Never Call Me a Hero: A Legendary American Dive-Bomber Pilot Remembers the Battle of Midway

Anextraordinary firsthand account of the Battle of Midway by one of its key participants timed to the 75th anniversary American dive-bomber pilot Dusty Kleisshelped sink three Japanese warships including two aircraft carriers received the Navy Cross and is credited with playing a decisive individual role in determining the outcome of a battle that is considered a turning point in World War II In Never Call Me a Hero Captain Kleiss USN ret a U S Navy SBD Dauntless dive-bomber pilot with the USS Enterprises Scouting Squadron Six tells his full story for the first time offering an unprecidently intimatelook atthe battle that reversed Americas fortunes after the tragedy ofPearl Harbor Kleiss is notable for being the only pilot from either fleet onthose battle-scarred days of legend June 47 1942 to land hits on three different enemy ships On the first day of the Battle of Midway Kleiss planted bombs on two Japanese carriersKaga and Hiryusinking both and later on June 6 he scored a direct hit on a Japanese cruiser the Mikuma which also sank In his 1967 book Incredible Victory Walter Lord asserted that the margins of U S victory at Midway were so thin that individual participants could rightfully say that their actions turned the tide Given the amount of destruction inflicted upon the Japanese that day Kleiss may have been the most important pilot in the air It is no stretch to say that without him the Battle of Midway may not have been won altering the course of the conflict and history itself for according the U S Navys historians The Battle of Midway was far more than an epic WWII clash somewhere far away at sea It was an American victory that forever changed the course of world history This is the battle that turned the tide of the war But this is not only the memoir of one man it is the history of this battle and its legacy In only five minutes forty-eight American dive bomber pilots and their gunners destroyed the pride of the Japan