06/04/2026
The Battle of Midway, how the U.S. Navy sank four Japanese carriers and turned the tide of the Pacific War. But do you know the extraordinary story of Capt. Jim Collins and the only torpedo attack ever carried out by the U.S. Army Air Forces?
In the six months following Pearl Harbor, U.S. forces in the Pacific were badly outmatched. Japan notched victory after victory, offset only by Jimmy Doolittle’s April 1942 raid on Tokyo and the standstill Battle of the Coral Sea in May.
Confident in continued success, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto proposed seizing Midway Atoll (America’s westernmost Pacific outpost still in U.S. hands) while launching a diversionary attack in the Aleutians. He had every advantage: superior numbers, veteran pilots, and the element of surprise. What he didn’t know was that U.S. Navy codebreakers had cracked Japanese encryption. Armed with this intelligence, Admiral Chester Nimitz reinforced Midway and positioned his three carriers, Enterprise, Hornet, and the damaged but still operational Yorktown, for an ambush.
On June 4, 1942, the two fleets clashed in what would become a decisive battle. But amid the more familiar accounts of Navy and Marine heroism is an oft-overlooked but remarkable mission by four USAAF B-26 Marauders led by Capt. James J. Collins of the 69th Squadron, 38th Bombardment Group.
Just weeks earlier, Collins had led a formation of B-26s from the mainland to Hawaii. Some of those aircraft were modified to carry torpedoes, despite their design as medium bombers. Collins and his crews received brief Navy instruction on torpedo attacks, among the most dangerous air missions of the war, but had never practiced with live weapons.
On May 29, Collins led four of these B-26s to Midway. Early on June 4, they launched without fighter es**rt to attack the Japanese carriers 180 miles to the northwest. As they approached, they were swarmed by Zeros and hammered by flak from two carriers and a screen of battleships, cruisers, and destroyers.
Under withering fire, the four Marauders made their long, straight approach for the torpedo attack. Before reaching release range, two Marauders were shot down. Collins’ bomber took hits from below, knocking out its hydraulics, but he managed to release his torpedo from 200 feet at about 800 yards from a carrier.
Collins and Lt. James Muri, the other surviving pilot, tore across the Japanese fleet at full throttle, pursued by as many as 50 Zeros. Muri reportedly buzzed the carrier Akagi at treetop height en route to his escape. Both bombers were riddled with bullets and flak: Collins’ aircraft had 186 holes and Muri's nearly 500, but both made it back to Midway, crash-landed, and were scrapped on the spot.
Collins was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for leading “the first torpedo attack ever entered into by an airplane of this type or by the Army Air Forces.” Lt. Muri was also awarded the DSC. It was the first and last torpedo attack by AAF bombers, making it a singular moment in U.S. military aviation history.
