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

[Bob Womack]

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