When the battle around Midway Atoll finally ceased, the US fleet tallied its losses.
Over the course of three days of intense action in the air, on the ground, and at sea, 324
sailors, marines, and aviators had been killed.
Additionally, sixty-four U.S. aviators were missing in action.
All of these men had to ditch their aircraft because their planes had suffered significant
battle damage or they had run out of fuel during their return flight.
In the end, twenty-two of these men were never recovered, bringing the total American death
toll up to 346.
The crew that endured the longest ordeal out on the ocean belonged to Torpedo Squadron Six.
During the June 4 attack against the Kido-Butai, a torpedo bomber flown by Machinist Walt Winchell
and Radioman Douglas Cossitt had been badly damaged.
As it fled the scene, it started streaming gasoline and despite the best efforts of its
pilot, it could fly no higher than 1,000 feet.
Winchell and Cossitt were forced to ditch their aircraft in the empty Pacific, miles
away from either fleet.
After it skidded into the water, the plane sank in approximately thirty seconds.
Winchell and Cossitt managed to evacuate and inflate their 8-foot life raft, taking with
them their first aid kits, four cans of pemmican, two packages of malted milk, and both parachutes.
Cossitt had been wounded by eighteen pieces of shrapnel, but he held out hope that a Navy
search plane would find their raft.
Optimistic about his chances of being recovered, he recalled:
“The remainder of that day, we kept thinking that we would spot search planes.
The following day we did see planes in the distance, but they were too far away to be
able to identify.
Of course, at this time we did not know the outcome of the battle.
From the way our planes were being knocked down during the battle, we wouldn’t have
taken bets either way.”
The next few days passed in sheer agony.
A blazing sun burned their skins, they grew weary due to lack of food and water, and shark
attacks scared them half to death.
“We were constantly bothered by sharks.
If we looked down in the water and saw lots of small fish milling around our boat, then
we knew that it was okay, and we would even lower ourselves into the water and cool off.
However, if in looking into the water, no little fish were around....then watch out!
Sure enough, every time we would spot a fin circling around us.
Sometimes, there were two or three at one time.
Pretty soon they would make a run at us.
Because we didn’t draw over an inch of water, the sharks would have to come right to the
surface, then roll over to try to get a bite at us.
We fought them off with an 8-inch Bowie knife and our aluminum oars.
One time, Walt cut one bad enough to make him bleed.
The biggest damn fight took place that you ever saw about 20 yards from our boat!
The other sharks jumped that one that Walt wounded.
Of course we were hoping that they would all kill each other.”
Winchell and Cossitt survived by drinking rainwater, and they even killed an albatross
and ate it raw.
Intermittently, a U.S. search plane appeared on the horizon but the pilots always failed
to spot them.
“When we saw planes in the distance we tried to signal them, but to no avail.
If they had not changed course, they might have passed over us.
They were about seven or eight miles away when they changed course.
This was very heart-breaking, but we didn’t mention it to each other.
Instead, I can remember Walt yelling at them, ‘All right, you bastards!
See if I ever buy you a drink at the Officer’s Club!’
Walt had just made Warrant Officer before Midway.
I have thought many times over the years, that it was this attitude that helped us more
than anything.
We never gave up....and we never forgot how to laugh.”
On June 16, the twelfth day of their ordeal, a Japanese submarine surfaced nearby and the
enemy sailors unmasked their guns.
For a few tense minutes, Winchell and Cossitt believed their time had come.
“About the 12th day, we spotted a submarine on the surface.
The sea was kind of rough—at least for a rubber boat—and the only time we could see
it was when we rode over the crest of a wave.
I held Walt’s legs and he stood up and waved and waved to attract their attention.
Finally, they saw us and the sub turned in our direction.
When it was broadside we saw our mistake.
It was Japanese, one of their Type-I boats!
Walt sat down and we just waited for the end to come.
We were sure that they would either take us prisoner or shoot us in the boat.
They circled us at about 50 feet.
Two officers and about 8 or 10 crew members came on deck to look at us.
The machine guns and rifles the crew carried looked like they meant business.
However, after looking at us they probably figured we couldn’t last much longer anyway,
so they sailed off and submerged.
We never saw a periscope or anything after that, but Walt and I were both sure that they
were in the vicinity, possibly waiting for a ship which would stop to pick us up, and
they were using us for bait.
Regardless of their reason, we were damn glad to see them go.”
The Japanese submarine sailed off, leaving the ocean to kill the men.
For the next five days, Winchell’s and Cossitt’s health and spirits began to diminish.
Cossitt described what happened next.
“We had been out of water for two days and there was no rain in sight.
On the morning of June 21 we awoke to find a sea of glass, absolutely no breeze of any kind.
We pulled the silk parachute over us to protect us from the sun.
We both knew that we couldn’t last much longer, but we never mentioned it to each other.
Instead, we made plans on what we were going to do when we were found.
My folks had some property at Lake Tahoe and we were going to go there and drink the damn
lake dry!
We talked about the Dole Pineapple cannery in Honolulu where they have ice cold pineapple
juice coming out of the drinking fountains!
We told each other how good baked beans were for breakfast, and I swore that I would never
turn them down again!
Suddenly, we both heard it at the same time, an airplane!
There could be no mistake about this sound.
By the way the engines were spitting and backfiring there was only one plane in the whole world
that sounded like that...a PBY!
The pilot told us after that he was circling us at about 100 feet, but we couldn’t see him.
Our eyes were so sunburned, the plane was only a blur.”
After spending seventeen days at sea, Winchell and Cossitt were rescued.
An American PBY flown by LTJG John White spotted their life raft and landed.
The plane flew the two men back to Midway Island, 360 miles to the south.
En route to Midway, the PBY crewmen told Winchell and Cossitt that the United States had won
the Battle of Midway.
“This was the first that we knew the outcome of the Battle of Midway.
And it was going to be many days and weeks before we were to find out the cost that the
torpedo squadrons from the Enterprise, Yorktown, and Hornet had paid.
We were flown to Midway and then we found out that we were picked up on the very last
day of their intensified search.
After a week in the field hospital at Midway, we were flown to Pearl Harbor and to the Naval Hospital.
I weighed 119 lbs. and Walt weighed 112.
It took over 10 years to regain my original weight of 185 lbs.
This kept me buying new uniforms about every year, until the war was over.”
Winchell and Cossitt were the last two aviators rescued after the Battle of Midway.
Both men survived the battle by at least three decades.
Cossitt died in 1980, at age 61.
Winchell died in 1990, at age 78.
Twenty-two other aviators were never found.
They suffered a long, lonely death out on the ocean.
Lost at sea, they never had the opportunity to know that their navy had won the day.
Like hundreds of others, they made the ultimate sacrifice.
On this anniversary, let us commemorate that sacrifice and attempt to repay our debt of
eternal gratitude.