Thread: Pearl Harbor

On Sunday, December 7th, 1941 the Japanese launched a surprise attack against the U.S. Forces stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. By planning this attack on a Sunday, the Japanese commander Admiral Nagumo, hoped to catch the entire fleet in port. As luck would have it, the aircraft carriers and one of the battleships were not in port.

(The USS Enterprise was returning from Wake Island, where it had just delivered some aircraft. The USS Lexington was ferrying aircraft to Midway, and the USS Saratoga and USS Colorado were undergoing repairs in the United States.)

In spite of the latest intelligence reports about the missing aircraft carriers (his most important targets), Admiral Nagumo decided to continue the attack with his force of six carriers and 423 aircraft. At a range of 230 miles north of Oahu , he launched the first wave of a two-wave attack.
http://www.fostoria.org/serviceclubs...%20Harbor.html


At 6:00 a.m. on 07 December, the six Japanese carriers launched a first wave of 181 planes composed of torpedo bombers, dive bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters. Even as they winged south, some elements of U.S. forces on Oahu realized there was something different about this Sunday morning.

The Japanese aircrews achieved complete surprise when they hit American ships and military installations on Oahu shortly before 8:00 a.m. They attacked military airfields at the same time they hit the fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor. The Navy air bases at Ford Island and Kaneohe Bay, the Marine airfield at Ewa and the Army Air Corps fields at Bellows, Wheeler and Hickam were all bombed and strafed as other elements of the attacking force began their assaults on the ships moored in Pearl Harbor. The purpose of the simultaneous attacks was to destroy the American planes before they could rise to intercept the Japanese.

Of the more than 90 ships at anchor in Pearl Harbor, the primary targets were the eight battleships anchored there. Seven were moored on Battleship Row along the southeast shore of Ford Island while the USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) lay in dry dock across the channel. Within the first minutes of the attack all the battleships adjacent to Ford Island had taken bomb and or torpedo hits. The USS West Virginia (BB-48) sank quickly. The USS Oklahoma (BB-37) turned turtle and sank.

At about 8:10 a.m., the USS Arizona (BB-39) was mortally wounded by an armor piercing bomb which ignited the ship's forward ammunition magazine. The resulting explosion and fire killed 1,177 crewmen, the greatest loss of life on any ship that day and about half the total number of Americans killed. The USS California (BB-44), USS Maryland (BB-46), USS Tennessee (BB-43) and USS Nevada (BB-36) also suffered varying degrees of damage in the first half hour of the raid.

There was a short lull in the fury of the attack at about 8:30 a.m. At that time the USS Nevada (BB-36), despite her wounds, managed to get underway and move down the channel toward the open sea. Before she could clear the harbor, a second wave of 170 Japanese planes, launched 30 minutes after the first, appeared over the harbor. They concentrated their attacks on the moving battleship, hoping to sink her in the channel and block the narrow entrance to Pearl Harbor. On orders from the harbor control tower, the USS Nevada (BB-36) beached herself at Hospital Point and the channel remained clear.

When the attack ended shortly before 10:00 a.m., less than two hours after it began, the American forces had paid a fearful price.

Twenty-one ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet were sunk or damaged: the battleships USS Arizona (BB-39), USS California (BB-44), USS Maryland (BB-46), USS Nevada (BB-36), USS Oklahoma (BB-37), USS Pennsylvania (BB-38), USS Tennessee (BB-43) and USS West Virginia (BB-48); cruisers USS Helena (CL-50), USS Honolulu (CL-48) and USS Raleigh (CL-7); the destroyers USS Cassin (DD-372), USS Downes (DD-375), USS Helm (DD-388) and USS Shaw (DD-373); seaplane tender USS Curtiss (AV-4); target ship (ex-battleship) USS Utah (AG-16); repair ship USS Vestal (AR-4); minelayer USS Oglala (CM-4); tug USS Sotoyomo (YT-9); and Floating Drydock Number 2.

Aircraft losses were 188 destroyed and 159 damaged, the majority hit before they had a chance to take off. American dead numbered 2,403. That figure included 68 civilians, most of them killed by improperly fused anti-aircraft shells landing in Honolulu. There were 1,178 military and civilian wounded.

Japanese losses were comparatively light. Twenty-nine planes, less than 10 percent of the attacking force, failed to return to their carriers.

The Japanese success was overwhelming, but it was not complete. They failed to damage any American aircraft carriers which had been absent from the harbor. They neglected to damage the shoreside facilities at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base, which played an important role in the Allied victory in World War II.

American technological skill raised and repaired all but three of the ships sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor (the USS Arizona (BB-39) considered too badly damaged to be salvaged, the USS Oklahoma (BB-37) raised and considered too old to be worth repairing, and the obsolete USS Utah (AG-16) considered not worth the effort).

Most importantly, the shock and anger caused by the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor united a divided nation and was translated into a wholehearted commitment to victory in World War II.
http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq66-1.htm

Casualties:
Civilians: 68 KIA, 35 WIA.
US Marine Corps: 109 KIA, 69 WIA.
US Army: 218 KIA, 364 WIA.
US Navy: 2,008 KIA, 710 WIA.

TOTAL: 2,403 KIA, 1,178 WIA

.

Thanks for posting this. Sometimes, we can get so caught up in our lives, and focus on whether our favorite team won or lost, or if the restaraunt burned our steak, that we forget that we CAN focus on such trivial things, becuase of the sacrifices our troops have made in the past, and are making today in different parts of the world. Thanks for the reminder.

I agree Tned and thanks AZ as always...my dad was a Marine that fought on Iwo Jima...I always thought it was ironic that he died on December 7th...it will be 25 years ago tomorrow since he passed away.

Important to keep the memory alive of those who died that day and what really happened on that day, because there are less and less World War II veterans left each passing year....don't want to turn it into some bastardized psuedohistory like the Alamo.

also, did you know that the "first shot" of that day was actually fired by the Americans? A destroyer, the USS Ward fired on and sank a Japanese midget submarine a few hours before the attack had occured.

Ive been to Pearl Harbor, very somber place even today.

"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."

-Isoroku Yamamoto (Tora, Tora, Tora)

Originally Posted by Tned

Thanks for posting this. Sometimes, we can get so caught up in our lives, and focus on whether our favorite team won or lost, or if the restaraunt burned our steak, that we forget that we CAN focus on such trivial things, becuase of the sacrifices our troops have made in the past, and are making today in different parts of the world. Thanks for the reminder.

True! My grandfather fought in WWII and has been dead since 1986. My wife works here at the clinic on MAFB and she sees these men come in everyday which are becoming fewer and fewer as time goes on! This is a dying generation and many of these men (survivors) who were here at Pearl Harbor and elsewhere in that war are sitting at Veteran Homes across America waiting to go 'home'. If you are ever up to it pay them a visit and thank them in person because they'd really appreciate it and if you have children bring them and see their faces light up!

to these brave men and women

Here's a link to Veteran's Homes in your area!!

http://www.nasvh.org/dir_statehomes/statedir.cfm

Here's a link to stories from survivors of Pearl Harbor!!

http://www.pearlharborsurvivorsonlin...ome%20Page.htm

Originally Posted by Nomad

to these brave men and women

Ditto

to all that were involved at Pearl..

to all that were in WWII..

to all that have served since..

Don't know if anybody got to check it out, but History Channel had a 10 part series of WWII in HD a couple weeks ago. More color footage of WWII (including some amazing Pearl Harbor) footage than had ever been released. Seeing it in color really makes it feel more "real." Amazing stuff.

Those who don't learn from history are bound to repeat it.

Updated 7h 29m ago | Comments 321 | Recommend 60 E-mail | Save | Print |


Enlarge By Richard Ambo, The Honolulu Advertiser

Pearl Harbor survivor Harold B. O'Connor autographs a card for Rebecca Dale, of Melbourne, Australia, as work continues behind them on the new visitor center for the USS Arizona Memorial.


By William Cole, The Honolulu Advertiser
PEARL HARBOR — Harold O'Connor, 88, was a Navy Fireman First Class on the USS Thornton, a destroyer seaplane tender, in Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked.
"All the torpedo planes were coming right off our fantail," O'Connor recalls. "I watched the West Virginia go up from two torpedoes that were dropped. All hell was breaking loose. I saw the bombs that hit the Arizona."

That's just one of O'Connor's World War II stories from the Pacific. The Hawaii man was again on the Thornton in 1942 taking Marines to Palmyra Atoll, when the ship ran aground on New Year's Eve. There he saw two torpedoes streaming toward where he stood.

"I said, 'Goodbye world,' and I hit the deck," O'Connor said. "Nothing happened. I got up, and here come two more torpedoes. They came right under where I was standing."

O'Connor's recollections go beyond Japan's 1941 attack on Oahu and so will the new $58 million Pearl Harbor center under construction for the USS Arizona Memorial here, says Daniel Martinez, chief historian for the emerging World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument.

President George W. Bush set that change in motion last year when he proclaimed the Arizona Memorial and visitor center part of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, which includes nine sites: five in Hawaii, three in Alaska, and one in California at the Tule Lake Segregation Center, which was where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II.

The challenge for the National Park Service, which runs the Arizona Memorial, is to expand its exhibits to incorporate the new Pacific mandate, Martinez says.

"We're at the beginning of trying to interpret how we're going to carry this out," Martinez said. "There are other ways to communicate this story besides traditional exhibits, so we're looking at ways to do it on the Web, we're looking at ways to do it through interpretive programs, we're looking at ways to do it through education."

A visitor center had been planned long before Bush's announcement. The existing facility, which was built in 1980, was sinking. It was too small to accommodate the more than 1.3 million people who visit the state's No. 1 tourist attraction each year.

Visitors who arrive today at the center for the boat ride to Kilo pier on the Pearl Harbor Navy base — where a commemoration ceremony will be held —will be greeted by a circuitous path of 12-foot chain-link fences covered in black fabric batting, a construction barrier separating older buildings still in use at the visitor center from their new replacements.

The new facility will occupy 24,000 square feet and have nearly double the current museum exhibition space, according to the Arizona Memorial Museum Association. The campuslike design spreads new buildings and shaded walkways over a much larger area than before.

"You feel kind of confined here," said visitor Shannon Howland, 50, of Seattle, who was waiting last week in the visitor center courtyard for the movie and boat trip to the memorial. "The more open they make it, the better it will be — just for the flow of people on a busy day."

Construction began about a year ago, and the first phase, which includes an education center, restrooms, a bookstore and snack shop, is scheduled to open around Feb. 16, project director Tom Fake said.

The exhibits Road to War, Oahu 1941, and Attack and Aftermath will be part of the second phase, which is to be completed by Dec. 7, 2010.

The "attack" gallery will have an 18-foot mural depicting Battleship Row off Ford Island on Dec. 7, 1941. A one-third scale model of a banking Japanese torpedo plane will be hung overhead, and the roar of passing enemy planes will be heard in the exhibit, Martinez said.

An anti-aircraft gun that came off the sunken USS Utah, a 5-foot-by-9-foot riveted slab of the USS Arizona's superstructure, and an oscilloscope showing the radar picture before the attack, also are included in the exhibit plan, he said.

Today's events for the expected 2,000 people in attendance, will include a moment of silence, a "missing man" flyover, wreath presentations, featured speakers, a rifle salute and taps. The 7:55 a.m. attack killed 2,390 people.


http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...r-attack_N.htm