:17:03
Here's Admiral Fletcher's
preliminary report, Sir.
:17:06
We lost the Lexington.
:17:09
What about the enemy?.
:17:11
We sank one light carrier, one big
first-line job and some small ships.
:17:16
Looks like
we just about broke even, Admiral.
:17:20
We can't trade the Japanese
carrier for carrier, Matt.
:17:24
We started with a 3 to 1 superiority.
:17:28
With the Lexington gone,
the Saratoga laid up,
:17:32
all we've got is the Hornet,
the Enterprise and the Yorktown.
:17:37
Sir, Yorktown was heavily damaged
at Coral Sea. There's the report.
:17:46
Admiral, Commander Rochefort
has something urgent, he says.
:17:50
It's about objective A-F,
the meaning of ""A-F"".
:17:53
Our listening posts pick up traffic
between Yamamoto's flag commanders.
:17:59
There's been a heavy traffic volume,
with references to object ""A-F""...
:18:05
... and A-O. A-O is a mystery,
maybe a diversion.
:18:09
But I think we've identified ""A-F"".
It's Midway.
:18:14
It had us stymied until one of my men
remembered an intercept from March.
:18:19
A Jap reconnaissance pilot radioed
his base that he's close to ""A-F"".
:18:24
We plotted every course
the plane could have have taken,
:18:27
and the only appreciable landmass
he could have flown over was Midway.
:18:31
Joe! - I know it's thin.
- Thin?. Damn near invisible!
:18:36
But I figured out
a way to confirm it, Sir.
:18:40
If you have this flown to Midway.
It's a fake message, Admiral,
:18:45
reporting that Midway's
freshwater condenser's broken down.
:18:49
It should be transmitted in the clear,
so the Japanese get every word.
:18:57
Instruct Midway to include this in
their housekeeping traffic tomorrow.