Attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941

The battle, stage by stage

1. 7 December 1941, 06:00–07:50 (Hawaii time)

   Sunday morning: the fleet at its moorings

   It is a quiet Sunday morning. Seven battleships of the Pacific Fleet lie along Battleship Row on the south-east side of Ford Island: California alone at the southern quay, Maryland with Oklahoma outboard, Tennessee with West Virginia outboard, Arizona with the repair ship Vestal alongside, and Nevada by herself at the north-eastern end. The fleet flagship Pennsylvania sits high and dry in Drydock No. 1 with the destroyers Cassin and Downes; Shaw is in the floating drydock; Helena and the old minelayer Oglala share 1010 Dock. Across the island the target ship Utah, the cruisers Raleigh and Detroit and the seaplane tender Tangier lie in berths often used by carriers — but all three carriers are at sea. Off the harbor entrance at about 06:45 the destroyer Ward fires on and depth-charges a midget submarine; her report moves slowly up the chain of command.

2. 07:02–08:00

   Radar contact; the first wave crosses Oahu

   None of the Army's fixed long-range radars is yet working, and its six mobile sets operate only a few hours a day. At 07:02 Privates Joseph Lockard and George Elliott, keeping their SCR-270B radar at Opana on after hours, see a large flight about 136 miles to the north. The information center at Fort Shafter assumes it is a flight of B-17s due from California, and the warning goes no further. Commander Mitsuo Fuchida's first wave of 183 aircraft makes landfall at Kahuku Point; the level and torpedo bombers swing west around the Waianae Range to come at the harbor from the south-west, while dive bombers and fighters cross the central plain for the airfields. Kaneohe's flying boats are hit first, at about 07:48; Ford Island, Hickam and Ewa follow at 07:55 and Wheeler minutes later, where fighters parked wingtip to wingtip against sabotage burn in rows. At 07:53 Fuchida signals 'Tora! Tora! Tora!' — surprise achieved.

3. 07:55–08:05

   Torpedoes on both sides of Ford Island

   Dive bombers wreck the hangars and parked patrol planes of the Naval Air Station on Ford Island, and at 07:58 the message goes out: 'Air raid Pearl Harbor. This is not drill.' Torpedo bombers from Akagi and Kaga come in low across Southeast Loch from over Hickam and drop into the shallow water off Battleship Row — the harbor is only about 40 feet deep, so the torpedoes have been modified to run shallow and are dropped from 30 to 60 feet; the outboard ships take the torpedoes — Oklahoma, West Virginia and California, with Nevada hit forward. On the far side of the island Soryu's and Hiryu's planes, finding no carriers, put two torpedoes into Utah and one into Raleigh; another runs under the old Oglala to strike Helena at 1010 Dock. High above, Fuchida's level bombers line up on the battleship row.

4. About 08:06–08:30

   Arizona explodes; Oklahoma capsizes

   Armor-piercing bombs from the level bombers fall along the row. At about 08:06 a bomb penetrates near Arizona's forward magazines and the ship is torn apart by the explosion; 1,177 of her crew are killed, among them Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd and Captain Franklin Van Valkenburgh, both awarded the Medal of Honor. Struck by several torpedoes, Oklahoma rolls over within minutes and comes to rest upside down; 429 of her crew die. Utah capsizes at about 08:12 with 58 men lost. West Virginia, holed by torpedoes, is counter-flooded so that she settles upright on the bottom; her commanding officer, Captain Mervyn S. Bennion, is mortally wounded on the bridge. Tennessee and Maryland, inboard, are hit by bombs but survive. Vestal is bombed alongside the blazing Arizona.

5. 08:40–09:10

   Nevada's sortie

   In the lull, Nevada — the only battleship to get under way — backs clear of berth F-8 at about 08:40 without tugs and steams down the South Channel past the burning Arizona. Vestal also cuts free and is beached on Aiea Shoal; the oiler Neosho backs away from the fuel dock. At about the same time the destroyer Monaghan, sortieing, rams and depth-charges a midget submarine that Curtiss has already hit with gunfire. The second wave — 167 aircraft under Lieutenant Commander Shigekazu Shimazaki — arrives over the Koolau Range, and its dive bombers go for Nevada, hoping to sink her in the channel. Hit repeatedly, she is run aground at Hospital Point at about 09:10 to keep the channel open. Chief Boatswain Edwin J. Hill, killed while casting off her lines, and Machinist Donald K. Ross received the Medal of Honor.

6. 08:50–09:45

   Second wave: the Navy Yard and the airfields again

   The second wave's dive bombers turn on the Navy Yard. A bomb hits Pennsylvania amidships in Drydock No. 1; bombs and burning oil wreck Cassin and Downes in front of her, and Cassin rolls against Downes. In the floating drydock Shaw is hit and her forward magazine explodes in one of the most photographed moments of the war. Curtiss is struck by a crashing plane and a bomb; Raleigh and Honolulu are damaged. Level bombers return to Hickam and Kaneohe, and fighters strafe Bellows. At Kaneohe Chief Aviation Ordnanceman John W. Finn mans a machine gun in the open throughout the attack despite many wounds (Medal of Honor). St. Louis races out through the channel. By about 09:45 the last attackers have gone.

7. 7 December 1941, 10:00 onward

   Aftermath

   Fires burn through the day. Oglala rolls over alongside 1010 Dock; California, flooding slowly, settles into the mud over the next three days; Nevada is moved across the channel and beached stern-first at Waipio Point. Rescue parties cut through Oklahoma's upturned hull and free 32 men. American losses are 2,403 killed — 2,008 Navy, 109 Marine Corps, 218 Army and 68 civilians — and 1,178 wounded. Five battleships and three other ships are sunk or beached and three battleships and ten other ships damaged; 169 aircraft are destroyed (92 Navy, 77 Army) and 159 damaged. Japan loses 29 aircraft and all five midget submarines. All but Arizona, Oklahoma and Utah are eventually repaired. On 8 December the United States declares war on Japan.