Battle of Midway: The True Story

His name was Lieutenant (junior grade) Norman Kleiss, known to all as “Dusty”. On June 4th, 1942, the unassuming pilot got into his plane, the SDB Dauntless, and took to the air.

Dusty was undeterred by the anti-aircraft fire blistering around him. He pointed his aircraft skywards and kept climbing. With Japan’s flagship aircraft carrier below him, Dusty went into a dive.

Bursting through the clouds at 240 knots (444 kilometres per hour, or 123 meters per second), Dusty pulled up at the last possible moment, dropping three bombs in his wake.

It was a triple direct hit. Japan’s most important ship, the Kaga, burst into flames. Its fires could only be quenched by the ocean when it sank.

Dusty returned to the USS Enterprise, learning of the death of his best friend and dozens of other naval officers.

Steadfast in his convictions, Dusty took to the skies later that same evening, scoring a sinking hit on another Japanese aircraft carrier, the Hiryu. Two days later, the unwavering pilot scored an assist on a third warship, the Mikuma, making him the only pilot on either side to have done so.

Dusty’s triple-kill crippled the Japanese Navy. Military historian John Keegan called the Battle at Midway “the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare”. Japan could not afford to replace the ships nor the men they lost that day. The tide of the war had shifted in favour of the Allies.

Less than a month after the battle, Dusty went home and married his sweetheart. They had multiple kids and lived a quiet life from thereon out.

Despite his epic actions and his Navy Cross, Dusty refused the moniker of hero. His memoir, released shortly after his death at the age of a hundred, is titled: “Never Call Me a Hero”.

We believe Dusty’s incredible feats deserves a retelling, however. We also shine a light on how US aircraft designs, skilled pilots, a bit of luck, and the element of surprise won out the day.

Featuring rare footage and first-hand accounts from Dusty Kleiss himself, Battle of Midway: The True Story is an hour-by-hour recount of the battle’s pivotal moments.

Catch it on Tuesday, August 3rd at 3 PM on the Smithsonian Channel (ch 226)