At 07:55, the next American strike from Midway arrived in
the form of 16 Marine SBD-2 Dauntless dive bombers of VMSB-241 under Major
Lofton R. Henderson. Akagi's three remaining CAP fighters were among the nine
still aloft that attacked Henderson's planes, shooting down six of them as they
executed a fruitless glide bombing attack on Hiryū. At roughly the same time,
the Japanese carriers were attacked by 12 B-17 Flying Fortresses, bombing from
20,000 feet (6,100 m). The high altitude of the B-17s gave the Japanese
captains enough time to anticipate where the bombs would land and successfully
maneuver their ships out of the impact area. Four B-17s attacked Akagi, but missed
with all their bombs.
Akagi reinforced the CAP with launches of three Zeros at
08:08 and four at 08:32. These fresh Zeros helped defeat the next American air
strike from Midway, 11 Vought SB2U Vindicator from VMSB-241, which attacked the
battleship Haruna starting around 08:30. Three of the Vindicators were shot
down, and Haruna escaped damage. Although all the American air strikes had thus
far caused negligible damage, they kept the Japanese carrier forces off-balance
as Nagumo endeavored to prepare a response to word, received at 08:20, of the
sighting of American carrier forces to his northeast.
Akagi began recovering her Midway strike force at 08:37 and
finished shortly after 09:00. The landed aircraft were quickly struck below,
while the carriers' crews began preparations to spot aircraft for the strike
against the American carrier forces. The preparations, however, were
interrupted at 09:18 when the first American carrier aircraft to attack were
sighted. These consisted of 15 TBD Devastator torpedo bombers of VT-8, led by
John C. Waldron from the carrier Hornet. The six airborne Akagi CAP Zeroes
joined the other 15 CAP fighters currently aloft in destroying Waldron's
planes. All 15 of the American planes were shot down as they attempted a torpedo
attack on Soryū, leaving one surviving aviator treading water.
Minutes after the torpedo plane attacks, American
carrier-based dive bombers arrived over the Japanese carriers almost undetected
and began their dives. It was at this time, around 10:20, that in the words of
Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully, the "Japanese air defenses would
finally and catastrophically fail." Twenty-eight dive bombers from
Enterprise, led by C. Wade McClusky, began an attack on Kaga, hitting her with
at least four bombs. At the last minute, one of McClusky's elements of three
bombers from VB-6, led by squadron commander Richard Best who deduced Kaga to
be fatally damaged, broke off and dove simultaneously on Akagi. At
approximately 10:26, the three bombers hit her with one 1,000-pound (450 kg)
bomb and just missed with two others. The first near-miss landed 5–10 m (16–33
ft) to port, near her island. The third bomb just missed the flight deck and
plunged into the water next to the stern. The second bomb, likely dropped by Best,
landed at the aft edge of the middle elevator and detonated in the upper
hangar. This hit set off explosions among the fully armed and fueled B5N
torpedo bombers that were being prepared for an air strike against the American
carriers, starting large fires.
At 10:29 Captain Aoki ordered the ship's magazines flooded.
The forward magazines were promptly flooded, but not the aft magazines because
of valve damage, likely caused by the near miss aft. The ship's main water pump
appears to have been damaged, greatly hindering firefighting efforts. On the
upper hangar deck, at 10:32 damage control teams attempted to control the
spreading fires by employing the one-shot CO2 fire-suppression system. Whether
the system functioned or not is unclear but, regardless, the burning aviation
fuel proved impossible to control, and serious fires began to advance deeper
into the interior of the ship. At 10:40 additional damage caused by the rear
near-miss made itself known when the ship's rudder jammed 30 degrees to starboard
during an evasive maneuver.
Shortly thereafter, the fires broke through the flight deck
and heat and smoke made the ship's bridge unusable. At 10:46 Admiral Nagumo
transferred his flag to the light cruiser Nagara. Akagi stopped dead in the
water at 13:50 and her crew, except for Captain Taijiro Aoki and damage-control
personnel, was evacuated. She burned through the night but did not sink as her
crew fought a losing battle against the spreading fires. The damage-control
teams were eventually evacuated as well, as was (under duress) Aoki.
At 04:50 on 5 June, Yamamoto ordered Akagi scuttled, saying
to his staff, "I was once the captain of Akagi, and it is with heartfelt
regret that I must now order that she be sunk." Destroyers Arashi,
Hagikaze, Maikaze, and Nowaki each fired one torpedo into the carrier and she
sank, bow first, at 05:20 at 30°30′N 178°40′W. Two hundred and sixty-seven men
of the ship's crew were lost, the fewest of any of the Japanese fleet carriers
lost in the battle. The loss of Akagi and the three other IJN carriers at
Midway, comprising two thirds of Japan's total number of fleet carriers and the
experienced core of the First Air Fleet, was a crucial strategic defeat for
Japan and contributed significantly to Japan's ultimate defeat in the war. In
an effort to conceal the defeat, Akagi was not immediately removed from the
Navy's registry of ships, instead being listed as "unmanned" before
finally being struck from the registry on 25 September 1942.
Shortly afterwards 14 Devastators from VT-6 from the US
carrier Enterprise, led by Eugene E. Lindsey, attacked. Lindsey's aircraft
tried to sandwich Kaga, but the CAP, reinforced by an additional eight Zeros
launched by Akagi at 09:33 and 09:40, shot down all but four of the
Devastators, and Kaga dodged the torpedoes. Defensive fire from the Devastators
shot down one of Akagi's Zeros.
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