NOAA exploration team finds bombers that fought at Battle of Midway near wreck of USS Yorktown

A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration exploration team found planes and a car in and around the World War II-era wreck of the aircraft carrier Yorktown recently. 

The ship was sunk by a Japanese submarine toward the end of World War II’s Battle of Midway in June 1942 and sits at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean 1,000 miles northwest of Honolulu. Last weekend, the NOAA team went down to build on previous explorations.

Their findings included the first underwater discovery of aircraft shot down during the Pacific battle, with the team turning up at least three Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers, including one that still had a bomb mounted to it.

The car discovery was a black 1940-41 Ford Super Deluxe Woody, which was not offloaded even though the USS Yorktown stopped briefly at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii just a couple of days before the Battle of Midway.

Its license plate, NOAA said in a release, reads “SHIP SERVICE ___ NAVY.” The explorers have theorized that the car would have been used by officers or crew during port calls by the Yorktown. 

The team also found for the first time a mural from one of the Yorktown’s elevator shafts, detailing its voyages around the world. Previously, the art piece had been seen only partially in photographs centered on other subjects.

“The Navy thanks NOAA and partners for the opportunity for our nation to reflect on the extraordinary valor and sacrifice of those who held the line and turned the tide during the darkest days of World War II, buying time with their lives for the U.S. to fully mobilize for ultimate victory, enabling the freedom we have today,” retired Rear Adm. Sam Cox, director of Naval History and Heritage Command, said in another NOAA release.

The NOAA team also saw oceanic wildlife — including a red jellyfish that could be a new species, tubeworms and anemones — growing on the carrier.