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An air group with different jobs
Mitscher’s report lists twenty-seven fighters, thirty-five scout/bombers and fifteen torpedo aircraft after a pre-battle aircraft loss. It allows for temporary repairs. These figures describe a dated air group, not the ship’s maximum capacity. M58
The morning strike included all fifteen torpedo aircraft and thirty-five scout/bombers, accompanied by ten fighters. A larger air group aboard did not mean every aircraft joined that one mission. M58
A strike that came apart
Hornet’s dive bombers did not find the Japanese carriers that morning. Torpedo Eight did, losing all fifteen aircraft in its attack. Nimitz’s command report records the catastrophic aircraft losses across the American torpedo squadrons; it does not turn their scattered arrival into a successful coordinated plan. Claims of torpedo hits are not adopted as confirmed damage. M01
Mitscher’s account records fuel shortages, aircraft returning by different routes and recovery at Midway. George Gay survived the loss of Torpedo Eight’s carrier aircraft; a squadron’s destruction as a fighting formation was not the death of every participant. M58
Still able to launch and recover
Hornet continued flight operations and received aircraft from Yorktown. A crash landing caused a fatal accidental discharge of a fighter’s guns, a reminder that recovery itself could be dangerous. Later searches and strikes required another cycle of fuelling, arming and landing. M58
The carrier’s continuing availability mattered during the pursuit and attacks on Japanese cruisers. Those later operations belong in the assessment alongside the failed morning search. Preliminary American reports repeatedly misidentified targets, so reported battleship attacks are not presented here as established battleship damage. M01
Read The Morning Strikes and Beyond the Carrier Battle. Hornet’s own report remains a transcription pending original-page comparison; its exact flight routes and disputed explanations need further squadron evidence.