From "Carrier Strike" by Eric Hammel - Zenith Press
At about 0940 ([October 25, 1942], a Patrol-91 PBY piloted by Lt(jg) Warren Matthew discovered Rear Admiral Hiroaki Abe's sizable Vanguard Group, which was sailing ahead of the carrier arm of Nagumo's striking force. While the patrol bomber's radioman reported the position to all friendly bases eavesdropping on the search frequency, Matthew circled around to get into position to attack a battleship he incorrectly identified as the (sic) HIJMS Haruna (it was either the (sic) HIJMS Hiei or the (sic) HIJMS Kirishima, but it was definitely a battleship). Matthew's aggressive move was largely quixotic, for PBY's on daylight searches did not carry aerial torpedoes, a policy aimed at increasing their productive search ranges as well, perhaps, as obviating an attack such as the one Mathew decided to carry out with the only weapons he did have, a pair of 500-pound depth charges.
The glide-bombing approach was flawlessly executed, though the projectiles were hurled well short of the target. As soon as the depth charges were released from their shackles, Matthew pivoted his surprisingly nimble parasol winged patrol bomber into a tight escape turn and ran from the area. Two nimble F1M Pete observation float biplanes launched from the Kirishima bounced the Catalina well before it go clear, but they were beaten off by the PBY's gunners, who claimed credit for downing at least one F1M and damaging the other. The PBY was shot full of holes during the encounter, and it's port engine was damaged, but it returned to base in due course. Matthew's initial sighting report had reached friendly ears when first transmitted, but follow up reports describing course changes by Abe's surface force - a reaction to the PBY's presence - were never heard.
How come I haven't seen this in WitP??? [:D]
