The Aichi E13A “Jake” was built to be the eyes of the Imperial Japanese Navy, a long-range reconnaissance floatplane launched from cruisers and battleships to find enemy fleets hundreds of miles beyond the horizon. It was there from the beginning of the Pacific War, scouting ahead of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and later helped locate enemy warships across Wake Island, the Indian Ocean, and the Coral Sea. But on June 4, 1942, at Midway, Japan’s entire strategy depended on just seven reconnaissance aircraft finding the American carriers before they could strike. Mechanical problems delayed one Jake launched from the cruiser Tone, while another flew almost directly over the American force without spotting it through the clouds. When Tone’s scout finally discovered the Americans, its first report identified ten ships but failed to immediately confirm the most important detail: an aircraft carrier was among them. The Jake continued shadowing the fleet even after American fighters tried to shoot it down, but by the time its warnings reached Admiral Nagumo, more than 150 American aircraft were already converging on the Japanese carriers. Within minutes, Akagi, Kaga, and Soryu were burning. For decades, the delayed scout has been blamed for helping cost Japan the Battle of Midway, yet evidence explored in the script suggests something remarkable: the Jake’s late launch and altered search route may actually have allowed it to discover the American fleet earlier than it otherwise would have. This is the story of the tiny reconnaissance plane that saw the fleet Japan desperately needed to find, survived attempts to silence it, and delivered a warning that came too late to save an empire.
Join Dark Skies as we explore the world of aviation with cinematic short documentaries featuring the biggest and fastest airplanes ever built, top-secret military projects, and classified missions with hidden untold true stories. Including US, German, and Soviet warplanes, along with aircraft developments that took place during World War I, World War 2, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf War, and special operations mission in between.
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Source: Dark Skies
