Requium for a Hero of the Battles of Coral Sea & Midway

In May of 1942, the U.S. Navy was recoiling from the devastating aftermath of Pearl Harbor. It was no time for complacency – the Japanese were preparing an invasion of Australia and had just defeated a British fleet at the Battle of the Java Straights.

Nothing stood between the Japanese invasion but the patched-up U.S. Navy, which steamed into the Coral Sea to interdict the Japanese assault fleet. The carriers Lexington and Yorktown were armed with attack planes.

Young Bill Roy, a 21-year-old photographer’s mate, was aboard the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown.

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Both carriers took a beating. The Lexington was on fire and about to explode and had to be abandoned; the Yorktown was also seriously damaged during the initial encounter with the enemy, but fought on. She had been hit by a bomb from a Japanese dive-bomber. Her Captain adroitly evaded eight torpedoes by maneuvering the ship through the eye of the needle as the deadly undersea bombs passed by on both sides without a scratch. Bill Roy photographed the ordeal.

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“The significance of the Battle of the Coral Sea was that it stopped the Japanese attempt to invade Australia and it also denied the enemy three carriers it would have had at Midway,” Bill said in retrospect.

The Yorktown limped back to Pearl Harbour for refitting. She needed three months worth of work; Admiral Nimitz demanded the repairs be done in three days. “Some 1,200 shipyard workers came aboard the carrier and the entire ship’s crew worked day and night fixing the Yorktown,” Roy said. “We went back to sea 72 hours later.” Little did they know at the time how important their fast repair work was to be.

As the Yorktown steamed out of Pearl Harbor on May 30, 1942, Adm. Yamamoto, who commanded the Pearl Harbor attack six months earlier, was positioning his massive Japanese fleet of 160 ships to deliver what he intended to be the knockout punch. Because the Americans had broken the Japanese naval code, they knew where the enemy fleet was headed.

Four days out of Pearl, June 4, 1942, having steamed 1200 miles west to a point northeast of Midway, the US fleet of 76 vessels engaged the Japanese fleet over twice its size. Both heavyweight forces threw everything they had at their opponents.

By the battle’s end, the American fleet was victorious. But during the battle, the Yorktown came under heavy attack by enemy dive bombers; three bombs penetrated the carrier extensively damaging the rebuilt ship.

“The first bomb hit near the Number 2 elevator, wiping out a 40 millimeter gun crew. The second bomb went down the stack and below deck, taking out the carrier’s boilers. The third bomb hit near the forward elevator, exploding on the fourth deck near the bomb, torpedo and aviation fuel storage areas,” Bill said “The Yorktown was dead in the water. Smoke was pouring from the ship, the wounded were being brought up on deck and they were trying to get the guns back in action.”

After the assault by dive bombers, the Yorktown was attacked by torpedo bombers. “Our fighters took off in the middle of the attack and shot down most of the enemy torpedo planes, but not before two torpedoes struck the Yorktown,” Bill stated. “The first torpedo hit directly in front of me on the port side amidships,” Roy said. “I was up on the signal bridge 50 feet above the deck taking pictures. The torpedo penetrated deep into the carrier. When it exploded, it rocked the ship and knocked me over. The second torpedo exploded on contact below and blew a hole in the ship’s port side.

All the while, Roy was capturing the chaos aboard the Yorktown on film – the pictures we see of the battle today were from Bill’s camera. He faced the enemy just as a gunner, shooting film, not bullets.

The 2,250 officers and sailors aboard the Yorktown went over the side, Bill Roy jumped into the shark-infested waters, taking his film with him.

“I had three cans of 35 millimeter movie film in watertight metal cans under my life preserver when I went over the side,” Roy said. “There were some ropes hanging over the side and a mess attendant who couldn’t swim was tangled in the lines. I untangled them and we jumped in the water together. I got him to a life raft.”

“Everyone in the water was having difficulty breathing because of fumes from the bunker-C fuel oil from the ship covering the surface. Because of the wind and wave action we kept being blown into the ship,” he said. “Eventually a motor whaleboat came along and took us to the destroyer Hammann. I was exhausted and covered with black oil.”

The following day, to everyone’s surprise, the Yorktown was still afloat. On June 5, Capt. Buckmaster asked for volunteers to return to the Yorktown as a salvage party to try and save her and get her back to port. All together, 29 officers and 141 sailors volunteered.

“I was one of them. I felt it was my duty. I felt we could do it. I loved the ship,” Roy said as he told his story. “We made good progress the following day, putting out the fires in the forward part of the carrier. We cut away the 5-inch guns on the port side and pushed some planes over the side to help correct the list,” he said. “The destroyer Hammann was tied snugly to the starboard side of the carrier to supply the salvage crew with power and pumps.

But the Japanese were not finished with the resilient carrier. A Japanese submarine finished the wounded warrier, hitting the dead-in-the-water ship amidships with a succession of three torpedo hits. The concussion from the impact ripped the Hammann in two, catapulting sailors into the sea.

The Battle of Midway was over. Four Japanese carriers, Akagi, Kaga Hiryu, and Soryu, were sunk by a vastly outnumbered American fleet; the heavy cruiser Nikuma and Mugami and the destroyers Asahjo and Tawskace and the ironclad Haruwa were also sunk. In addition 322 planes and 2,155 men were lost in the engagement. It was significant, because the entire momentum of the Pacific theatre war shifted to the Allied forces. The outnumbered American force lost the Yorktown and the destroyer Hammann and 147 aircraft.

(excerpted and abridged from a story by Don Moore. See He photographed sinking of carrier Yorktown | War Tales for full story.)

Bill Roy photographed the entire ordeal; a hero whose courage enables us to memorialize our stalwart vigilance.

Bill was my neighbor, my friend, and one of the last of a breed of heroes from a war we must never forget. On Thursday I attended his memorial service; he died at the age of 95. He and many like him are the reason we live free of the iron grip of tyranny. I salute you Bill.

See Photographer Remembers Sinking of USS Yorktown (CV-5) | Naval Historical Foundation for the story of returning to the sinking Yorktown the day after it was abandoned.

A little-known fact is that Yorktown was attacked twice during the battle. The first time she was hit by the dive bombers, as related above, putting out her fires and leaving her dead in the water. Damage control aboard Yorktown was so efficient that within two hours they were able to make fifteen knot. Damage control out out the fires and patched her up. The second Japanese raid was instructed to search out the undamaged carriers ONLY and attack them. Yorktown's damage control was so complete that the second strike was made upon her again, because the Japanese pilots thought she was another ship entirely from the one they had attacked before. This prevented the other two U.S. carriers from being struck at all by the second raid.

Bob