A Japanese photo taken during the aerial torpedo attack on Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor on the far side of Ford Island. A torpedo has just struck the USS West Virginia (center). Also seen are (from left) Nevada, Arizona, Tennessee, Oklahoma (torpedoed and listing) alongside Maryland and California.At 7:53 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, the first assault wave of Japanese fighter planes attacked the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, taking the Americans completely by surprise.
The first attack wave targeted airfields and battleships. The second wave targeted other ships and shipyard facilities. The air raid lasted until 9:45 a.m. Eight battleships were damaged, with five sunk. Three light cruisers, three destroyers and three smaller vessels were lost along with 188 aircraft. The Japanese lost 27 planes and five midget submarines which attempted to penetrate the inner harbor and launch torpedoes.
Three prime targets: the U.S. Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers, Lexington, Enterprise and Saratoga, were not in the harbor and thus escaped damage.
The casualty list at Pearl Harbor included 2,335 servicemen and 68 civilians killed, and 1,178 wounded. Over 1,000 crewmen aboard the USS Arizona battleship were killed after a 1,760-lb. aerial bomb penetrated the forward magazine causing catastrophic explosions.
1 comment:
Pretty good read. I was stationed at Keneohe bay and there is this marker in the exact same spot that the first zero was shot down and crashed at. Used to run by it on occasion. A ton of history to expierence on that island.
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