By the afternoon the Japanese knew there were more American carriers in the vicinity than they had initially thought — but how many? They launched several scout planes to find out. In addition to the Jakes and the Judy already described, five Nakajima E8N2 ‘Dave’ floatplanes were sent out from the tender Tone and the battleships Haruna and Kirishima. These were slower and had shorter range than the other scouts, but every available resource was now needed. Among them was No. 1 aircraft from the battleship Haruna.
Just as reports reached Rear Admiral Yamaguchi aboard Hiryū about Tomonaga’s attack on the Yorktown, a message came in from Haruna’s No. 1 scout. He was under attack by American fighters and believed carriers to be close by. The scout was considered as good as lost — an E8N2 was hardly a match for an American Wildcat.
The unnamed pilot aboard No. 1, however, turned out to possess exceptional airmanship. Rather than trying to outrun his pursuers, he used his plane’s very slowness to his advantage, manoeuvring to deny the faster American fighters a clean shot. With some cloud cover available he finally managed to shake them off. Limping back to the Japanese fleet he found his way to the Haruna. His observer/gunner had been killed, and the E8N2 would never fly again — but the pilot had survived against all odds.
