At the Battle of Midway in June 1942, the fifteen TBD Devastators of Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8) pressed home their attack on the Japanese carrier force without fighter cover and were almost entirely destroyed; only Ensign George Gay survived. Their sacrifice drew the enemy combat air patrol down to the sea, leaving the skies open for the American dive bombers that turned the battle. This article from the May 1943 All Hands Bulletin recounts how the squadron was reconstituted and how the Navy’s carrier aviators went on to avenge the men of Torpedo 8 in the Pacific campaigns that followed.
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