SUNDAY IN HELL: PEARL HARBOR MINUTE BY MINUTE
Effective 1 April 2014, Open Road Integrated Media purchased E-Reads and now manages the approximate 1,200 titles E-Reads held, including Sunday in Hell, Pearl Harbor Minute by Minute. |
Foreword, Endorsements, Preview
Book Foreword
Book Endorsements
Book Preview
The best and happiest days of our lives went up in the smoke of Pearl Harbor, Wheeler Field, and Hickam Field today. I wonder if, when and how they will ever return. I was standing with Capt's Bell and [Harlan] Taylor in front of my quarters about 8 o'clock this day. We were about to get in the car to pick up Col. Canning and thence to Queen's Hospital to attend a lecture by Dr. Jno. Moorhead of N.Y. who has been talking of traumatic surgery. We hesitated before entering the car because our attention was called to the great number of planes in the air and some very loud distant noises. Soon one plane came quite close to us and in banking to come down our street I distinctly saw the rising sun insignia on his wings. Soon he was coming down the street with machine guns blazing away at us. We rushed into the house. |
And later, after working tirelessly among four surgical teams throughout a long, bloody day into early evening, struggling to save lives, he added, '...Such wounds!! - eviscerations of brains, neck, thorax, abdomen - traumatic amputations, etc. No burns of any consequence..." |
[The Captain and I] went out on the starboard side of the bridge discussing what to do. During all this time extremely heavy bombing and strafing attacks occurred. The ship was constantly shaken with bomb hits. The Captain [Mervyn S. Bennion] doubled up with a groan and stated that he had been wounded. I saw he had been hit in the stomach, probably by a large piece of shrapnel, and was seriously wounded. He sank to the deck, and I loosened his collar. I sent a messenger for a pharmacist's mate to assist the Captain. Just then, [at a time fixed as 0808], the USS Arizona"s forward magazine blew up with a tremendous explosion... |
Aboard Arizona moments after the explosion Ensign James Miller could see nothing but reddish flames outside. The sound powered phones went dead, power to the [#3] turret failed, and all lights went out...He stepped outside the turret to see what the conditions were on the quarterdeck. He was stunned. 'I noticed several badly burned men lying on the deck and saw Ensign Anderson, who had been Junior Officer of the Deck, lying on the deck with a bad cut on his head.' What he actually saw was almost beyond comprehension, and was described by another Arizona survivor. |
...There were bodies...I'd seen them from above, but it didn't register clearly until I got down on the quarterdeck. These people were zombies...They were burned completely white. Their skin was just as white as if you'd taken a bucket of whitewash and painted it white. Their hair was burned off; their eyebrows were burned off; the pitiful remains of their uniforms in their crotch was a charred remnant; and the insoles of their shoes was about the only thing that was left on these bodies. They were moving like robots. Their arms were out, held away from their bodies, and they were stumping along the decks... |
By the time Arizona exploded, the battleship Oklahoma, struck on her port side by four torpedoes was already listing approximately 40 degrees, rolling slowly, relentlessly toward her death, trapping hundreds of men below decks, including Chaplain [Lieutenant], Father Aloysius H. Schmitt. The following week, he was to transfer to duty on shore. He helped save five men by lifting and pushing them through a porthole on the starboard side, while other men outside pulled them through - but lost his own life. |
...the word was passed to man all battle stations. I went to #2 Fireroom Pumproom and was starting pumps until water came in through the air ducts and flooded pumprooms. The hatch to #2 Pumproom was down [closed] and I couldn't get it up, so I dived and swam to #1 Pumproom and out. The lights were out and I couldn't see where the two men went that were with me. I got to H Division living compartment and water started coming in so I went out through a porthole in the wash room after the ship rolled over, and was picked up by a motor launch and put ashore in the Navy Yard. The only word I got over the phone was to get ready to get underway. |
On the west side of Ford Island, at 0812 hours, between the time of the Arizona explosion and the capsizing of Oklahoma, the heavily listing target ship Utah - formerly the pre-World War I, thin-plated battleship of the same name - snapped her mooring lines and capsized, the victim of two torpedoes in the first moments of the attack. One man marked her death with his valor, at the cost of his own life. Courage and valor were the companions of many that day. |
Dec. 7 - Sunday |
Photograph Gallery
Chapter 1: The New Totalitarians
The Matson Lines' SS Lurline arrives in San Francisco on 25 January 1933, |
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The Pan American Airways Sikorsky S-42 flies over the towers of the not yet completed Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, departing for Hawaii on its 16 April 1935 survey flight. PAAR/UMLSCF |
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The Pan Am Martin M-130 China Clipper over the port of San Francisco. PAAR/UMLSCF |
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American gunboat Panay (PR-5), sinking in the Yangtze River, 12 December 1937. NHHC |
Midshipman Robert Lee Border |
Midshipman Karl Frederick Border |
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Captain (USN) Lee S. Border, USNA Class of 1905 (center), and his two sons, Ensigns Robert L. Border (left) and Karl F. Border, graduation day, 1 June 1939. Borders' Collection |
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The battleship USS Tennessee (BB-43), Underway, 27 September 1939, with roommates Ensigns Bob and Karl Border on Board. USN |
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Pan American Airways Boeing B-314 California Clipper, over San Francisco with Oakland |
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Army Air Force Major General Frederick L. Martin arrived in Honolulu on the US Army Transport Leonard Wood 2 November 1940, to take command of Hawaii-based USAAF units. NPSAM |
Chapter 2: A Diary of Happy Times
Mary Joleen 'Joey' Springer, circa December 1940. Borders' Collection |
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The battleship Arizona (BB-39) at Puget Sound Navy Yard 18 January 1941. Behind Arizona can be seen the foretop (forward mast) and main top (main mast) of the Nevada (BB-36). The two ships were in Puget Sound for maintenance and upgrade. Joey had dinner on board Nevada in the junior officers' ward room with Delar V. Van Sand on Thursday evening, 2 January 1941. NPSAM |
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Puget Sound Navy Yard, late 1940. Second set of quarters left of flagpole is Quarters 2A, where the Borders had previously lived. Ships in the harbor include the aircraft carrier Lexington (CV-2) in the foreground, two battleships, and three cruisers. NAPAR |
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In a 1 February 1941 Change of Command ceremony on the forward deck of the battleship Pennsylvania, in Pearl Harbor, Admiral Husband E. Kimmel replaced Admiral James O. Richardson as Commander- in-Chief, Pacific Fleet. NPSAM |
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Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, |
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On 21 February 1941 Army Air Force units on Oahu received their greatest single increase in assigned aircraft when thirty-one P-36's took off in flights of three from the broad deck of the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CV-6) and flew directly to Wheeler Field, adjoining Schofield Barracks. The carrier had sailed from San Diego and launched the fighters from 10-15 miles off the coast of Oahu. The launching of Army fighters from the deck of an aircraft carrier was a historic 'first' in American military aviation. In this photograph a lone US Army Air Force P-36 from Oahu's Wheeler Field, over a sugar cane field. USAF |
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A Curtis SOC Seagull bi-plane is catapulted off a St. Louis class cruiser, 1942-3. Aircraft carriers and battleships received priority ahead of cruisers in modernizing scout aircraft squadrons, |
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Vought OS2U 'Kingfisher' floatplane, of Observation Squadron One (VO-1). Being recovered by Arizona (BB-39), after a flight in the Hawaiian Operating area on the morning of 6 September 1941. The pilot, Ensign Lawrence A. Williams, is holding the belt of his rear- seat man, Radioman 3rd Class G.H. Lane, who is hooking up the aircraft to the ship's crane for recovery. This was the same type aircraft carried by all the battleships assigned to the Pacific Fleet. NA |
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The destroyer Monssen (DD-436) Off the Puget Sound |
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Mary Joleen 'Joey' Springer in her wedding gown prior to the ceremony, 15 July |
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Mary Joleen 'Joey' Border, Navy wife. 22 July 1941. Borders' Collection. |
Chapter 3: Voyages
Lurline"s Grand Ball Room, with mother-of-pearl inlays and beautiful wood-paneling. Joey Border's first ocean voyage was on Lurline from San Francisco, to Los |
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Matson Line's typical cabin class dining salon. MNC |
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Lurline first class stateroom. MNC |
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Hawaii. USAF |
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Waikiki Beach, in Honolulu, circa 1940-41. NPSAM |
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Routes of Japanese submarine and carrier strike forces, |
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Japanese Ambassador Kichi Saburo Nomura and special envoy, Saburo Kurusu, |
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Heavy cruiser Pensacola (CA-24) underway at sea, in her pre-World War II paint, September 1935. She was the Task Group 15.5 guide and command ship, underway from Pearl Harbor, 29 November 1941, leading the gunboat Niagra (PG-52), and Convoy 4002, seven heavily loaded ships carrying a National Guard Field Artillery brigade, guns, ammunition, bombs, aircraft, and newly trained pilots bound for Manila, Philippines, to reinforce General MacArthur's United States Army Forces Far East (USAFFE). NHHC |
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The gunboat Niagra (PG-52) entering Pearl Harbor, 31 March 1942. She was |
Chapter 4: Prelude
Aircraft carrier Enterprise (CV-6) en route to Pearl Harbor, 8 October 1939. |
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The three F4F-3 aircraft in this photograph were among the 12 fighters of Marine Fighter Squadron VMF-211 at Mooring Mast Field on Oahu that landed on the carrier Enterprise the morning of 28 November after she departed Pearl Harbor in Task Force 8. The squadron's planes were repainted to wartime colors while en route, and launched from Enterprise the morning of 4 December 1941, from 175 miles north of Wake Island, to reinforce the island's garrison. NHHC |
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Carrier Saratoga (CV-3) launching planes, circa summer 1941, as seen from the rear cockpit |
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Carrier Lexington (CV-2) Leaving San Diego, California, 14 October 1941. Planes parked on her flight deck include F2A-1 fighters (parked forward), SBD scout-bombers (amidships) and TBD-1 torpedo planes (aft). NA |
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OAHU AND THE PARENT SUBMARINES. |
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Aerial photo of Pearl Harbor, view to the south, beyond the harbor entrance, October 1941. NA |
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USS Antares (AKS-3). NHHC |
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Minesweeper Condor (AMc-14). NA |
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Destroyers Chew (DD-106) and Ward (DD-139) at Hilo Sugar Docks wearing their pre-World War II paint, The Territory of Hawaii, 22 July 1941. Condor, Antares and Ward participated in identifying one or more Japanese midget submarines outside the entrance to Pearl Harbor the morning of 7 December 1941, prior to the air raid. NHHC |
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A Shot for Posterity -- The USS Ward"s number three gun and its crew-cited for firing the first shot the day of Japan's raid on Hawaii. Operating as part of the inshore patrol early in the morning of December 7, 1941, this destroyer group spotted a submarine outside Pearl Harbor, opened fire and sank her. Crew members are R.H. Knapp - BM2c - Gun Captain, C.W. Fenton - Sea1c - Pointer, R.B. Nolde - Sea1c - Trainer, A.A. De Demagall - Sea1c - No. 1 Loader, D.W. Gruening - Sea1c - No. 2 Loader, J.A. Paick - Sea1c - No. 3 Loader, H.P. Flanagan - Sea1c - No. 4 Loader, E.J. Bakret - GM3c - Gunners Mate, K.C.J. Lasch - Cox - Sightsetter. (quoted from the original 1942-vintage caption) NHHC |
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Japanese fighters, later in the war called Zekes or Zeroes by Americans, warm up their engines |
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Japanese Navy Type 97 (Kate) torpedo bomber on take-off roll from the aircraft carrier deck of either Zuikaku or Shokaku early morning 7 December 1941 |
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Japanese Navy Type 99 (Val) dive bombers prepare to take off from an aircraft carrier |
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Douglas Dauntless SBD-3 scout bombers from the Enterprise (CV-6). Aircraft in the foreground is 6-S-14 from Scout Squadron Six (VS-6), and was flown by Ensign Edward T. Deacon, with Radioman/ Gunner Third Class Audrey G. Coslett in the rear cockpit. Below the tail of 6-S-14 is 6-S-2, flown by Ensign Perry J. Teaff, with Radioman/Gunner Third Class Edgar P. Jinks in the rear cockpit. In this composite photo the Enterprise can be seen below the squadron. NHHC |
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ISLAND OF OAHU, TERRITORY OF HAWAII, 7 DECEMBER 1941. Diagram depicting |
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Two Japanese Navy Type 99, Aichi D3A (Val) dive bombers fly near a U.S. Army 38th Reconnaissance Squadron B-17E (Serial No. 41-2408) that arrived over Oahu from California in the midst of the Japanese air raid. The B-17 was piloted by First Lieutenant Karl T. Barthelmess. Photographed by Staff Sergeant Lee Embree. NA |
Chapter 5: AIR RAID, PEARL HARBOR. THIS IS NOT DRILL
Japanese Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, Air Strike Mission Leader. NPSAM |
Japanese Aircraft Deployment, First Attack. USAF |
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SS Cynthia Olson, first American flag-bearing merchantman sunk by |
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Imperial Japanese Submarine I-26. IJN |
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Sailors attempt to save a burning PBY at Naval Air Station, Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, during the Japanese air raid. This plane was set afire by strafing in the initial phase of the attack |
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Sailors fight to save another burning PBY in front of a hangar. Raiders |
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Bellows Field Diagram. USAF |
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A lone Japanese fighter, piloted by Lieutenant Tadashi Kaneko, strafed this |
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Japanese Navy Type 99 carrier dive bomber (Val) in action during attack. A |
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Planes and hangars burning at Wheeler Army Air Field, Oahu, soon after |
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View toward the northeast as seen probably from a Japanese Val dive bomber. Dive bombers attacked hangars and other buildings generally on a west to east axis parallel with the ramp, while fighters attacked generally north to south and south to north parallel with fighters lined up wing tip to wing tip on the ramp. NA |
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Hangar burning from dive bomb and strafing attacks at |
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The wreckage of Captain Raymond T. Swenson's B-17C, Serial No. 40-2074, which burned in two after landing, following a Japanese fighter's airborne machine gun attack that hit its flare storage box. Flight surgeon, Lieutenant William R. Schick was aboard Swenson's aircraft, and with the crew members, escaped, was running to take cover, only to be fatally wounded by a ricocheting machine gun bullet from a strafing Japanese fighter. NA |
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The US Flag flies over Hickam Field during the attack on Pearl Harbor and other major targets on Oahu. Note the burning consolidated barracks buildings |
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Mooring Mast Field, the Marine Corps Air Station on Oahu. Photographed 13 February 1941. The mooring mast was to have been used in the Navy's airship program prior to its cancellation. Marine aviation units based at the field used the Mooring Mast for their control tower. USMCHC |
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Burning aircraft on the ramp, Mooring Mast Field at Ewa following devastating |
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Burning Marine utility aircraft set on fire by strafing Japanese fighters and dive bombers |
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To the left is a heavily damaged Marine F4F fighter while in the background |
Chapter 6: Inferno, Carnage, and Valor: Attack on the Pacific Fleet
Diagram of ships in the harbor. |
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Photograph taken from a Japanese plane during the torpedo attack on ships moored on both sides of Ford Island. View looks about east, with the supply depot, submarine base and fuel tank farm in the right center distance, in the first moments of the attack. Note the absence of flak bursts, an indicator of complete tactical surprise, though ships' crews were manning battle stations and were en route to guns. A torpedo has just hit the battleship West Virginia on the far side of Ford Island (center). Other battleships moored nearby are (from left): Nevada, Arizona, Tennessee (inboard of West Virginia), Oklahoma (torpedoed and listing) alongside Maryland, and California. On the near side of Ford Island, to the left, are light cruisers Detroit and Raleigh, target and training ship Utah and seaplane tender TAngeer. Raleigh and Utah have been torpedoed, and Utah is listing sharply to port. In the lower left is the seaplane tender Curtiss. Japanese planes are visible in the right center (over Ford Island) and over the Navy Yard at right. Japanese writing in the lower right states that the photograph was reproduced by authorization of the Navy Ministry. NPSAM |
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Torpedo planes attack 'Battleship Row' at about 0800 on 7 December, seen from a Japanese aircraft. Ships are, from lower left to right: Nevada (BB-36) with flag raised at stern; Arizona (BB-39) with Vestal (AR-4) outboard; Tennessee (BB-43) with West Virginia (BB-48) outboard; Maryland (BB-46) with Oklahoma (BB-37) outboard; Neosho (AO-23) and California (BB-44). West Virginia, Oklahoma and California have been torpedoed, as marked by ripples and spreading oil, and the first two are listing to port. Torpedo drop splashes and running tracks are visible at left and center. White smoke in the distance is from Hickam Field, where dive bombers are attacking. Grey smoke in the center middle distance is from the torpedoed cruiser Helena (CL-50), at the Navy Yard's 1010 dock. Japanese writing in lower right states that the image was reproduced by authorization of the Navy Ministry. NPSAM |
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The overturned Oklahoma (right) and Maryland (left) In the background white smoke rises from West Virginia as her fires are brought under control after the attack. Arizona burns fiercely in the background. Note that rescue operations are underway on the upturned hull of Oklahoma and the main deck of Maryland. NPSAM |
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This image is of Captain Mervyn S. Bennion. He was the Captain of the West Virginia. |
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Doris Miller, Mess Attendant 2nd Class, USS West Virginia, just after being presented |
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This photo taken from a Japanese bomber nearly 10,000 feet above Battleship Row shows an exploding bomb on the Arizona"s starboard side near the quarterdeck (aft starboard) after glancing off the face plate on the #4 turret. It was the bomb that briefly knocked Lieutenant Commander Samuel G. Fuqua unconscious. Arizona is the second battleship from the bottom of the image, forward of Nevada, with the smaller repair ship Vestal moored to Arizona"s port side, toward the harbor's main channel. NA |
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Arizona"s forward magazine violently explodes after she was struck by a 1,765-pound, Japanese armor-piercing bomb. At far right is the mainmast of Oklahoma, heeled over to port approximately 40 degrees, toward capsizing. Slightly to the left of Oklahoma are the forward turrets of Tennessee, with the rest of that ship oscured by the blast from Arizona"s explosion. At far left is the bow of the repair ship Vestal, moored eight feet outboard of Arizona. NA |
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The shattered Arizona burns fiercely after her forward magazines have exploded, and Vestal |
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The target ship Utah (AG-16) torpedoed by Japanese aircraft, listing heavily to port, about to part her mooring lines and capsize off the west side of Ford Island, during the attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941. Photographed from seaplane tender TAngeer (AV-8), moored astern of Utah. Note colors half-raised over fantail, boats nearby, and sheds covering Utah"s after guns. NA |
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The cruiser Raleigh (CL-7) is kept afloat by a barge lashed alongside, after she was damaged by a |
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View from Pier 1010, looking toward the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard's drydocks, with the destroyer Shaw (DD-373) -- in floating drydock YFD-2 -- and Nevada burning at right, 7 December 1941. In the foreground is the capsized minelayer Oglala (CM-4), with the cruiser Helena (CL-50) further down the pier, at left. Beyond Helena is Drydock Number One, with the battleship Pennsylvania (BB-38) and the burning destroyers Cassin (DD-372) and Downes (DD-375). NA |
Chapter 7: 'Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition..."
Cruiser New Orleans (CA-32) underway during exercises in Hawaiian waters, 8 July 1942. The words and actions of her chaplain and crew, and other ships' crew members who voluntarily |
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The submarine Narwhal (SS-167) defending against Japanese raiders. In the background is the cruiser St. Louis (CL-49) getting underway during the Japanese second wave's attack. Note the probable Japanese fighter aircraft in the distance, appearing to be directly above the Narwhal image. NHHC |
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Downed Val dive bomber, photographed by Staff Sergeant Lee Embree who was in B-17E (Serial No. 41-2408) inbound to Hickam Field the morning of the attack. Note the two additional Vals circling the crash site, above and to the right of the smoke column. NA |
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Battleship California (BB-44) The view is from the southeastern side of Ford Island, looking northeasterly, with California (BB-44) in right center, listing to port after being hit |
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The destroyer Monaghan (DD-354) rammed, depth charged and sank a Japanese midget submarine in the Middle Loch, the morning of 7 December 1941. |
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Seaplane tender TAngeer (AV-8), anchored off Mare Island Navy Yard, circa, August 1941. NA |
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The seaplane tender Curtiss (AV-4) and repair ship Medusa (AR-1) photographed from the deck of the TAngeer (AV-8). Medusa is on the right. Curtiss, has just been struck by a crashing Japanese Val dive bomber, hit by AA fire while flying low, just east of TAngeer, over the western edge of Ford Island. The pilot started an immediate right turn toward the Curtiss, apparently intent on a final, suicidal attack on the ship. The timbers in the water are from the capsized target ship Utah (AG-16), which had capsized at her berth, astern of TAngeer. NHHC |
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Seaplane tender Curtiss (AV-4), photographed soon after completion in 1940. NHHC |
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The repair ship Vestal beached on Aiea shoal, Pearl Harbor, after the Japanese raid. She |
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View of 'Battleship Row' as probably seen by the crew of the Nevada when she steamed down the main channel during the Japanese raid. West Virginia is at the right sunk alongside Tennessee, with oil fires shrouding them both. The capsized Oklahoma is at the left, alongside Maryland. Crewmen on the latter's stern are using firehouses to try to push burning oil away from their ship. NPSAM |
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Battleship Nevada (BB-36) headed down channel past the Navy Yard's 1010 Dock, under Japanese air attack during her sortie from Battleship Row. Photographed from Ford Island. Small ship in the lower right is the seaplane tender Avocet (AVP-4). Note fuel tank 'farm' in the left center distance, beyond the Submarine Base. NHHC |
Chapter 8: The Second Wave
Japanese Aircraft Deployment, Second Attack. USAF |
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The Japanese second wave flew into a veritable hornets' nest of fleet air defense fire. View of Pearl Harbor looking southwest from the hills to the north. Taken during the Japanese raid, with anti-aircraft shell bursts overhead. Large column of smoke in lower center is from the Arizona. Smaller smoke columns further to the left are from the destroyers Shaw, Cassin and Downes, in dry docks at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard. NA |
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Sailors stand amid wrecked planes at the Ford Island seaplane base, watching as the destroyer Shaw (DD-373) explodes in the center background, 7 December 1941. The seaman in the foreground is Bob Barrigan, from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, a crewmember on the seaplane tender TAngeer. Nevada (BB-36) is also visible in the middle background, with her bow angled toward the left and her colors visible to the right. Planes present include PBY, OS2U and SOC types. Wrecked wing in the foreground is from a PBY. NPSAM |
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The wrecked destroyers Downes and Cassin in Dry Dock One at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, soon after the end of the Japanese air attack. Cassin has capsized against Downes. Pennsylvania (BB-38) is astern, occupying the rest of the drydock. The torpedo- damaged cruiser Helena (CL-50) is in the right distance, beyond the crane. Visible in the center distance is the capsized Oklahoma, with Maryland alongside. Smoke is from the sunken and burning Arizona, out of view behind Pennsylvania. California is partially visible at the extreme left. NA |
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Pearl Harbor Shipyard Floating Dry Dock #2: Shaw burns after being bombed. Nevada, repeatedly struck by dive bombers, and ordered not to proceed from the harbor, has been deliberately run around. Her stern is swinging toward the center of the main channel, pulled by the tide. The seaplane tender Avocet is in the foreground. NPSAM |
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Nevada beached and burning off Waipo Point after being hit forward by Japanese bombs and torpedoes. Her pilothouse area is discolored by fires in that vicinity. The harbor tug Hoga (YT-146) is alongside Nevada"s port bow, helping to fight fires on the battleship's forecastle. Note channel marker buoy against Nevada"s starboard side. NA |
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Crew abandoning the damaged California shortly after the end of the Japanese raid, |
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Seaplane tender TAngeer (AV-8), Japanese bomb explodes some twenty feet off the |
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The crippled, crash-landed B-17C, which diverted from Hickam to avoid repeated attacks by the Japanese raiders. The pilot made an emergency, downwind landing at Bellows Field and retracted the landing gear during roll-out. The crew counted 73 bullet holes in the bomber after the airborne attacks while attempting to land at Hickam, followed by attacks at Bellows Field by nine Japanese fighters. NPSAM |
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Wrecked automobiles, some still burning, beside a damaged hangar at Naval Air |
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Photograph taken 17 December 1941. Nine Japanese planes were shot down by these five young Army Air Force officers during the Japanese attack. Left to right they are-2nd Lt. Harry W. Brown, who bagged one Japanese plane; 2nd Lt. Philip M. Rasmmussen, one plane; 2nd Lt. Kenneth M. Taylor, two planes; 2nd Lt. George S. Welch, four planes; 1st Lt. Lewis M. Sanders, one plane. Lts. Welsh and Taylor received Distinguished Service Crosses. UHHL |
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Second wave Kate high level bomber over Hickam Field, The raiders committed 27 |
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Strafed Fire House on Hickam Air Field with two fire trucks outside and debris from |
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At the right in the image, at approximately 0940 hours while the attack is still in progress, is the cruiser St. Louis (CL-49), moving down-channel toward the harbor entrance. Following her in the background is an unidentified destroyer. In the left foreground is the bow of the slowly settling, listing battleship California, and in the background is the burning, sinking West Virginia and shattered, fiercely burning Arizona. NA |
Chapter 9: Aftermath: 7 December
A Navy PBY-5 'Catalina.' These planes flew on patrol duty regularly out of Oahu. Most were destroyed or heavily damaged on the ground or water at Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay. Ensign Otto F. Meyer and his crew of six were on patrol in PBY 14-P-2, west, northwest of Oahu when the Japanese attack occurred. A few minutes after 1000 hours they were attacked by nine Japanese aircraft returning to their carriers, but Ensign Meyer skillfully evaded his attackers' repeated attempts to down the PBY. USN |
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An Army Air Force bomber - one of the obsolescent, never mass-produced B-23 Dragons |
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Wrecked cars and burned bodies on F Street, Hickam Field. USAF
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Airmen at Hickam killed by strafing Japanese aircraft. USA |
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Civilian casualties lie in a makeshift first-aid center. Sixty- eight civlians were |
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The hospital ship Solace (AH-5) in Hawaiian waters. Her crew was heavily involved in rescue as well as hospitalization of wounded during and after the attack. The Solace admitted a total of 132 patients on board on 7 December. About 80 received first aid treatment only. Twenty-eight patients, 26 of whom weren't identified, died. At the end of the day, the number of occupied beds was 177, with 253 unoccupied. NA |
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Dead sailor in the water at Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay. NA |
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Dense smoke rises from the forward and midships portion of the Arizona. Just ahead of her (L-R) the sinking West Virginia outboard with the slightly damaged Tennessee inboard, pumping streams of water from flooded aft magazines through openings just below her quarterdeck. The commander ordered the magazines flooded as a precaution against the intense heat emanating from the burning Arizona, 75 feet astern of Tennessee. NPSAM |
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The Philippine Clipper, after landing at Pan Am's Treasure Island terminal in San Francisco harbor, 10 December 1941. The aircraft landed in San Francisco still carrying the 16 bullet holes from the Japanese attack at Wake Island. UML |
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Light cruiser Louisville (CL-28) off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 26 May 1942. NA |
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The Presidents Line's SS President Coolidge photographed before she was purchased from the Dollar Line. She was approximately half way en route from Manila, Philippines to Honolulu with the US Army Transport General Hugh L. Scott, escorted by the cruiser Louisville when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. NPSSFHMM |
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US Army Transport General Hugh L. Scott, formerly |
Chapter 10: '...A Date Which Will Live in Infamy..."
2nd Extra of the Day, published by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 7 December 1941. NPSAM |
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Governor Joseph B. Poindexter, The Territory of Hawaii. Because of the air attack, and the threat of possible landings by Japanese troops, US Army Forces Pacific Commander, Lieutenant General Walter C. Short, urged Governor Poindexter to declare martial law. The Territorial Governor first called President Roosevelt while the raid was still in progress, asking approval for the declaration, then telegraphed for written confirmation. HA |
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Civilians standing in a gas rationing line, 17 December 1941. UHHL |
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Damage in the Honolulu area, most from falling friendly fire antiaircraft rounds. USAF |
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A private car, a victim of a strafing Japanese plane. USA |
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Damage to a structure in Honolulu, from falling friendly fire antiaircraft rounds. Photo |
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Anticipating another air attack, civilians dig bomb shelters at Kewalo Basin at 1 p.m. |
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President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs the Declaration |
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A Japanese midget submarine lies beached near Bellows Field the morning of 8 December, |
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The heavy cruiser Northampton (CA-26) steams into Pearl Harbor on the morning of 8 December 1941, her crew observing the devastation wreaked by Japanese planes the previous day. From her bridge, Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance silently looked on. His reading and studying about war had not prepared him for the awful sight that lay before him. That evening, he emotionally and tearfully related his feelings to his wife and daughter. Apparently, though, he never spoke of it again. Northampton was at sea with Vice Admiral Halsey's Task Force 8 on the day of the attack, returning from the delivery of 12 Marine F4F fighters from VMF-211 to Wake Island. Photographed from Ford Island, looking east toward the Navy Yard, with dredging pipe in the foreground. NA |