During the forenoon of June 4, Nagumo’s fleet still had only sketchy intelligence on the force opposing them. They had sighted just one American carrier, USS Yorktown. Aboard the carrier Sōryū, however, were two prototype versions of a new aircraft — the Yokosuka D4Y Type 2 Suisei, later named ‘Judy’ by the Allies. The D4Y had been designed as a dive bomber, but the first examples proved too unstable for that role. Their long range and high speed, however, made them useful as scouts, and so these two were now aboard Sōryū for exactly that purpose. One of them was sent off with specific instructions to find and identify the American force.
Pilot Officer First Class Iida Masatada and Wireless Operator Kondō Isamu climbed into their D4Y and took off, heading for the last known position of USS Yorktown. What they found astonished them — not one but three American carriers with escorts. They had located Task Force 16 with USS Enterprise and USS Hornet. They attempted to radio this back to the fleet, but the message never got through. Their radio, it later turned out, was unserviceable.
With the mission complete they turned back for Sōryū — only to find it ablaze. So too were the Akagi and the Kaga. Fortunately Hiryū was still intact. Her deck, however, was spotted with Tomonaga’s torpedo planes preparing for their second strike, so they flew past and dropped a message tube describing their sightings. At last the Japanese knew what they were up against. They then circled until the deck was clear, landing just ahead of Hiryū’s dive bombers returning from their attack on USS Yorktown. A few hours later, however, Hiryū too was attacked — and this time she did not escape.
