Japanese carriers steam toward Midway Atoll in June 1942, and John Ford, already a Hollywood director in Navy uniform, is on the ground with a camera crew when the attack begins. The footage is raw combat film, shot under fire from Midway's airstrip and gun emplacements, showing anti-aircraft bursts, bomb craters, and the wounded being carried off after Japanese planes hit the island. Narration recorded by Hollywood actors carries the account of the three-day naval battle that followed, in which American carrier aircraft sank four Japanese carriers against the loss of one, a result the film reports as decisive. Search-and-rescue scenes follow downed airmen pulled from the water, a detail Ford keeps in rather than cutting for pace. The picture is short, plainly assembled from combat footage rather than staged reenactment, and it was made and released while the war was still being fought, which shows in its urgency and in its refusal to soften the casualties on screen.