Pearl Harbour

[WRT]

Received today via email.

Pearl Harbor

On Sunday, December 7th, 1941 the Japanese launched a Surprise attack against the U.S. Forces stationed at Pearl Harbour , Hawaii . By planning his 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. Beginning at 0600 hours his First wave consisted of 183 fighters and torpedo bombers which struck at the fleet in Pearl Harbour and the airfields in Hickam, Kaneohe and Ewa. The second strike, launched at 0715 hours, consisted of 167 aircraft, which again struck at the same targets. At 0753 hours the first wave consisting of 40 Nakajima B5N2 "Kate" torpedo bombers, 51 Aichi D3A1 "Val" dive bombers, 50 high Altitude bombers and 43 Zeros struck airfields and Pearl Harbour. Within the next hour, the second wave arrived and continued the Attack.

When it was over, the U.S. losses were:

Casualties
**************
USA : 218 KIA, 364 WIA.
USN: 2,008 KIA, 710 WIA.
USMC: 109 KIA, 69 WIA.
Civilians: 68 KIA, 35 WIA.
TOTAL: 2,403 KIA, 1,178 WIA.

Battleships
*************
USS Arizona (BB-39) - total loss when a bomb hit her magazine.
USS Oklahoma (BB-37) - Total loss when she capsized and sunk in The harbour.
USS California (BB-44) - Sunk at her berth. Later raised and Repaired.
USS West Virginia (BB-48) - Sunk at her berth. Later raised and Repaired.
USS Nevada - (BB-36) Beached to prevent sinking. Later repaired.
USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) - Light damage.
USS Maryland (BB-46) - Light damage.
USS Tennessee (BB-43) Light damage.
USS Utah (AG-16) - (former battleship used as a target) - Sunk.

Cruisers
********
USS New Orleans (CA-32) - Light Damage..
USS San Francisco (CA-38) - Light Damage.
USS Detroit (CL-8) - Light Damage.
USS Raleigh (CL-7) - Heavily damaged but repaired.
USS Helena (CL-50) - Light Damage.
USS Honolulu (CL-48) - Light Damage..

Destroyers
***********
USS Downes (DD-375) - Destroyed. Parts salvaged.
USS Cassin - (DD-372) Destroyed. Parts salvaged.
USS Shaw (DD-373) - Very heavy damage.
USS Helm (DD-388) - Light Damage.

Minelayer
************
USS Ogala (CM-4) - Sunk but later raised and repaired.

Seaplane Tender
*********************
USS Curtiss (AV-4) - Severely damaged but later repaired.

Repair Ship
***************
USS Vestal (AR-4) - Severely damaged but later repaired.

Harbour Tug
****************
USS Sotoyomo (YT-9) - Sunk but later raised and repaired.

Aircraft
********
188 Aircraft destroyed (92 USN and 92 U.S. Army Air Corps.)

[WRT]

More pictures.

[WRT]

Last lot of pictures.

I thought it interesting that the total loss of life from a sustained attack from 350 military aircraft at Pearl Harbour was less than during the Sept. 11 attacks in New York.

[Maha]

Great pic's WRT....
Would love to vists the site of the RSONA someday....

[Harry33]

Great pic's WRT....
Would love to vists the site of the RSONA someday....

If you are interested in history or WW2 I would recommend it.

You can't actually see much on the USS Arizona but it's something I think, if your in Hawaii you should visit.

[GR81]

the missus and i plan to goto the US&A at the end of next year and Pearl Harbour is on our to-do-list. although there is always a mad long que from what ive heard.

[Harry33]

the missus and i plan to goto the US&A at the end of next year and Pearl Harbour is on our to-do-list. although there is always a mad long que from what ive heard.

Yeah we had to wait a couple of hours for the boat ride out too the memorial but thats not to bad I guess. One thing to remember is it is a grave site so it will be very quite. Oh and while the memorys working oil still seeps out of the ship even after 60years.

[James Deuce]

Last lot of pictures.

I thought it interesting that the total loss of life from a sustained attack from 350 military aircraft at Pearl Harbour was less than during the Sept. 11 attacks in New York.

Not even faintly interesting. The 10s of thousands of Navy, Army, and Marine Corps personnel at Pearl weren't packed into two tall buildings with only limited egress. The biggest loss of life was the Arizona. Similar issues to the WTC. No way out when she turned turtle and sank, after all but having her upper decks and superstructure removed by the blast that killed her.

The Arizona still burps fuel oil to this day, as Harry said.

[WRT]

Not even faintly interesting. The 10s of thousands of Navy, Army, and Marine Corps personnel at Pearl weren't packed into two tall buildings with only limited egress. The biggest loss of life was the Arizona. Similar issues to the WTC. No way out when she turned turtle and sank, after all but having her upper decks and superstructure removed by the blast that killed her.

The Arizona still burps fuel oil to this day, as Harry said.

Similar principals can be applied to the loss of warships at moored in Pearl Harbour however. Tightly packed, limited egress, as you say.

In that respect the two events had a similar objective and method, different target (one was people, the other warships). Imagine if the Japanese had been able to attack 4 hours earlier, there would have been a higher concentration of personnel within the ships, and a far greater loss of life.

[James Deuce]

There were nearly 10,000 people in the WTC when the first aircraft hit. The US didn't suffer anything like 33% casualties at Pearl. I've spent hours talking to Lloyd Bigley who was stationed at Pearl to transition from P40B's to P40E's (USAAF) and was one of the radar watch officer's who reported the first wave of Japanese aircraft.

He remained convinced until the day he died that Cordell Hull knew the attack was on the way and deliberately prevented the Japanese ambassador in Washington from presenting their declaration of war prior to the first attack.

Lloyd was told to power down his radar unit and return to the mess for breakfast, no small task I might add. It took an hour to power it back up completely.

They were told it was a flight of B17s from the Philippines and nothing to worry about. The radar operator identified more than 50 separate aircraft and there were 6 B17s expected inbound from the Philippines heading for Hickam field. They were overridden, packed up to return, and the car he was in was shot up by A6M2s as the drove down to Hickam Field.

Lloyd ended up Maintenance VP at TWA prior to retiring to NZ and died of complications from an infected ulcer on his leg at nearly 90 years old.

[Hitcher]

Received today via email.

Pearl Harbor

On Sunday, December 7th, 1941 the Japanese launched a Surprise attack against the U.S. Forces stationed at Pearl Harbour , Hawaii.

Seriously? What happened next? Who won?

[Ixion]

Received today via email.

Pearl Harbor

On Sunday, December 7th, 1941 the Japanese launched a Surprise attack against the U.S. Forces stationed at Pearl Harbour , Hawaii

I told them that email server needed upgrading.

[Brian d marge]

Been there ,,was sobering ,,especially the arisona .. amazingly there were people literally on to . or near by the magazine , and survived ...

The uss blowfin( fish) the submarine was very interesting ,,,

Stephen

[JimO]

i also have been there, if you are going to havaiie check out the market at the aloha stadium (if they still have it there)

[bladez]

bloody great pics thanks