The dive bomber’s job
The D3A1 was Japan’s Type 99 carrier bomber, commonly known by the Allied name Val. It carried a pilot and a rear gunner. Unlike the B5N2, whose duties included torpedo attack and level bombing, its central task was to deliver bombs in a dive. M52 M57
This profile follows the D3A1 at Midway. The existence of a surviving D3A airframe does not, by itself, identify it as that variant or as a participant in the battle. The Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum describes its restoration as an assembly from several recovered aircraft; that history remains separate from the wartime missions described here. M57
Eighteen aircraft from Hiryū
After three Japanese carriers had been disabled, Hiryū sent eighteen dive bombers in her first counterattack. The organisation table provides the formation and its fighter allocation; the sortie table records the weapons expended. These are two parts of the same Japanese report family, not independent witnesses. M14 M41
The expenditure entry distinguishes twelve No.25 ordinary bombs and six No.25 land bombs. Keeping the categories separate is more informative than giving every aircraft an assumed standard load. It also avoids treating a catalogue maximum as the payload actually flown on this mission. M41
What the bombs did
The target was Yorktown. Her technical damage report records three bomb hits, damage to the flight deck and machinery disruption. The crew restored enough capability to get the ship moving again before the torpedo attack that followed. M18
The Japanese sortie table identifies the enemy as an Enterprise-type carrier. That contemporary identification is evidence of what the attackers believed, not proof that they had attacked Enterprise herself. Comparing the attack record with the damaged ship’s account is essential. M41 M18
Read the sequence in Hiryū Fights Back, including the distinction between disabling a carrier and sinking her.