“Our fighters were nothing but so many eggs thrown at the stone wall of the indomitable enemy formation,” a Japanese admiral admitted ruefully of a raid against one Formosan airfield. The Japanese inflicted damage, though. They shot down seventy-six of Mitscher’s planes, costing the lives of sixty-four crewmen, and they badly damaged two cruisers that escaped only as a result of an elaborate salvaging and towing effort.
