![]() When the battle began, Ford, along with cameramen Kenneth Pier and Jack McKenzie Jr., was ready to record the action on 16mm Kodachrome. When Ford was asked to find a few cameramen for an assignment in the Pacific, he put his own name forward and headed to Midway, a strategically important island halfway between mainland America and Japan.Īs the United States’ codebreakers deciphered messages that alerted the US military to both the time and place of the impending conflict, the attack on Midway was not unexpected. Two years into John Ford’s war service, the Hollywood director had produced Sex Hygiene, the military’s frontline weapon against venereal disease-a threat to military readiness-and established the Navy’s Field Photo Unit. Two films made by Oscar-winning director John Ford, now preserved at the National Archives, tell the story of triumph and sacrifice at Midway. ![]() ![]() More than 300 Americans lost their lives during the Battle of Midway, including all but one member of the bomber group Torpedo Squadron 8. With four Japanese aircraft carriers sunk by the conclusion of the conflict, the battle was the first major victory for the US in the Pacific. On June 4, 1942, the Japanese Imperial Navy attacked United States forces on the island of Midway.
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