CRESTVIEW — Historians say the Battle of Midway was a pivotal point in World War II.
Won exactly half a year after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the June 1942 battle helped turn the tide against the Japanese fleet, but came at great cost to the United States, including the loss of the aircraft carrier USS “Yorktown.”
PHOTOS: View photos of the USS 'Yorktown' and the Battle of Midway>>
A Crestview resident was a sailor aboard the “Yorktown” and watched his ship go down on June 7, 1942.
“The ‘Yorktown’ was like a floating hotel. It had everything on it,” DeLeon Ward said. “I was at Midway and lost the ship I was on. I think I was the first one in Okaloosa County to lose his ship.”
Ward, 92, said that hot June 74 years ago is still vivid in his memory.
‘I STAYED SCARED’
Ward joined the “Yorktown” a month after the Dec. 7, 1941, “day of infamy.” The carrier had rushed from the Atlantic Ocean to San Diego to help augment the battered Pacific Fleet.
“We went to Australia to supply guys in American Samoa,” he said. “We got a bomb hit (on May 8, 1942, during the Battle of the Coral Sea) then we went back to Pearl Harbor (for repairs).”
Meanwhile, U.S. Navy cryptologists breaking the Imperial Japanese Navy’s code realized a major attack on the small American island of Midway was imminent.
In May 1942, the U.S. Navy hurled those ships it could muster toward the tiny dot northwest of the Hawaiian islands. Though engineers said it’d take at least two weeks to repair the “Yorktown’s” battle damage, Adm. Chester Nimitz ordered the work done in two days.
“And then we went to Midway,” Ward said. “Somebody asked me if I got scared. I said yeah. They said, ‘How many times?’ I said, ‘Just once. I got scared when I got over there and I stayed scared until I got back.”
‘ABANDON SHIP’
As the Battle of Midway commenced June 4, three Japanese bombs struck the “Yorktown,” causing enough damage to shut down most of the ship’s boilers, leaving it dead in the water.
Serving below decks with a team supplying ammunition to the ship’s gun turrets, Ward dodged serious injury but said he could feel heat from fires that erupted in the hangar deck.
Engine room crewmen repaired the damage sufficiently to allow the “Yorktown” to get underway, but two torpedo strikes less than an hour later left it again dead in the water, and beginning to tilt.
Without power, it was impossible to correct the list. When it reached 29 degrees, “Yorktown’s” master, Capt. Elliott Buckmaster, ordered the crew over the side.
“When the torpedo hit us on the port side, they told us to get ready to abandon ship,” Ward said. “I had to go to the fantail. I floated around in the water about two and half hours the first time until they picked us up.”
BACK ABOARD
Despite its list, the “Yorktown” didn’t capsize, so on June 6, Buckmaster took 29 officers and 141 sailors, including Ward, back aboard the ship.
Ward helped a team cut loose one of the carrier’s 5-inch gun turrets and push it overboard to decrease the port side’s weight. But a Japanese submarine, concealed by floating debris, maneuvered into position and released four torpedoes. Two struck the “Yorktown”; one struck the USS “Hammann,” which was then supplying electricity to the carrier.
As the “Hammann” went down, its depth charges exploded. The shockwaves buffeted the “Yorktown,” further weakening its damaged hull.
Buckmaster withdrew his crew a second time. Overnight, the “Yorktown’s” port tilt resumed. At 7:01 a.m., June 7, it rolled over and sank stern-first.
AFTERMATH
Ward said after the “Yorktown” went down, he tried to serve on another ship with his brother, William “Bill” Ward.
“Me and my brother put in a transfer to get me on board with him, but they wouldn’t let brothers serve together because of the Sullivan boys,” Ward said, referring to five Iowa brothers killed when their ship was sunk in November 1942.
Ward also passed up an opportunity to serve on a patrol torpedo boat, one of the legendary fast, lightweight, low-draft boats that harassed the Japanese throughout the war.
Though the boat he was offered was sunk on Aug. 2, 1943, most of its crew survived after the heroism of its commander, who later gained lasting fame.
“I could’ve got on a PT boat and stayed the rest of the war on Midway,” Ward said. “John F. Kennedy was the captain of that PT boat. He was a lieutenant.”
Ward didn’t talk much about his World War II experiences, his daughter, Crestview resident Chris Steverson, said.
“When I was 23, my uncle told me he was on the ‘Yorktown,’” Steverson said. “I asked him about it and he said, ‘Yes, I was there,’ but he never talked about it. He started opening up about five years ago.”
“I did what I was supposed to do,” Ward said. “I was getting shot at for our freedom.”
●Ordered: Aug. 3, 1933
●Nakesake: The Battle of Yorktown, 1781
●Built: Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock, Virginia
●Keel laid: May 21, 1934
●Launched: April 4, 1936
●Christened by: First lady Eleanor Roosevelt
●Commissioned: Sept. 30, 1937
●Sank: June 7, 1942, during the Battle of Midway
●Struck from the Navy register: Oct. 2, 1942
●USS “Yorktown” (CV-10), commissioned April 15, 1943, was named to commemorate the CV-5
USS 'YORKTOWN' (CV-5)
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview WWII vet remembers Battle of Midway and sinking of the 'Yorktown' (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
