TDIH: Navy Cross Recipient Norman Vandivier

A hero of the Battle of Midway.

On this day in 1942, a hero is promoted. Norman Francis Vandivier would go on to receive a Navy Cross for his bravery at the Battle of Midway.

The Indiana native had enlisted in the Navy before the war even started. He was soon training to be a pilot and was apparently a natural at it. “So far I’ve had about three hours of instruction,” he wrote his family in July 1939, “and am I getting good. . . . I sure do like this flying.”

Vandivier was thrown into World War II when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, as so many were. He flew several missions in the Pacific, but he is best known for his actions at the pivotal Battle of Midway.

It was an intense battle, to say the least. Unfortunately, the first rounds of American air attacks weren’t as effective as hoped.

“All of these attacks would be bravely carried out but ineffective, scoring no hits on any Japanese ship,” historian Ian W. Toll describes. “But the continuous pressure of new air attacks, however ineffectual, put the Japanese off balance.”

Indeed, the pressure perhaps prompted the Japanese commander to make a mistake: He’d waffled on whether to arm his planes with land bombs (to attack Midway) or torpedoes (to attack the American fleet). His indecision left the Japanese carriers in a vulnerable position when the next phase of the American attack came.

That attack was composed of American dive bombers, including Vandivier.

“The terrifying scream of the dive-bombers reached me first,” one Japanese officer later recounted, “followed by the crashing explosion of a direct hit. There was a blinding flash and then a second explosion, much louder than the first. . . . Then followed a startling quiet as the barking of guns suddenly ceased. I got up and looked at the sky. The enemy planes were already gone from sight.”

The Japanese couldn’t know what Vandivier and others had sacrificed to be there.

Vandivier’s squadron was attached to the carrier Enterprise (CV-6). Along with two other carriers, Enterprise had been waiting out of sight, just under 200 miles away. The first wave of dive bombers, including Vandivier’s squadron, had left Enterprise a little after 7:00 a.m. on June 4.

They’d been given an estimated location for the Japanese carriers, but when they arrived at that location at 9:20, the enemy carriers were nowhere to be found.

The pilots were in a pickle: If they spent time looking for the enemy, they would waste precious fuel. On the other hand, they knew they were needed at Midway.

The dive bombers didn’t even hesitate: They ignored the looming fuel problem, instead persisting until they located the Japanese carriers a little after 10:00. They soon commenced their attack, to great effect, before turning back.

Vandivier made it partway back to Enterprise before running out of fuel. He radioed that he would put his plane down in the ocean, but he and his gunner were never seen or heard from again.

Obviously, Vandivier was not the only pilot who acted bravely that day, nor was he the only one decorated for his bravery. Notably, though, he was posthumously promoted to lieutenant (junior grade) retroactive to April 15, 1942.

“In spite of a critical fuel shortage, Vandivier had pressed home his attack against the flagship of Japan’s main carrier strength,” a Naval History and Heritage Command summary concludes. “His bravery is indicative of the spirit and determination which, perhaps above all else, won the crucial Battle of Midway for America and paved the way for ultimate victory.”

The same could be said of others that day, of course. Where would we be but for the Greatest Generation?

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