In January of 1915, Ernest Shackleton's ship, Endurance, became encased in the ice in the Weddell Sea.

Through determination, grit, and savvy, Shackleton would lead his men through a brutal winter,

then over hundreds of miles of Antarctic ice, followed by 800 miles across some of the roughest waters in the world.

It is one of the most extraordinary and inspirational journeys in the history of

exploration. Find this story and many others at the Explorers Podcast, available wherever you get

your podcasts or at Explorerspodcast.com.

Hello, and thank you for listening to The History of World War II podcast, episode 319, The Flight to Nowhere.

Last time, Dauntless dive bombers from the Lexington and Enterprise had just delivered a deadly attack on the

carrier's Akagi, Suru, and Kaga. As for the Hiroo, it was still a viable threat, but had one man

made a different decision, this fourth Japanese carrier may have suffered the same fate as her sisters.

We've seen how the staggered, imperfect, and

frustrating launches off the Enterprise in Yorktown actually helped set up the Dauntless Steinbobbers

to deliver such a killing blow to the Quito Bhutai, though many Devastator and other pilots

were lost as they attacked first, separately, unescorted.

But the air group from the Hornet would be heading out in a different direction than the other

two carriers, and the reason why is anything but clear as the records from her and her captain

were altered after the battle. As the various units were taking off and

flying around, waiting for the remainder to join them so they could all attack together at 7.40 a.m.

Lieutenant Gilvin M. Sloam, the radio intelligence officer aboard Enterprise,

informed Spruent's task force 16's commander, thus over the Enterprise

and the Hornet, that the Japanese had just sent out a plain message contact report of the strength

and location of Task Force 16. Hearing this, Spruance took very little time to order all aircraft

...