Hornet is overwhelmed despite defensive doctrine

Hornet and her escorts opened fire on roughly twenty torpedo aircraft and sixteen dive bombers approaching at about the same time. Three bombs and a burning dive bomber struck the carrier's deck. The torpedo aircraft attacked on nearly opposite axes, making evasive maneuver difficult, and multiple torpedoes hit. Another crashing aircraft struck the ship and started a fire in its aviation-fuel supply. Hornet was left dead in the water and burning while escorts tried to evacuate personnel and tow her clear. Her crew and fighters had followed the defensive doctrine available to them, so the failure exposed shortcomings in that doctrine as well as the difficulty of surviving the attack. More Japanese strikes were already on the way.