Presentation Date: May 27, 1999
Dick Best
Dauntless SBD Pilot. A dive-bomber pilot on the carrier Enterprise, Best led the attack on the IJN carrier Akagi in the Battle of Midway. Best recounts, one of his bombs is crippling Akagi's steering. Dauntless SBD Pilot. A dive-bomber pilot on the carrier Enterprise, Best led the attack on the IJN carrier Akagi in the Battle of Midway. Best recounts, one of his bombs is crippling Akagi's steering.
"Bombing the Akagi at Midway"
"I think it was one of the most jubilant moments of my life. I was embarrassed and shamed by the way we were caught off guard at Pearl."
Commander Dick Best recounted his memorable role in the crushing defeat of the Japanese Navy at the Battle of Midway, filling the house at the Golden Gate Wing's May dinner meeting.
In 1940, Best was a Navy flight instructor in Pensacola, before being ordered to join VB-6 (Bombing Six) on the U.S.S. Enterprise. He rose in the next two years to be the flight officer, then executive officer, and by 1942 was the squadron commanding officer.
Best recalled the events which led to the Enterprise being 225 miles southwest of Oahu the morning of December 7th. He says the Big E was part of a task force of three cruisers, six destroyers and a fleet oiler, returning from delivering Marine fighters to Wake Island. They were due at Pearl on December 6th. But the Northampton got a wire rope tangled around the shaft of one of her starboard screws, and required a hard hat diver to cut it loose. Best says Admiral Halsey decided to delay coming into the harbor Saturday night. The flight crews already had verbal orders to shoot down Japanese aircraft which saw them, or might intercept the task force.
"Some of the Academy pilots in my squadron came to me that night and said what are you going to do, Dick if you see a Japanese aircraft. And I said I'm going to shoot 'em down, but I'm not going to tell anybody when I get back, because I'm not going to be the dumb bastard that started the Great Pacific War. And if they find out that I did it, I'll either be such a hero or dead, and they can't touch me either way."
On May 28th, 1942, Admiral Spruance had taken over for Admiral Halsey, who was in the hospital. In a conference in the Admiral's cabin, Milo Browning, Spruance's chief of staff, laid out the upcoming Japanese plan of attack. Best says the word was the Japanese planned to hit the Aleutian Islands with a diversionary attack to draw the U. S. fleet north, to be followed by the invasion of Midway on June 4th.
The composition of the attack groups were laid out in complete detail, with the attack on Midway led by the carriers Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu and Soryu (the four which had attacked Pearl Harbor) plus the carriers Zuikaku and Shokaku. Best noted, "The other two newer carriers had raw recruits on board, compared with the big four who had the cream of Japanese navy aviation , the most experienced pilots in the fleet."
Contrast that with the makeup of the aviators on board the Enterprise, Yorktown and Hornet. "We were growing so fast we had brand new aviators. In my squadron, by the time Midway came along I was the only aviator in the eighteen plane squadron who was not on his first cruise out of Pensacola."
Best says he was surprised at the briefing details of the Japanese plan of attack. At the end of the briefing, Best asked the only question. With his daughter and wife in Honolulu, all he could think of was the possibility the Japanese didn't turn east and instead struck a second blow at Pearl Harbor. The biggest danger he thought was fallout from antiaircraft fire, which had riddled Honolulu on December 7th.
Lt. Commander Best says Admiral Spruance sat there for a full minute when asked what would happen if the Japanese fleet were targeting Pearl again, and answered, "Well, we just hope they won't."
On the afternoon of June third, a patrol plane piloted by Jack Reid spotted the invasion force off Midway. A night PBY attack only damaged one transport ship. The next morning's reports showed the Japanese fleet 225 miles northwest of Midway, steaming at 25 knots.
Around eight o'clock in the morning, Midway time, planes started launching from the Hornet and Enterprise, with the Yorktown launching about an hour later. The dive bombers, including Best's SBD, circled the ships almost an hour, climbing to 20,000 feet before the torpedo planes got off, and rose to 4,000 feet. Plumes of smoke from burning oil tanks on Midway Island soon told the Navy pilots they were on course to the Japanese fleet.
About the time the Enterprise Air Group commander Lt.Cdr. Wade McClusky turned northwest to the enemy's expected course, Best was having trouble. The pilot of one of his SBDs had run out of oxygen, was flying erratically and fell from formation. Best weaved his Dauntless from side to side to keep from flying too far forward of McClusky, while reining-in the other SBD. About twenty minutes later, the Air group picked up the Japanese fleet, white streaks at first, then wakes preceded by dark spots, and finally the ship types. Best at first saw only two carriers in the fleet, because a third carrier was directly under his plane's nose.
Best led the dive on the carrier nearest his port bow, and began a textbook dive bomb attack:
"We'd go straight in at 14,000 feet, push the nose, and go just short of the ship vertically to 3,500 feet. Put your nose up, put our bead on and walk 50 feet up to allow for the bomb to trail. Release at 2,500 feet. You're out by 1,000 feet. Avoid the bomb blast of the plane ahead of you."
Then he was startled to see Group commander McClusky diving on the same target in front of him. Best pulled flaps and then headed to the next ship over. Only four planes followed him, the rest diving with McClusky on the first carrier. Best had to pull back up to 14,000 feet and start his dive again." At 35 hundred feet I pulled up to put my gun telescope on the deck...and there were six or seven Zeros on the fantail."
The carrier was the Akagi, flagship of the fleet, and it was launching fighters at that very moment, while the rest of the strike group was below deck.
"My bomb hit near the forward elevator...the next bomb hit right on the next Zero to be launched, on the fantail. Either the second or third bomb hit was the one that did the most damage, because it was well aft. One of them jammed the rudder and the Akagi circled helplessly while she was still afloat.
"My two wingman joined me promptly and we started out. First thing that happened, I saw a torpedo squadron of about fourteen planes coming inbound and do I decided to join up with them."
As he turned, Zeros flashed by underneath the SBD and Best "decided mutual firepower support wasn't enough for me." He rolled out and headed toward Soryu, already hit by Yorktown's dive bombers, and a mass of smoke and flames from seven or eight hits.
He could scarcely see the carrier's waterline.
Best says he safely returned to the Enterprise before noon, and reported, "There are three carriers out there that are not going to operate aircraft any more today. But there's one 12-to-15 miles north. We should rearm and get out there right away."
Best says Captain Miles Browning, with whom Best had had a couple of previous run-ins, headed him off from talking to Spruance until five o'clock in the afternoon.
"We probably could have saved the Yorktown if they'd gotten us back out within an hour." Instead, in mid-afternoon, the remainder of the morning strike force flew to the Japanese carrier, Hiryu. Flak greeted them. To avoid being hit, Best didn't watch his bombs hit Hiryu, opting to fly to the west to clear the area.
Circling southwest about 15 to 20 miles, were three columns of smoke, which Best immediately recognized as the hulks of the flaming Akagi, Kaga, and Soryu.
The next day, Best was approached by a gunnery specialist who said there was a 16-inch armor-piercing shell which could be slung under Best's SBD. Best figured it would weigh a little over 2,000 pounds. But, by taking-offing 50 miles from a target, with a half-empty gas tank, he could deliver that payload. But he didn't, and only years later did he learn that shell would have weighed 2,700 pounds (practice shells weighed 2,000 pounds).
Best found himself coughing up blood after the Midway mission. From sick bay on Enterprise to sick bay at Pearl and back to the States, Best was diagnosed with tuberculosis and spent two years in bed. Deemed fully disabled, Best retired from the Navy March 1, 1944. Among his later accomplishments, Best was the head of security for the Rand Corporation, and testified in the famous Daniel Ellsberg Pentagon Papers trial.