Page 7 - PearlHarbour

A Japanese midget submarine after having been raised by the U.S. Navy at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard in December 1941.
PEARL HARBOR / 7 PEARL HARBOR / 7
charged low across the water from the southeast and east, after pass- ing at 50 feet altitude southeast of Hickam Field’s hangar line, and
past the south and north ends of Ford Island across the harbor from the west toward the main dock and ships in the north harbor, while other torpedo-bombers pressing in from the east and southeast unleashed devastating attacks on the battle- ships and other ships in the harbor. Val dive bombers, with a two-man crew of pilot and radioman/ gunner, and Kate horizontal bombers from the northeast and southwest almost simultaneously launched shatter- ing dive-bomb and fighter attacks on aircraft and hangar facilities
on Hickam Field, Ford Island, and nearby Marine Corps’ Mooring Mast Field at Ewa - while to the north- west, Wheeler Field took staggering blows beginning moments following the assault on NAS Kaneohe Bay.
Wheeler Field, struck shortly before 0800, was home for the Hawaiian Air Force’s entire pursuit (interceptor) force, which was the 14th Pursuit Wing, composed of
the 15th and 18th Pursuit Groups. A successful attack on Wheeler would virtually assure air superiority. The Japanese took Wheeler Field com- pletely by surprise, as they did every other installation on Oahu. No one on the ground sighted the oncom- ing Val dive bombers until they made their final turn for the attack. Aircraft and maintenance facilities along the flight line were the primary targets. Supply depots, barracks and people anywhere in the vicinity of these targets, were secondary but also received devastating blows. The Japanese pilots were too well trained to waste their bombs and ammuni- tion on insignificant targets. One bomb did land in the front yard of a house, but it was the result of a miss rather then a deliberate attack on the housing area.
The multi-direction attacks by the bombers and fighters added confu- sion and chaos to the abject fear and terror of defenseless men scrambling for cover and weapons to defend
pass, hell was visiting the island of Oahu. Wheeler Field, the home of the Hawaiian Air Force’s air and fleet defense, the 14th Pursuit Wing, was the first Army Air Force field struck on Oahu. By 0900, when the second wave struck Bellows and completed their work on Kaneohe, the fierce Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and other military installations on the island had become a never-to-be- forgotten, bloody, American national disaster.
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Startled, at-first-uncertain and disbelieving men on the ground and aboard ships, all disciplined and trained to respond in a crisis, and fight, were momentarily puzzled. Then they saw bombs or torpedoes released, the white-hot blinking of machine guns and 20-mm canons, the flash of orange insignia - “meat- balls” - on the underside of wings
or the sides of fuselages, heard a few shouted warnings, the roar of low flying airplanes, and the violent explosions of bombs or torpedoes in the stunning few moments before reality struck home. In the normal preparations for Sunday morn-
ing breakfast, church services, a weekend of liberty, lowered crew manning, absence of warning,
and low defense alert condition, disaster quickly flourished. While
torpedoes, bombs, cannon fire and machine gun bullets tore into the attackers’ primary target, the Pacific Fleet, setting off thunderous explo- sions, starting numerous fires, and
a huge, all-consuming inferno on the battleship Arizona, the men on Army Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps airfields suffered their own brand of hell. Before one hour and forty-five minutes passed, total Army Air Force casualties on Oahu climbed to 163 killed, 336 wounded, and 43 missing. Of these, Hickam Field’s losses were 121 killed, 274 wounded, and 37 missing. Out of 231 Hawaiian Air Force aircraft, 64 were destroyed, 93 damaged and only
74 were left in repairable condi- tion. Hangars at both Hickam and Wheeler were severely damaged. An aircraft repair station in Hickam’s Hawaiian Air Depot was completely destroyed. 12 Kate torpedo-bombers