31He stopped counting at 200.
19:34The ground crew chief walked the length of the bomber with a clipboard.
19:37He counted methodically.
19:39Every hole.
19:40Every tear.
19:41Every piece of battle damage.
19:44The final count came to 506 bullet holes.
19:48506 separate impacts from Japanese cannon and machine gun fire.
19:52The left tire was destroyed.
19:54All four propeller blades on both engines were damaged.
19:57Every major system showed damage.
20:00The radio was burned out.
20:01The hydraulics were destroyed.
20:03The electrical system was partially failed.
20:05The ground crew chief looked at Moody and delivered his assessment.
20:09Suzy Q would never fly again.
20:13Captain James Collins landed his B-26 30 minutes after Murie.
20:18Collins' aircraft had 473 bullet holes.
20:22One engine was completely dead.
20:25The tail section was barely attached.
20:27His crew had two wounded.
20:29Both aircraft would be written off and scrapped.
20:32The other two B-26s never returned.
20:35Lieutenant Herbert Mays and Lieutenant William Moore took direct hits during their torpedo runs.
20:40Both aircraft went into the Pacific Ocean.
20:4314 men died.
20:45No survivors.
20:46No wreckage recovered.
20:47The ocean took them and kept them.
20:51Four B-26 marauders attacked the Japanese fleet that morning.
20:55Two came back.
20:56Eight men wounded.
20:5714 men killed.
20:59Zero torpedo hits achieved.
21:01By every tactical measure, the mission was a complete failure.
21:05Murie sat on the coral runway and watched ground crew swarm over Suzy Q.
21:11They cataloged the damage for intelligence purposes.
21:14Cannon holes through the wings.
21:15Machine gun holes through the fuselage.
21:18The tail section looked like Swiss cheese.
21:21Both engines were destroyed internally despite running long enough to get home.
21:25The aircraft was a flying miracle that it stopped flying forever.
21:30A maintenance officer approached Murie with permission.
21:33The crew could cut the name from the fuselage before the aircraft was scrapped.
21:37It took an hour.
21:38They used tin snips and careful cuts.
21:41The nose art came away in one piece.
21:44Suzy Q.
21:45Named after Alice Murie's nickname.
21:48The metal plate with painted letters was all that would survive.
21:51A bulldozer pushed the B-26 to the beach two days later.
21:54The operator shoved it into the Pacific Ocean, where it sank in 40 feet of water.
22:00Serial number 40-1391.
22:03Nine months old.
22:05One combat mission.
22:07506 bullet holes.
22:09Gone.
22:10The immediate tactical results of the B-26 attack appeared minimal.
22:14No hits.
22:15No damage to Japanese ships.
22:18Two aircraft lost.
22:19But the strategic impact was profound in ways nobody recognized until later.
22:24Vice-Adwin Nagumo watched an American bomber fly down his flagship's deck at masthead height.
22:30That image burned into his mind.
22:32American aircraft operating from Midway were attacking with coordination and persistence.
22:38B-26s with torpedoes.
22:40B-17s with bombs.
22:42Navy torpedo bombers.
22:43The attacks kept coming in waves.
22:45Nagumo made his decision based partly on what he saw that morning.
22:49Midway's air defenses remained dangerous.
22:52His carriers needed to launch another strike against the island's airfield.
22:56That meant rearming his torpedo bombers with bombs.
22:59The changeover process began at 0715.
23:02Thirty minutes later, new intelligence arrived.
23:05American carriers detected.
23:08Nagumo reversed his order.
23:10Rearm with torpedoes again.
23:12Deck crews scrambled to undo everything they'd just done.
23:14Torpedoes stacked on hangar decks beside bombs, beside fuel lines.
23:19The most dangerous configuration possible.
23:21At 01020, three American SBD Dauntless dive bombers pushed over from 14,000 feet.
23:28They came from USS Enterprise.
23:31Lieutenant Commander Wade McCluskey led them down.
23:33Behind him, 17 more Dauntlesses followed.
23:36They'd been searching for Nagumo's fleet for two hours.
23:39They found it by following the smoke from the B-26 and torpedo bomber attacks.
23:44The Dauntlesses dove at 250 miles per hour.
23:48Zero fighters were still at low altitude from chasing the torpedo bombers.
23:51No high cover.
23:52No combat air patrol above 10,000 feet.
23:55The Zeros couldn't climb fast enough to intercept.
23:58Akagi's deck crews saw the dive bombers at 8,000 feet.
24:02Too late.
24:02The first bomb hit at 01026.
24:061,000 pounds of high explosive struck near the midship elevator.
24:10The blast penetrated the flight deck and detonated in the upper hangar.
24:14Bombs stacked beside torpedoes, beside fuel lines.
24:17The second bomb hit 10 seconds later.
24:20Another 1,000-pounder threw the flight deck into the hangar.
24:23More stacked ordnance.
24:25More fuel.
24:26The chain reaction began.
24:28Akagi was Vice Admiral Nagumo's flagship.
24:30The most important carrier in the Japanese fleet.
24:33The ship that led the Pearl Harbor attack.
24:36Within 15 minutes, uncontrollable fires raged through four decks.
24:40Nagumo transferred his flag to the light cruiser Nagara at 1,100 hours.
24:45By 1,800 hours, Akagi was abandoned and sinking.
24:49Kaga took four bomb hits in six minutes.
24:51Fire spread through the hangar bays.
24:53The carrier sank at 1925 that evening.
24:57Soryu took three bombs and sank at 1913.
25:00Three Japanese carriers destroyed in six minutes of American dive bombing.
25:04But those dive bombers only found Nagumo's fleet because they followed the chaos created by earlier attacks.
25:10They followed the smoke from burning aircraft.
25:13They followed the concentrated formation of Japanese ships that had tightened their formation to defend against torpedo bombers.
25:19They followed the path Muri and Collins and Maize and Moore had carved through the Japanese fleet an hour earlier.
25:27Muri and his crew spent three days on Midway Island, while the Battle of Midway concluded around them.
25:33Japanese forces withdrew on June 7th after losing four carriers and 248 aircraft.
25:39American forces lost one carrier, Yorktown, and 147 aircraft.
25:45The battle shifted the entire strategic balance of the Pacific War.
25:50The crew of Susie Q received medical treatment.
25:53Go-Go-J's shoulder wound required surgery.
25:55Ashley's leg and arm wounds were cleaned and sutured.
25:59Melo's facial lacerations were treated with antiseptics and bandages.
26:03All three men remained on Midway for two weeks before medical evacuation to Pearl Harbor.
26:09Muri wrote his after-action report on June 5th.
26:12Intelligence officers questioned him for six hours.
26:15They wanted every detail.
26:17Altitude during approach, number of zero fighters, location of anti-aircraft batteries.
26:22The exact moment he decided to fly over Akagi's deck instead of turning away.
26:28Muri answered every question.
26:30His hands still shook when he held the pencil.
26:32The Distinguished Service Cross arrived three months later.
26:35Not just for Muri, for the entire crew.
26:38Pilot, co-pilot, navigator, bombardier, three gunners.
26:43Seven men received America's second-highest decoration for valor.
26:47The citation mentioned extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy.
26:52It mentioned the torpedo attack under impossible conditions.
26:56It mentioned flying through concentrated anti-aircraft fire and fighter opposition.
27:01The citation did not mention that the torpedo missed.
27:04It did not mention that tactically, the mission achieved nothing.
27:08The Navy understood something that wouldn't become clear for years.
27:11The B-26 attack created conditions that allowed the dive bombers to succeed.
27:16No historian could prove direct causation.
27:19No battle analysis could draw a straight line from Muri's aircraft crossing Akagi's deck
27:23to three Japanese carriers burning 90 minutes later.
27:27But Admiral Chester Nimitz believed it.
27:29So did Admiral Raymond Spruance.
27:31The torpedo attacks forced Nagumo to make decisions under pressure.
27:35Those decisions positioned his fleet for destruction.
27:39The B-26s and Navy torpedo bombers died buying time and creating chaos.
27:44The dive bombers exploited that chaos perfectly.
27:48Muri transferred to Eglin Field, Florida in August 1942.
27:51The Army Air Forces needed experienced B-26 pilots to train new crews.
27:57Muri spent the next year teaching pilots how to handle the Widowmaker.
28:01He taught them proper approach speeds, proper power settings, how to fly the aircraft on one
28:06engine, how to survive when everything went wrong simultaneously.
28:10He never flew another combat mission.
28:13One mission was enough.
28:14One torpedo attack was enough.
28:16One flight over a Japanese carrier deck was enough for any pilot's entire career.
28:21The 22nd Bomb Group continued operations in the Pacific Theater.
28:25They flew B-26s until September 1943 when they transitioned to B-25 Mitchells.
28:32The group participated in campaigns across New Guinea, the Philippines, and Borneo.
28:36They flew until the Japanese surrender in August 1945.
28:41Prenn Moore returned to combat flying in 1943.
28:44He completed 35 missions over Europe in B-26s.
28:48He survived the war and returned to civilian life in Texas.
28:52Russell Johnson flew 22 more combat missions before rotating home.
28:56William Moore transferred to navigation training and taught navigation to bomber crews until 1945.
29:02The three wounded gunners all recovered.
29:04Gogoi returned to combat duty.
29:07Ashley and Mello were reassigned to stateside training bases.
29:10All seven members of Suzy Q's crew survived the war.
29:14In a conflict that killed 405,000 Americans, seven men from one crew surviving was worth noting.
29:21Muri remained in the Air Force after the war.
29:23He served in command positions across the United States and Japan.
29:27He accumulated more than 5,000 flight hours.
29:30He retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1962 after 24 years of military service.
29:37He returned to Montana in 1969.
29:40He and Alice bought property on Bridger Creek, east of Big Timber.
29:44They lived there for 30 years.
29:47Alice died in 2001.
29:50Muri lived alone on the ranch after that.
29:52The Battle of Midway became the most analyzed naval engagement in American history.
29:58Historians wrote dozens of books.
30:00Documentaries examined every decision.
30:03The dive bomber pilots received most of the attention.
30:06Wade McCluskey became famous.
30:08Richard Best became famous.
30:10The torpedo bomber crews were remembered as tragic heroes who died bravely.
30:15The B-26 attack on June 4, 1942, received less attention.
30:21Four army bombers attacking a naval task force wasn't dramatic enough for most historians.
30:27Two aircraft lost.
30:29Zero hits achieved.
30:30Minimal tactical impact.
30:33The story didn't fit the narrative of American victory through superior tactics and courage.
30:38But there was one detail historians kept returning to.
30:41One moment that changed everything.
30:44Vice Admiral Nagumo standing on Akagi's Bridge at 0710, watching an American bomber fly past at masthead height.
30:54That moment lasted three seconds.
30:57An American bomber traveling at 280 miles per hour, covering 860 feet of flight deck.
31:04Three seconds that Nagumo replayed in his mind for the rest of his life.
31:08Japanese military culture emphasized aggressive action.
31:12Attack first, attack hard.
31:14Maintain the initiative.
31:16Nagumo built his career on these principles.
31:19The Pearl Harbor strike exemplified them perfectly.
31:22Surprise, speed, overwhelming force.
31:25The American Pacific fleet destroyed before it could respond.
31:28But at 0710 on June 4, an American bomber flew down his flagship's deck.
31:34American aircraft were attacking from midway in coordinated waves.
31:37B-26s, B-17s, torpedo bombers.
31:41The attacks achieved minimal damage, but they demonstrated something more important than damage.
31:46They demonstrated that American forces at midway remained combat effective and aggressive.
31:52Nagumo's standing orders from Admiral Yamamoto were clear.
31:55Keep the strike force aircraft armed with torpedoes for anti-ship operations.
32:00American carriers were somewhere in the area.
32:02Finding them and destroying them was the primary mission objective.
32:07Midway Island was a secondary target, but Nagumo watched an American bomber nearly hit his bridge.
32:13He watched torpedo tracks in the water.
32:15He watched B-17s bombing from high altitude.
32:18His combat instinct said those midway-based aircraft needed to be destroyed before they could coordinate another attack with American
32:26carriers.
32:36The decision was based partly on tactical assessment and partly on the visceral impact of watching an enemy bomber fly
32:44past at eye level.
32:46Deck crews began pulling torpedoes from aircraft and hauling up bombs from the magazines.
32:51The process required 90 minutes under ideal conditions.
32:54These conditions were not ideal.
32:57The fleet was under attack.
32:58Damage control parties were fighting fires.
33:01Combat air patrol coordination was chaotic.
33:04At 0740, the scout plane report arrived.
33:07American carriers spotted.
33:09Nagumo faced an impossible choice.
33:11Continue the midway attack and leave his carriers vulnerable,
33:14or reverse the changeover process and lose another 90 minutes.
33:18He chose reversal.
33:21Rearm with torpedoes.
33:22But the deck crews had already moved hundreds of bombs to the hangar decks.
33:26Torpedoes stacked beside bombs, beside fuel lines, beside aircraft.
33:31Every carrier in the fleet had hangar decks full of ordnance in the worst possible configuration.
33:36At 01020, the American dive bombers arrived.
33:40They found four Japanese carriers with their decks cluttered with aircraft.
33:44Hangar bays packed with ordnance.
33:46Damage control parties already exhausted from earlier attacks.
33:50Zero fighters at low altitude, unable to climb fast enough to intercept.
33:54The bombs that hit Akagi detonated stacked ordnance in the hangar.
33:58Torpedoes exploded.
33:59Fuel lines ruptured.
34:01Aviation fuel ignited.
34:02The fire spread through four decks in minutes.
34:05Firefighting systems were overwhelmed.
34:07The damage was catastrophic and irreversible.
34:10Historians debate whether Nagumo's changeover decision caused the disaster.
34:14Some argue the American dive bombers would have succeeded regardless.
34:19Others maintain that proper ordnance handling would have prevented the catastrophic secondary explosions.
34:25The debate continues 80 years later.
34:27But no historian disputes the psychological impact of the B-26 attack.
34:33Nagumo saw an American bomber fly down his deck.
34:36That image influenced his thinking.
34:38That moment contributed to his decision-making under pressure.
34:41Three seconds of an American bomber at masthead height.
34:45Murray never claimed his mission changed the battle's outcome.
34:48He wrote in his after-action report that the torpedo missed.
34:51The attack achieved no direct hits.
34:54Two B-26s were lost.
34:56The mission failed tactically.
34:58He believed that until his death in 2013.
35:01The Air Force disagreed.
35:03So did the Navy.
35:05The Distinguished Service cross-citation stated that Murray's actions under fire demonstrated extraordinary heroism.
35:13The Jimmy Doolittle Award arrived in 2003.
35:16The award recognized outstanding contributions to national security through military aviation.
35:23Murray received it in Washington at age 84.
35:26He attended the ceremony with his son James Jr.
35:30Alice had died two years earlier.
35:32Murray accepted the award and gave a brief speech.
35:35He thanked his crew.
35:36He thanked the Air Force.
35:38He mentioned the 14 men who died in the other two B-26s that morning.
35:42He said they deserve recognition more than he did.
35:46Then he sat down and refused to say anything else about Battle of Midway for the rest of the ceremony.
35:53Murray died on February 3, 2013, in Laurel, Montana.
35:57He was 94 years old.
35:59Natural causes.
36:00He was buried at the Veterans Cemetery in Mile City with full military honors.
36:05The metal plate with Susie Q painted on it survived.
36:08The plate Murray cut from the fuselage in June 1942.
36:12He kept it for 71 years.
36:17His family donated the plate to the National Museum of the United States Air Force in 2014.
36:23It hangs in the World War II Gallery alongside other artifacts from the Pacific Theater.
36:28The paint has faded.
36:29The metal shows rough spots, but the name remains visible.
36:33Susie Q.
36:35Named after Alice Moyer-Murie, who married James on Christmas Day, 1941.
36:39The wreckage of B-26 serial number 40-1391 remains in 40 feet of water off Eastern Island, Midway Atoll.
36:48The ocean has corroded most of the aluminum.
36:51The steel component survived longer.
36:53Coral has grown over the wings.
36:55Fish shelter in the engine nacelles.
36:58The aircraft that flew through 506 bullet holes and brought seven men home now serves as an artificial reef.
37:05The men who flew that mission understood something that took historians decades to recognize.
37:10Tactical failure and strategic success are not mutually exclusive.
37:14The torpedo missed.
37:16The mission accomplished no direct damage.
37:18But the chaos created by that attack contributed to decisions that destroyed three Japanese carriers 90 minutes later.
37:26No single action wins wars.
37:28No single mission changes outcomes.
37:30But specific moments accumulate into larger results.
37:33Murie flying over Akagi's deck was one moment.
37:37Navy torpedo bomber crews dying in flames was another moment.
37:41B-17's bombing from high altitude was another.
37:44Each moment individually achieved little.
37:46Each moment collectively created conditions for victory.
37:50The mathematics of war operate on scales beyond individual comprehension.
37:55Murie could not know that flying over a carrier deck would influence an admiral's decision making.
37:59That admiral could not know his ordnance handling procedures would prove catastrophic when American dive bombers arrived.
38:06Those dive bombers could not know they found the Japanese fleet partly because earlier attacks had concentrated the formation and
38:13created visible smoke trails.
38:15Seven men flew into combat on June 4th, 1942.
38:19All seven came home.
38:21In a battle that killed 3,000 Americans and Japanese, seven men surviving is worth remembering.
38:27They survived because their pilot made a split-second decision under impossible pressure.
38:32They survived because their co-pilot manually cranked landing gear while the aircraft shook from battle damage.
38:39They survived because three wounded gunners kept fighting despite injuries.
38:44They survived because James Murray flew his aircraft home on one engine through 150 miles of empty ocean and landed
38:52on a shot-up runway with no hydraulics and a missing tire.
38:56The B-26 Marauder earned its widow-maker nickname honestly.
39:00The aircraft demanded perfect technique and constant attention.
39:04It killed pilots who made mistakes.
39:06It killed pilots who didn't make mistakes but encountered bad luck.
39:10The early accident rate was so high that ferry crews refused to fly B-26s and some air bases grounded
39:17the entire fleet.
39:18But in the hands of a pilot who understood its characteristics and respected its limits, the B-26 performed miracles.
39:26Susie Q flew through 506 bullet holes, lost one engine, lost hydraulics, lost most electrical systems, lost a landing gear
39:35tire, and still brought seven men home safely.
39:38That was not luck.
39:40That was engineering and piloting combining under extreme conditions.
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40:00Stories about pilots who flew through impossible situations with nothing but skill and courage.
40:06Real people.
40:07Real heroism.
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