Today marks the 84th anniversary of the United States active participation in the Second World War.
Remember Pearl Harbor!
US NAVY
ATLANTIC—TU 4.1.2 (Commander Fred D. Kirtland), accompanied
by salvage vessel Redwing (ARS‑4) and oiler Sapelo (AO‑11), while
escorting convoy HX 162, reaches the MOMP; 21 of the 35 merchantmen scattered
by the storm encountered on 1 December have rejoined by this time.
PACIFIC—Unarmed U.S. Army‑chartered steam schooner Cynthia
Olson is shelled and sunk by Japanese submarine I 26 about1,000
miles northwest of Diamond Head, Honolulu, T.H., 33°42'N, 145°29'W. She is the
first U.S. merchantman to be sunk by a Japanese submarine in World War II.
There are no survivors from the 33‑man crew or the two Army passengers.
Japanese
Type A midget submarine attempts to follow general stores issue ship Antares
(AKS‑3) into the entrance channel to Pearl Harbor; summoned to the scene by
the auxiliary vessel, destroyer Ward (DD‑139), on channel entrance
patrol, with an assist from a PBY (VP 14), sinks the intruder with gunfire and
depth charges. Word of the incident, however, works its way with almost glacial
slowness up the chain of command.
Army radar
station at Opana Point, Oahu, soon thereafter detects an unusually large
"blip" approaching from the north, but the operator reporting the
contact is told not to concern himself with the matter since a formation of USAAF
B‑17s is expected from the west coast of the United States. The army watch
officer dismisses the report as “nothing unusual." The "blip" is
the first wave of the incoming enemy strike.
Consequently,
"like a thunderclap from a clear sky" Japanese carrier attack planes
(in both torpedo and high‑level bombing roles) and bombers, supported by
fighters, totaling 353 planes from naval striking force (Vice Admiral Nagumo
Chuichi) attack in two waves, targeting ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet at
Pearl Harbor, and nearby military airfields and installations. Japanese planes
torpedo and sink battleships Oklahoma (BB‑37) and West Virginia (BB‑48),
and auxiliary (gunnery training/target ship) Utah (AG‑16). On board Oklahoma,
Ensign Francis G. Flaherty, USNR, and Seaman First Class James R. Ward, as the
ship is abandoned, hold flashlights to allow their shipmates to escape; on
board West Virginia, her commanding officer, Captain Mervyn Bennion,
directs his ship's defense until struck down and mortally wounded by a fragment
from a bomb that hits battleship Tennessee (BB‑43) moored inboard; on
board Utah, Austrian‑born Chief Watertender Peter Tomich remains at his
post as the ship capsizes, securing the boilers and making sure his shipmates
have escaped from the fireroom. Flaherty, Ward, Bennion, Tomich and Bennion's
falling inaction sets in motion a chain of events that will result in Mess
Attendant First Class Doris Miller becoming the first African‑American to be
awarded the Navy Cross. Miller, a brawny, broad‑shouldered former high school
football player, is recruited to carry the mortally wounded captain from the
bridge. Their egress temporarily blocked by fires, however, the men are
compelled to remain on the bridge. Miller mans a .50‑caliber machine gun and
later tells interviewers modestly that he believes he may have damaged two low‑flying
Japanese planes. Sadly, Miller will not survive the war; he will perish with
escort carrier Liscome Bay (CVE‑56) on 24 November 1943 off the
Gilberts.
Japanese
bombs also sink battleship Arizona (BB‑39); the cataclysmic explosion of
her forward magazine causes heavy casualties, among them Rear Admiral Isaac C.
Kidd, Commander Battleship Division 1, who thus becomes the first U.S. Navy
flag officer to die in combat in World War II. Both he and Arizona's commanding
officer, Captain Franklin van Valkenburgh, are awarded Medals of Honor,
posthumously. In addition, the ship's senior surviving officer on board,
Lieutenant Commander Samuel G. Fuqua, directs efforts to fight the raging fires
and sees to the evacuation of casualties from the ship; he ultimately directs
the abandonment of the doomed battleship and leaves in the last boat. He is
awarded the Medal of Honor.
When Arizona
explodes, she is moored inboard of repair ship Vestal (AR‑4); the
blast causes damage to the repair ship, which has already been hit by a bomb. Vestal's
captain, Commander Cassin Young earns the Medal of Honor by swimming back
to his ship after being blown overboard by the explosion of Arizona's magazines,
and directing her beaching on Aiea shoal to prevent further damage in the fires
consuming Arizona.
Battleship
California (BB‑44) is hit by both bombs and torpedoes and sinks at her
berth alongside Ford Island; during the battle, Ensign Herbert C. Jones, USNR,
organizes and leads a party to provide ammunition to the ship's 5‑inchantiaircraft
battery; he is mortally wounded by a bomb explosion. Gunner Jackson C. Pharris,
leading an ordnance repair party, is stunned by concussion of a torpedo
explosion early in the action but recovers to set up an ammunition supply
train, by hand; he later enters flooding compartments to save shipmates. Chief
Radioman Thomas J. Reeves assists in maintaining an ammunition supply party
until overcomes by smoke inhalation and fires; Machinist's Mate Robert R.
Scott, although his station at an air compressor is flooding, remains at his
post, declaring "This is my station and I will stay and give them [the
antiaircraft gun crews] air as long as the guns are going." Jones,
Pharris, Reeves and Scott all receive the Medal of Honor (Jones, Reeves and
Scott posthumously).
Japanese
bombs damage destroyers Cassin (DD‑372) and Downes (DD‑375),
which are lying immobile in Drydock No. 1.
Minelayer Oglala
(CM‑4) is damaged by concussion from torpedo exploding in light cruiser Helena
(CL‑50) moored alongside, and capsizes at her berth; harbor tug Sotoyomo
(YT‑9) is sunk in floating drydock YFD‑2. Contrary to some secondary
accounts, Utah (a converted battleship) is not attacked because she
resembled an aircraft carrier, she is attacked because, in the excitement of
the moment, she looked sufficiently like the capital ship she once had been. Of
the other sunken ships, California, West Virginia, Oglala,
and Sotoyomo are raised and repaired; Cassin and Downes
are rebuilt around their surviving machinery; all are returned to service. Oklahoma,
although raised after monumental effort, is never repaired, and ultimately
sinks while under tow to the west coast to be broken up for scrap. The hulks of
Arizona and Utah remain at Pearl as memorials.
Battleship
Nevada (BB‑36), the only capital ship to get underway during the attack,
is damaged by bombs and a torpedo before she is beached. Two of her men are
later awarded the Medal of Honor: Machinist Donald K. Ross for his service in
the forward and after dynamo rooms and Chief Boatswain Edwin J. Hill
(posthumously) for his work in enabling the ship to get underway and, later, in
attempting to release the anchors during the attempt to beach the ship.
Battleships
Pennsylvania (BB‑38), Tennessee (BB‑43), and Maryland (BB‑46),
light cruiser Honolulu (CL‑48), and floating drydock YFD‑2 are
damaged by bombs; light cruisers Raleigh (CL‑7) and Helena (CL‑50)
are damaged by torpedoes; destroyer Shaw (DD‑373), by bombs, in floating
drydock YFD‑2; heavy cruiser New Orleans (CA‑32),destroyers Helm
(DD‑388) and Hull (DD‑350), destroyer tender Dobbin (AD‑3),
repair ship Rigel (AR‑11), and seaplane tender Tangier (AV‑8),
are damaged by near‑misses of bombs; seaplane tender Curtiss (AV‑4) is
damaged by crashing carrier bomber; garbage lighter YG‑17 (alongside Nevada
at the outset) is damaged by strafing and/or concussion of bombs.
Destroyer Monaghan
(DD‑354) rams, depth‑charges, and sinks Type A midget submarine inside
Pearl Harbor proper, during the attack. This particular Type A may have been
the one whose periscope harbor tug YT‑153 attempts to ram early in the
attack.
Light
minelayer Gamble (DM‑15) mistakenly fires upon submarine Thresher (SS‑200)
off Oahu, 21°15'N, 159°01'W.
Thresher
mistakes Gamble for destroyer Litchfield (DD‑336) (the latter
ship assigned to work with submarines in the Hawaiian operating area), the ship
with which she is to rendezvous. Gamble, converted from a flush‑deck,
four‑pipe destroyer, resembles Litchfield. Sadly, the delay occasioned
by the mistaken identity proves fatal to a seriously injured sailor on board
the submarine, who dies four hours before the boat finally reaches port on the
8th, of multiple injuries suffered on 6 December 1941 when heavy seas wash him
against the signal deck rail.
Carrier Enterprise
(CV‑6) Air Group (CEAG, VB 6 and VS 6) search flight (Commander Howard L.
Young, CEAG), in two‑plane sections of SBDs, begins arriving off Oahu as the
Japanese attack unfolds; some SBDs meet their doom at the hands of Japanese
planes; one (VS 6) is shot down by friendly fire. Another SBD ends up on Kauai
where its radio‑gunner is drafted into the local Army defense force with his
single .30‑caliber machine gun. Almost all of the surviving planes, together
with what observation and scouting planes from battleship (VO) and cruiser
(VCS)detachments, as well as flying boats (VP) and utility aircraft (VJ) that
survive the attack, take part in the desperate, hastily organized searches
flown out of Ford Island to look for the Japanese carriers whence the surprise
attack had come.
Navy Yard
and Naval Station, Pearl Harbor; Naval Air Stations at Ford Island and Kaneohe
Bay; Ewa Mooring Mast Field (Marine Corps air facility); Army airfields at
Hickam, Wheeler, and Bellows; and Schofield Barracks suffer varying degrees of
bomb and fragment damage. Japanese bombs and strafing destroy 188 Navy, Marine
Corps, and USAAF planes. At NAS Kaneohe Bay, Aviation Chief Ordnanceman John W.
Finn mounts a machine gun on an instruction stand and returns the fire of
strafing planes although wounded many times. Although ordered to leave his post
to have his wounds treated, he returns to the squadron areas where, although in
great pain, he oversees the rearming of returning PBYs. For his heroism, Finn
is awarded the Medal of Honor.
Casualties
amount to: killed or missing: Navy, 2,008; Marine Corps, 109; Army, 218;
Civilian, 68; Wounded: Navy,710; Marine Corps, 69; Army, 364; Civilian, 35. One
particular family tragedy prompts concern in the Bureau of Navigation (later
Bureau of Naval Personnel) on the matter of brothers serving in the same ship,
a common peacetime practice in the U.S. Navy. Firemen First Class Malcolm J.
Barber and LeRoy K. Barber, and Fireman Second Class Randolph H. Barber, are
all lost when battleship Oklahoma (BB‑37) capsizes. The Bureau considers
it in the “individual family interest that brothers not be put on the same ship
in war time, as the loss of such a ship may result in the loss of two or more
members of the family, which might be avoided if brothers are separated."
The Bureau, however, stops short of specifically forbidding the practice. On 3
February 1942, it issues instructions concerning the impracticality of
authorizing transfers of men directly from recruit training to ships in which
relatives are serving, and urges that brothers then serving together be advised
of the undesirability of their continuing to do so. Authorizing commanding
officers to approve requests for transfers to facilitate separation, the Bureau
directs in July 1942 that commanding officers of ships not forward requests for
brothers to serve in the same ship or station. This is too late, however, to
prevent the five Sullivan brothers from serving in light cruiser Juneau (CL‑52)
(see 13 November 1942). Acts of heroism by sailors, marines, soldiers and
civilians (from telephone exchange operator to yard shop worker), in addition
to those enumerated above, abound. Among the civilians who distinguish
themselves this day is Tai Sing Loo, the yard photographer, who has a scheduled
appointment to take a picture of the marine Main Gate guards. During the
attack, he helps the marines of the Navy Yard fire department fight fires in
dry dock number one and later, in the wake of the morning's devastation,
delivers food to famished leathernecks.
Japanese
losses amount to fewer than 100 men, 29 planes of various types and four Type A
midget submarines. A fifth Type A washes ashore off Bellows Field and is
recovered; its commander (Ensign Sakamaki Kazuo) is captured, becoming U.S.
prisoner of war number one.
Japanese
Naval Aviation Pilot First Class Nishikaichi Shigenori, from the carrier Hiryu,
crash‑lands his MitsubishiA6M2 Type 0 carrier fighter (ZERO) on the island of
Niihau, T.H. He surrenders to the islanders who disarm him and confiscate his
papers but, isolated as they are, know nothing of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
"Peaceful and friendly,” Nishikaichi is not kept in custody but is allowed
to roam the island unguarded (see 9, 12‑14 December).
First
night recovery of planes in World War II by the U.S. Navy occurs when Enterprise
turns on searchlights to aid returning SBDs (VB 6 and VS 6) and TBDs (VT 6)
that had been launched at dusk in an attempt to find Japanese ships reported
off Oahu. Friendly fire, however, downs four of Enterprise's six F4Fs
(VF 6) (the strike group escort) that are directed to land at Ford Island.
Other Enterprise SBDs make a night landing at Kaneohe Bay, miraculously
avoiding automobiles and construction equipment parked on the ramp to prevent
just such an occurrence.
Damage to
the battle line proves extensive, but carriers Enterprise and Lexington
(CV‑2) are, providentially, not in port, having been deployed at the
eleventh hour to reinforce advanced bases at Wake and Midway. Saratoga (CV‑3)
is at San Diego on this day, preparing to return to Oahu. The carriers will
prove crucial in the coming months (see Chapter VI, February‑May 1942).
Convinced that he has proved fortunate to have suffered as trifling losses as
he has, Vice Admiral Nagumo opts to set course for home, thus inadvertently
sparing fuel tank farms, ship repair facilities, and the submarine base that
will prove invaluable to support the U.S. Pacific Fleet as it rebuilds in the
wake of the Pearl Harbor disaster.
Midway
Island is bombarded by Japanese Midway Neutralization Unit (Captain Kaname
Konishi) consisting of destroyers Ushio and Sazanami; Marine
shore batteries (6th Defense Battalion) return the fire, claiming damage to
both ships. One of the submarines deployed on simulated war patrols off Midway,
Trout (SS‑202), makes no contact with the enemy ships; the other, Argonaut
(SS‑166), is unable to make a successful approach, and Ushio and Sazanami
retire from the area. Subsequent bad weather will save Midway from a
pounding by planes from the Pearl Harbor Attack Force as it returns to Japanese
waters.
Damage
control hulk DCH 1 (IX‑44), formerly destroyer Walker (DD‑163),
being towed from San Diego, California, to Pearl Harbor, by oiler Neches (AO‑5),
is cast adrift and scuttled by gunfire from Neches at 26°35'N, 143°49'W.
JAPAN—Japanese declaration of war [N.B.: the so‑called
"Fourteen Point message" is not a declaration of war; it
merely declares an impasse in the ongoing diplomatic negotiations. The Imperial
Rescript declaring a state of war between the Japanese Empire and the United
States is not issued until the next day, in Tokyo. pwc] reaches
Washington, D.C., after word of the attack on Pearl Harbor has already been
received in the nation's capital.
UNITED STATES—President orders mobilization.
US ARMY AIR FORCE
INTERNATIONAL—Japan attacks Hawaii and other US and British
possessions in the Pacific without warning. Japan already is at war with China,
and Great Britain is at war with the Axis powers, Germany and Italy, which
control most of Western Europe. The RAF is conducting an aerial offensive
against Germany, and the Luftwaffe is engaged in a campaign against Britain.
Russians are fighting German forces that have invaded the USSR. British troops
are battling Italians and Germans in Africa.
HAWAIIAN AF—First wave of Japanese carrier-based airplanes
(almost 200) hits US naval base at Pearl Harbor and Hickam Field at 0755.
Attacks follow quickly against Wheeler and Bellows Fields. A second wave of
Japanese airplanes strikes other naval and military facilities. Hawaiian AF
loses 163 men, with about 390 others wounded or missing; has 64 of its 231
assigned aircraft destroyed. Only 79 of the remaining aircraft are deemed
usable, and much of the AF’s ground facilities are destroyed. These losses are
light in comparison with the Navy’s: more than 2,000 killed or missing, and
more than 900 wounded; 4 battleships sunk; 3 battleships, 3 cruisers, and 3
destroyers damaged; and over half of the Navy’s 169 airplanes in the area
destroyed. The Japanese lose 20 aircraft over Hawaii, including 4 claimed
destroyed by 2d Lt George S Welch (47th Pursuit Squadron) piloting a P‑40, one
of the few US fighters to success fully attack airplanes during the day. About
20 other aircraft are lost by the Japanese during carrier landings. Altogether
the Japanese pay a small price for the damage done to the Americans on Oahu.
For the remainder of the day, following the attacks, AAF carries out fruitless
searches for the carriers.
ALASKA DEFENSE COMMAND—Upon learning of the Pearl Harbor
attack, the Command’s 6 B‑18’s and 12 P‑36’s take to the air to avoid being
caught on their fields.
US ARMY
INTERNATIONAL SITUATION—Japan strikes without warning and
almost simultaneously at various U.S. and British possessions in the Pacific;
declares war against U.S. and Great Britain.
HAWAII—Launched from carriers of a naval task force (TF)
standing 200 miles N of Oahu, Japanese planes attack Oahu between 0750 and 1000
bombing the Pacific Fleet, which, except for the carriers, is concentrated in
Pearl Harbor, and AAF planes parked in close formation on Hickam and Wheeler
airfields. 3 BB's are sunk, another is capsized, and 4 more are damaged; 3
CL's, 3 DD's, and other vessels are seriously damaged. 92 Navy and 96 Army
planes are lost. American casualties are 2,280 killed and 1,109 wounded.
Japanese lose 29 planes and 5 midget submarines.
MIDWAY—At 2135, 2 Japanese DD's bombard Midway, garrisoned
by a small U.S. Marine detachment (6th Defense Battalion), to neutralize it.
LIBYA—Major General N. M. Ritchie's British (British)
Eighth Army, a component of General Sir Claude J. E. Auchinleck's British
Middle East Forces (MEF), continues offensive, begun in November, to clear
Libya of German and Italian forces, which are nominally under Italian command,
but actually under German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Objective is twofold:
first, destruction of enemy concentrated in E Cyrenaica, which is in progress;
second, conquest of Tripolitania. Armored elements of British 30 Corps battle
enemy tanks around Bir el GubIsland After nightfall, British 13 Corps goes on
the offensive, 10th Division driving along El Adem Ridge, key feature S of
Tobruk.
USSR—German offensive (Operation BARBAROSSA, begun
on 22 July 1941 by Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch, CinC of the German
Army) to crush Soviet forces has ground to a halt on broken line from Lake
Ladoga on N to Sea of Azov on S. At the extremities of front, Soviet garrisons
of Leningrad and Sevastopol are besieged; on central front Germans are at
outskirts of Moscow. Red Army is conducting general counteroffensive (begun on
6 December) to drive enemy westward. 3 fresh Soviet armies are exerting pressure
against enemy spearheads in vicinity of Moscow. Although assured the support of
satellite nations (Finland, Rumania, Hungary), Germans are at a disadvantage
because of overextended supply lines and battle exhaustion.
WESTERN EUROPE—Although Adolf Hitler has by this time
abandoned plans for invasion of England (Operation SEA LION) as result
of defeat of Luftwaffe in Battle of Britain (8 August–31 October 1940), German
planes continue active over England. RAF in turn has been making frequent
attacks on European continent.
US MARINE CORPS
Japanese attack Pearl Harbor
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