MILES BROWNING

'Miles Rutherford Browning' (April 10, 1897 - September 29, 1954) served as an officer of the United States Navy in the Atlantic during World War I and in the Pacific during World War II. A pioneer in the development of aircraft carrier combat operations concepts, he is noted for his aggressive aerial warfare tactics as a captain on the USS ''Enterprise'' during World War II. His citation for the Distinguished Service Medal (the highest U.S. Navy award at that time, second only to the Medal of Honor in merit) states: "His judicious planning and brilliant execution was largely responsible for the rout of the enemy Japanese fleet in the Battle of Midway." Few now agree.

Contents

Early life and career

Midway

Midway: Background to Decision to Launch

Midway: Decision to Launch—A Prelude

Midway: Decision to Launch

Midway: Proceed to Target

Midway: Browning

Guadalcanal

Banishment

Awards and decorations

See also

References

External links

Early life and career

Miles Browning was born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, to New York City stockbroker Oren Fogle Browning, Jr. and Sarah Louise (Smith) Browning, a poet descended from Native American Mohawks in upstate New York. He attended public schools before his appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, in 1914. He graduated early, commissioned Ensign with the Class of 1918 on June 29, 1917.^[1]
During World War I, Browning served on the USS ''Oklahoma'', a battleship of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, until February 1918. He then had duty in connection with fitting out the USS ''New Mexico''. In June 1918, he joined the French cruiser ''Lutetia'', and was senior American Naval Officer aboard while she operated with Cruiser Force, Atlantic Fleet, through the end of the war. For four years following the war, Browning had consecutive service afloat, on the battleship USS ''Pennsylvania'' (flagship of the Atlantic Fleet), the destroyer USS ''McKean'', and as Engineer Officer of USS ''Crane'', and later USS ''Howard'' (destroyers operating with the U.S. Pacific Fleet). Lieutenant Browning joined USS ''Badger'' in 1920, serving as Executive Officer until transferred a year later to similar duty as XO of USS ''Kidder''.
On May 20, 1922, Browning married San Francisco socialite Catharine Isabella Parker, stepdaughter of Vice Admiral Clark H. Woodward. From 1922 to January 1924, Browning served as Senior Patrol Officer on the cruiser USS ''Charleston'' and the destroyer USS ''Thompson'', operating out of Naval Station San Diego. During that time, his only daughter, Cathalene Parker Browning, was born in San Diego; her son is American comedian Chevy Chase.
In January 1924, Browning reported to Naval Air Station Pensacola for flight training. He showed exceptional skill in the cockpit, but also exhibited a "wild streak" which struck his squadron mates as "potentially dangerous." ^[2] Designated Naval Aviator on September 29, 1924, he became one of America's earliest navy combat pilots, joining USS ''Langley'', the U.S. Navy's first aircraft carrier, which had been converted from the collier USS ''Jupiter'' (two of whose sister ships, USS ''Cyclops'' and USS ''Nereus'', vanished without a trace in the Bermuda Triangle area). From January 1925 until May 1927, Browning was assigned to Observation Squadron 2, attached first to the minelayer USS ''Aroostook'', later to the battleship USS ''Idaho''. Advanced to Operations Officer, he served for two years at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia. Promoted to Naval Flight Officer, he was assigned his first command in July 1929: Scouting Squadron 5S, the aviation unit of the light cruiser USS ''Trenton''. During that time he performed additional duty on the staff of the commander of Light Cruiser Division Two of the Scouting Fleet (USS ''Trenton'', flagship).
As an early combat aviator, Browning was not only instrumental in the development and implementation of fighter aircraft tactics and strategy, he also impacted the manner in which naval warplanes were designed and built. In July 1931, he reported to the Bureau of Aeronautics to serve in the Material Division (Design), and spent the next three years helping to design and test combat aircraft, until June 1934. During that period, as a test pilot, he was laid up in a San Diego naval hospital after crashing a plane there in 1932. The monoplane fighters which Browning and others piloted went through numerous upgrades in both structure and function, every design change hotly debated by men whose very lives were at stake. Browning was part of the group of progressives that pushed for development of a high-performance fighter, with maneuverability secondary to speed. These men felt that a true fighter had to be fast enough to quickly overtake and shoot down enemy planes. Unfortunately for Browning and the other progressive thinkers, the Bureau of Aeronautics continued to emphasize maneuverability, climb, and flight ceiling at the expense of speed and other characteristics that the progressives argued were more important. If the bureau had been more receptive to the emphasis on speed, the United States might have entered World War II with a more advanced high-performance fighter.^[2]
Browning was next assigned command of Fighting Squadron 3B, based back on the USS ''Langley'' and later on USS ''Ranger'', the first American warship built from the keel up as an aircraft carrier. He served in that capacity until June 1936, when he reported to the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, for postgraduate studies with additional duty at the Naval Torpedo Station there. Upon completion of his junior year, he became one of the first naval instructors at the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field in 1937, training a new generation of fighter pilots while continuing his advanced studies in combat theory, national security policy, airborne command and control and joint military operations.
An example of Browning's tactical logic is a 13-page, single spaced, typewritten thesis on carrier warfare that he prepared while at the Naval War College in 1936, the year that Nazi Germany allied with Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan. Browning's essay anticipated the flaw in Japanese carrier execution which he would exploit so decisively during the coming war.^[4] After completing his academic work, Browning was appointed to Admiral William F. Halsey's staff in the new billet of Air Tactical Officer. In June 1938, he joined the United States' second new aircraft carrier, USS ''Yorktown'', to serve as commander of ''Yorktown's carrier air wing. Browning personally developed and organized the Fleet Aircraft Tactical Unit based on ''Yorktown'', and commanded it for two additional years. When Halsey became the commander of Air Battle Forces two years later, Browning remained on his staff as Operations and War Plans Officer and became Halsey's chief of staff in June 1941. From the onset of U.S. involvement in World War II, Browning provided tactical counsel to Halsey from the bridge of Halsey's flagship USS ''Enterprise''.
As war loomed on the horizon, Halsey had Browning prepare the crew of ''Enterprise'' and her aircraft squadrons for any eventuality. They were en route to Hawaii after delivering a doomed Marine Corps fighter squadron to Wake Island when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. USS ''Enterprise'' scout bombers arrived over Pearl during the attack, and immediately went into action in defense of the naval base. Six of them were shot down. The carrier reached the devastated harbor directly after the attack, and put to sea again early the next morning to patrol against any additional threats to the Hawaiian Islands. (''Enterprise'' planes sank a Japanese submarine on December 10, 1941, three days into the war.)
With the United States Pacific Fleet nearly destroyed, USS ''Enterprise'' and her battle group took up forward defensive positions west of Hawaii. Eight of the fleet's nine battleships had been trapped in the harbor, four of them sunk and four heavily damaged, along with three of the fleet's eight cruisers present during the dawn attack. With her battleship force crippled, defense against further attacks on the United States and her territories was left to her three aircraft carriers stationed in the Pacific: ''Enterprise'', and the converted battlecruisers ''Lexington'' and ''Saratoga''.
Designated flagship of the Pacific Fleet, ''Enterprise'' sailed in January 1942 to protect American convoys reinforcing Samoa. Soon, though, under the aggressive leadership of Halsey and Browning, ''Enterprise'' took up the offensive. In February and March of 1942, Browning directed numerous daring air raids on Japanese bases at Kwajalein, Wotje, and Maloelap in the Marshall Islands, and blasted enemy installations in the Gilbert Islands, Marcus Island, and Wake Island. Halsey gave credit for much of his own remarkable military success to his chief of staff, and recommended Commander Browning for a spot promotion to the rank of captain. So dramatic were Browning's air raids on Japanese island bases that ''Life'' magazine dubbed him "America's mastermind in aerial warfare."^[5]
Browning's promotion was approved by CINCPAC that April following the "Doolittle Raid", in which Browning himself played a role in both planning and executing. Dubbed "Jimmy Doolittle's Raid" by the American press, the daring scheme launched sixteen Army Air Force long-range bombers, led by Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle, from the deck of the carrier USS ''Hornet'', with ''Enterprise'' providing combat air support. The squadron dropped bombs on Tokyo at high noon on April 18, 1942, completely surprising the Japanese and giving the beleaguered American troops and public a much-needed boost in morale.

Midway

Halsey suffered a severe attack of psoriasis on the ''Enterprise'' on the way back from the successful Doolittle bombing. Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, Halsey's hand-picked successor, inherited Browning and his staff just prior to the Battle of Midway. Spruance, who had commanded only battleships since the beginning of the war, was concerned about leading a carrier group because he had no prior aviation or carrier experience. Halsey reassured him, telling Spruance to rely on his battle-hardened staff, especially Browning.^[5]
Unfortunately, Browning had limited social skills, and Spruance found it difficult to get along with his chief of staff during and after Midway.^[7] Military historian Samuel Eliot Morison referred to Browning as "one of the most irascible officers ever to earn a fourth stripe, but he was a man with a slide-rule brain."^[8] Others said he had a "calculator brain"^[9] and "a superintellect that evoked praise – often begrudging – from his superiors." Browning is commonly described as "crusty and brawling,"^[10] clever, daring, exceptionally aggressive and uncontrollable. He was by no means a deft social mixer; by most reports he disdained the friendship of many of the very flag officers with whom he served. He was willful, arrogant, a hard drinker, and violently tempered. Despite his unpopularity, he was respected as a brilliant tactical officer.
Midway would be a critical battle for the United States and its allies, one that all parties knew might very well determine the outcome of the war in the Pacific. After the devastation of its battleships at Pearl Harbor six months earlier, the U.S. Navy was forced to place all its hopes on a small aircraft carrier force that was dwarfed by the strength of Japan’s Combined Fleet. Browning was charged with directing the impending battle as the Imperial Japanese Navy, undefeated for over 350 years,^[11] bore down on Midway Island.
American intelligence had decoded Japanese messages and knew roughly where the Combined Fleet would be headed. Although unaware of that breach in its radio security, the Japanese Navy changed its codes out of protocol while under sail for the strategically crucial U.S. airbase at Midway. The Imperial Fleet, under Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, knew that it would meet resistance. The intention was to draw whatever was left of the American fleet into a battle wherein any remaining U.S. naval warships could be destroyed. Yamamoto's second-in-command, Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, the hero of Pearl Harbor, was so confident in the plan that he failed to anticipate carrier-based aerial attacks from any of America's remaining carriers, and presumed that the heavily damaged ''Yorktown'' had sank in the Battle of the Coral Sea.
Some accounts credit Browning's tactical genius and carrier operations experience with winning the battle of Midway.^[12] Spruance wanted to wait to launch fighter aircraft until the Japanese ships were within 100 miles. Browning, however, had deduced that the Japanese would commit to another strike on Midway Island and that he could catch them off guard.^[13] By ordering ''Enterprise'' 's fighters to attack the Japanese task force on sight while the Japanese planes were committed to fueling and rearming operations on deck, Browning caught the Japanese ships without adequate protection and was able to sink all four of Japan's big carriers, as he had predicated in his 1936 tactical thesis.^[14][15]
These accounts are wrong, as we shall now see.

Midway: Background to Decision to Launch

Thomas Buell, ''The Quiet Warrior: A Biography of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance'' (Naval Institute Press 1987), pp. 494-5:
It is clear that Spruance’s own accounts give his intention as wanting to hit the Japanese carriers “as early as possible” and that he made preparations to launch “when we got within striking distance.” (Buell says this “was generally regarded as 150 to 175 miles.”) Spruance also said in 1966 that “There was no argument or discussion about when to launch.” This is from the notes of a Spruance interview by Walter Lord, author of ''Incredible Victory'', the first best-selling account. Buell corresponded with Lord about these notes, which also say (as quoted in Buell):
Buell told Lord that, contrary to these notes, Lord’s book states that 0900 was Spruance’s “original inclination.” Lord responded “I didn’t mean to imply that Spruance ‘intended’ to launch at 0900 .. I was trying to connote something less strong than intention, or even taking any firm position on the matter.” Lord also responded that “as soon as Browning came up with 0700, he went right along with it” and that Spruance’s main point had been to torpedo the contentions of Morison, Tuleja, Forrestel, and others that there was argument or discussion between him and Browning.
Buell believes this does not do justice to Spruance’s desire for surprise. Buell also rejects a further comment of Lord’s as to a letter he had received from former staff officer Bromfield Nichol to the effect that Spruance had suggested delaying the launch until they’d run in closer and that Spruance “had the good judgment to take the advice of others” – rejecting Nichol’s account as “inconsistent with the overwhelming evidence.”
Spruance himself, in 1955, in one of the few statements he published on the battle, the Foreword to ''Midway: the Battle that Doomed Japan'', a translation of works by Fuchida and Okumiya, refuses to take credit for choosing the exact time when an attack would do most damage, “flight decks full of aircraft, fueled, and ready to go.”
Buell, p. 496:

Midway: Decision to Launch—A Prelude

When Spruance took over for the indisposed Halsey, Spruance inherited Halsey’s command staff, bringing only his own flag lieutenant, Robert J. Oliver. There was high excitement among this staff about what Spruance was like, which Oliver was only partly able to satisfy. One thing in particular mystified them, and Oliver too, for that matter:
Buell adds only that “He would use it to make the most important decision of the Battle of Midway.” p, 142.

Midway: Decision to Launch

Spruance arrived at the “flag shelter” (the command post created by Halsey atop the ''Enterprise'' island) very early on 4 June, joining Browning, Buracker, Oliver, and the staff watch officer. They listened to the radio loudspeaker tuned to Midway search-plane frequency.
At 0534 “Enemy carriers.”
At 0545 the same plane reported many enemy planes closing Midway from the northwest at 150 miles. Were they headed toward us? Towards Midway? How many of them were there? “The inconclusive reports had an unintended and malignant effect upon the staff officers, wrenching their nerves and intensifying their anxiety. Anticipating that the next message surely would locate the enemy, they could scarcely contain their impatience and excitement.”
At 0603 “the message burst through the loudspeaker”: two carriers and battleships making for Midway.
Buell, 144-5.
The actual departure time of aircraft from ''Enterprise’s'' decks depended still on the distance each of the two opposing forces would cover, the direction of the wind and its velocity, the degree of accuracy of the reported position of the enemy, payload and fuel capacity, speed of manning the planes and starting them, time between first and last launch, combat radius, and “the time required to send the attack order by flashing light on the ''Hornet'', also under Spruance’s command. Computing all this was Browning’s job, his considerable job. “But it had to be without delay. Spruance wanted his planes up and flying at the earliest possible moment.” Browning computed 0700; Spruance accepted. So let it be written, so let it be done.

Midway: Proceed to Target

Half an hour into the launch, only half completed.
The first-launched aircraft circled, burning fuel, waiting for others so that it would be a coordinated attack, bombers first, then torpedoes, all protected by fighters. At the same time, the distance to target lengthened due to the winds.
Here is Spruance’s second critical, vital decision. Proceed to target. Proceed with the bombers then aloft. Torpedo planes would follow when they could.
Buell, p. 147.
Not until an hour and six minutes after launch had begun did the last torpedo plane lift off ''Enterprise’s'' deck. ''Hornet'', following Spruance’s orders, had launched and gone. A report that a Japanese scout plane had sighted them had come in, but Spruance was unaware of this until nine minutes later, according to Lundstrom, ''The First Team'' (Naval Institute Press 1984).

Midway: Browning

None of the key decisions had been made by Miles Browning.

Guadalcanal

Browning, unfortunately, was a man of tremendous contradictions, and following Midway, his darker side would see to his professional demise. At his moment of triumph, in the summer of 1942, he had an affair with the wife of a fellow officer. That breach of sacred code, combined with his drinking and unstable temperament, would eventually derail his career and lead later chroniclers to virtually write him out of military history. Despite this damaging personal incident, Browning resumed combat duties in October 1942, when Halsey was given command of the South Pacific theater, where Allied fortunes had turned for the worse. Browning's sage tactical advice helped Halsey to execute the command miracle in the Solomon Islands that reversed the declining situation in that war-swept region.
Like Midway, the Guadalcanal Campaign was another critical "turning point" in the Pacific war. The first major offensive by combined Allied forces against Japanese-held territory, it was a desperate ongoing sea, air, and ground campaign requiring continual, almost daily, aircraft actions orchestrated by Browning. Repeated Japanese counterstrikes were repelled while the entire South Pacific Force – including U.S and Allied army, navy and marine forces – was run by Halsey, Browning, a handful of staff officers and some fifty bluejackets. Their tactics, and the sacrifices of thousands of soldiers, sailors and marines under their command, resulted in the historic naval victory at Guadalcanal in early November 1942.
Again, Halsey gave Browning credit for his success. In a New Year's Day 1943 letter to Admiral Nimitz (CINCPAC) concerning Browning's precarious career situation, Halsey wrote, "Miles has an uncanny knack of sizing up a situation and coming out with an answer." Admitting that his chief of staff was "decidedly temperamental," Halsey begged Nimitz not to break up "this partnership" between himself and Browning, writing, "I am almost superstitious about it." Several days later, however, Browning antagonized visiting Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, earning himself another powerful enemy who then replaced Browning over Halsey's objections.^[16] Admiral Ernest King, Chief of Naval Operations and Commander-in-Chief, United States Fleet, and another old enemy, concurred. Halsey instead pushed for a promotion to Commodore for Browning. In March 1943, Browning married Jane Matthews, the woman with whom he had the 1942 affair; she was his fourth and last wife. Browning was detached from Halsey's staff in July 1943 to become the commanding officer of the new USS ''Hornet'' (CV-12), built to replace CV-8, lost in October 1942 at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. During his tenure of command, Browning launched massive aerial raids against Japanese bases in the Pacific, including Palau, Truk, and Ponape, and provided carrier-launched air support during the Allied invasion of New Guinea, the Jayapura operations, and the Battle of the Philippine Sea.

Banishment

In the spring of 1944, during a nighttime showing of a film on ''Hornet's hangar deck, someone discharged a CO₂ canister and triggered a stampede. In the chaos, two sailors fell overboard; one of them drowned. A board of investigation was ordered, which criticized Browning's command. The ensuing ruin of his career, "one of the great wastes to the American prosecution of the war," resulted, ironically, from nothing having to do with combat. Browning was removed from command of ''Hornet'' in May 1944^[17] and reassigned to the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he taught carrier battle tactics during the final months of the war. Halsey was given command of the carrier-oriented 3rd Fleet during 1944-1945, but with his old chief of staff landlocked, made grave mistakes that Browning might well have been able to prevent.
Browning toured Japan in 1949, and stated that radiation damage from the atomic bombs was a "myth." He pointed to gardens and a number of tall chimneys left standing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki as proof that there were no long-term effects of the blasts.^[18]
Browning retired from active duty on January 1 1947, just short of his 50th birthday, and was retroactively promoted to rear admiral. He was appointed New Hampshire's Civil Defense Director in 1950, where he devised a plan wherein 500,000 displaced residents of Boston could be housed in New Hampshire private homes in the event of disaster. Browning resigned this post in 1952.¹⁸
On September 29 1954, Browning died of systemic lupus erythematosus at Chelsea Naval Hospital in Boston. He was buried on October 6 1954 at Arlington National Cemetery.^[19]

Awards and decorations

★ Distinguished Service Medal

★ Silver Star

★ Naval Aviator Badge

★ Naval Flight Officer Badge

★ American Defense Service Medal with Fleet Clasp

★ American Campaign Medal

★ Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with Silver and Bronze Engagement Stars

★ Presidential Unit Citation, USS ''Enterprise''

★ Presidential Unit Citation, USS ''Hornet''

★ World War I Victory Medal with Atlantic Fleet Clasp

★ World War II Victory Medal with Pacific Fleet Clasp

See also

★ History of United States Naval Operations in World War II

★ Mariana and Palau Islands campaign

★ Midway (1976 film)

★ Midway order of battle

★ Pacific War

★ Pacific Theater of Operations

★ The Two-Ocean War

★ War and Remembrance

References

1. Mountain Lakes Library. Rear Admiral Miles Rutherford Browning. Accessed 2006-08-09.
2. Wildenberg, Thomas. ''Destined for glory: dive bombing, Midway, and the evolution of carrier airpower.'' Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1998. ISBN 1-55750-947-6.
3. Wildenberg, Thomas. ''Destined for glory: dive bombing, Midway, and the evolution of carrier airpower.'' Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1998. ISBN 1-55750-947-6.
4. Wildenberg, Thomas. Midway: Sheer Luck or Better Doctrine? ''Naval College War Review'', Winter 2005, Vol. 58, No. 1. Wildenberg quotes Browning's thesis: "Every carrier we have knows what it means to be 'bopped' with all planes on deck, because her hands were tied by uncertainty as to her next move..."
5. Costello, John. ''The Pacific War. New York: Rawson, Wade, 1981. ISBN 0-89256-206-4.
6. Costello, John. ''The Pacific War. New York: Rawson, Wade, 1981. ISBN 0-89256-206-4.
7. Prange, Gordon, Goldstein, Donald, and Dillon, Katherine. ''Miracle at Midway.'' New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982. ISBN 0-07-050672-8. Prange writes, 'Spruance inherited his Chief of Staff from Halsey, who "thought he was wonderful." Browning had the disposition of a snapping turtle and Spruance admitted freely that "during the war in the Pacific people hated his guts." But "Browning was smart and quick," and Spruance was not running a charm school. Browning had the aviation know-how that Spruance needed, which was all that concerned the imperturbable admiral. Browning estimated that the Japanese attack planes would complete their strike and return to the carriers about 0900. Almost certainly, Nagumo would maintain course until that time. If Spruance wanted to catch the enemy carriers with all planes aboard, he should begin to launch as soon as possible ... [Fighter pilot James Gray] radioed the task force at approximately 0952 that he was over the target... To this ''Enterprise'' fighter base shot off an uncompromising, "Attack immediately!"... the voice urging the attack was that of Miles Browning, and McClusky, leading the dive bombers, assumed that the message was meant for him. It would have been quite in character for Browning to thus exhort any and every aircraft within reach of voice radio...."
8. Morison, Samuel Eliot. ''The Struggle for Guadalcanal: August 1942 - February 1943 (History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Volume 5)''. Secaucus, New Jersey: Castle Books, 2001. ISBN 0-7858-1306-3.
9. Leckie, Robert. ''Delivered from evil: the saga of World War II.'' New York: Harper & Row, 1987. ISBN 0-06-015812-3.
10. Taylor, Theodore. ''The Battle Off Midway Island (The Great Battles of World War II). Reissue edition. Avon Books, 1981. ISBN 0-380-78790-3.
11. Biographies in Naval History. Admiral Raymond Ames Spruance Naval Historical Center. Accessed 2006-08-10.
12. Boyne, Walter J. ''Clash of Titans: World War II at sea.'' New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. ISBN 0-684-80196-5.
13. Morison, Samuel Eliot. ''The Two-Ocean War: A Short History of the United States Navy in the Second World War.'' New York: Galahad Books, 1997. ISBN 1-57866-003-3.
14. Lord, Walter. ''Midway: The Incredible Victory''. New York: Harper & Row, Inc., 1967. ISBN 1-84022-236-0. Lord writes, "Browning, inherited from Halsey, was a difficult man – almost impossible to get along with – but there was no doubt about his mind. He calculated that Nagumo would then be 155 miles away – just within effective striking range. That meant a long flight to the target – practically no safety margin – but it was all-important to attack at the earliest possible moment. The key to everything was surprise... Spruance understood this. Originally his own inclination was to launch at 9:00... But Browning was his man on this... ''Enterprise'' would attack with 33 dive bombers, 15 torpedo planes, 10 fighters; the ''Hornet'' with 35 dive bombers, 15 torpedo planes, 10 fighters – everything available... At 7:28 there was a new complication. Spruance's radar picked up something suspicious; then the ''Enterprise'' 's forward gun director, with its powerful range finder, sighted it for certain – a Japanese sea-plane lurking on the southern horizon... No doubt about it: they had been spotted... Still, there was no thought of calling off the operation. As Miles Browning pointed out, the Japanese would be locked in their present course at least until they recovered their Midway strike... Through the static-filled air came a message from (C. Wade)McClusky indicating that he was at last in contact with the enemy ... Miles Browning shouted over the radio, "Attack immediately!""
15. Morrison, Wilbur H. ''Pilots, Man Your Planes! The History of Naval Aviation''. Central Point, Oregon: Hellgate Press, 1999. ISBN 1-55571-466-8.
16. Sea of Thunder: Four Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign 1941-1945, , Evan, Thomas, Simon and Schuster, 2006, ISBN 978-0-7432-5221-8
17. Dwayne Miles, USS HORNET Commanding Officers Retrieved 2006-09-02.
18. Staff writer. ''Miles Browning, Aide to Halsey'' (Fee required). ''The New York Times'',1954-09-30. Retrieved on 2007-05-10.
19. Staff writer. ''Deaths - October 3, 1954''. ''The New York Times'', 1954-10-03. Retrieved on 2007-05-10.

External links

★ USS ''Washington'' (BB-56) detailed account of the Battle of Midway

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★ Part I

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★ Part II

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★ Part III

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★ Part IV

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★ Part V

★ Naval Historical Center - Battle of Midway

★ Naval Historical Center - Naval Aviation in the Pacific (PDF file)

★ Naval Historical Center - USS ''Hornet'' (CV-12)