'03 Springfield Picture of the Day

[CapnJohn]

Blitzed Oil Storage Tanks, Sand Island, Midway

The tanks, filled with useless sludge, burst into flames and sent their black smoke rolling up like a smaller Pearl Harbor during the attack on Midway Islands on June 4th. When the fire had ceased and the smoke had blown away, there remained burnt trees naked against the colorful sea, the white sand dike surrounding the distorted shapes--the one at the right like a dead sperm whale in a dry pond.
Courtesy of Griffith Baily Coale

Victory at Midway
Forward

In the autumn of 1942, three young Combat Artists were commissioned to add their records in drawings and paintings of the Navy’s tremendous effort in this war. I had been on active duty for just a year, with two oversea duties that took me from Iceland and the North Atlantic Patrol before Pearl Harbor, to Oahu and Midway last spring and summer. Therefore I could share their enthusiasms for their first sea duty as Naval artists, their burning desire to give the best they had to the Navy, and their gratitude to our-commanding officer, Captain Leland P. Lovette, Director of Public Relations, for ordering them overseas. At this writing all three are still away. Lieutenant (j.g.) Dwight Shepler is in the Solomon area, where he has seen and depicted much hot action, as it took place close about the ships in which he was serving. Lieutenant (j.g.) William Draper is in the Aleutian area, and Ensign Mitchell Jamieson is in European waters.

The Battle of Midway covered a vast area and no one saw it all. I asked permission to go to Midway on June 2nd, and my orders to fly there were given me on June 6th – "Stand by on a half hour’s notice." The word came by telephone that evening to leave by a bomber at 6.30 A.M. the next morning, June 7th. Sketching all day and fascinated in the evening by listening to first hand experiences from many different sectors of the battle, the five days on Midway flew by with the speed of a skimming sea bird.

G. B. C.

New York, N. Y.

February 14, 1943

Information

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[threepdr]

I spent a week at Midway back in 2000. Very interesting place. There were still some of the defenses left inluding cast iron "turtle shell" pill boxes. They lookes like small tank turrets sitting on the ground. They were armed with a .30 caliber machine gun (long since gone). Two of the large 5 inch shore guns were still on island. They both had pre-WWI dates.

What I remember most about Midway and Sand Island were the albatroses. It was mating season and about 1.5 million breeding pairs had built their nests all over the island. The chicks had not fledged, but were the size of large chickens. The ground was covered with nests, bird poo, bird puke and the carcasses of the chicks who had not survived. The sqwaking was constant. It was like standing in the middle of the worlds largest chicken coop!

[Rick the Librarian]

As I recall, the 5-inch guns (and 7-inch guns used on Wake and other places) were those removed from scrapped pre-dreadnought battleships.

[duggaboy]

kinda reminds me of my time on fantasy island , better known as Dutch Harbor, Aleutian islands. War stuff all over these islands, just sitting there. Really neat bunkers, gun implacements, caves, underground storage, and many areas with old ammo which was still being found and disposed of by the local police types when I was fishing there in the 1970's. I asked a store owner, one of those people allowed to remain during the war, what happened at the end of the war to all the army stuff, he told me about watching everything being loaded onto barges and sent to dumps out in the ocean and bays around the island, and he meant everything, they didn't take much back on ships due to costs. duggaboy