The US defeat at Pearl Harbour

The Pacific ocean showing the proximity of USA, Japan and Hawaii. Pearl Harbour

The islands of Hawaii

Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, today. Ford island is in the middle, and battleship row is the dent on the SE side.

Battleship Row

Striking Task Force 6 aircraft carriers, 2 battleships, 3 cruisers, 9 destroyers,8 tankers, 23 submarines, 5 midget submarines, 441 aircraft. This was the largest carrier task force the world had ever seen. The Japanese aircraft carrier Soryu

The Japanese Aircraft carrier Hiryu. There were 5 aircraft carriers in all.

Ko-hyoteki- Japanese midget attack submarines They were about the size of a bus. They held two crew and two torpedoes. At least one of these machines would get past US defences and into the harbour before the attack.

A Japanese carrier torpedo bomber. The Japanese attacked with over 400 planes like this.

The plan was simple: destroy the US air force on the ground and then destroy all the defenceless US ships in the harbour. To ensure surprise- attack on a Sunday. Pearl Harbour

Isoroku Yamamoto- the Japanese commander. Fleet Admiral and Commander in Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy..

Commander in chief, US Pacific Fleet. Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel

Lieutenant Commander Walter Short - commander of the US Army Air force Responsible for the defence of military installations at Pearl Harbour. He had the idea of parking all airplanes close together in the open so that they could be guarded easily against saboteurs. Sabotage was feared because of the number of Japanese people who lived in Hawaii.

The battleship USS Arizona. Part of the US power in the Pacific. She could fire shells that weighed a tonne over 25 miles. The USA had at least 8 of these powerful ships in the Pacific. The US Navy placed more faith in these ships as a deterrent to Japanese aggression than their aircraft carriers.

The USS Enterprise The United States had 2 large aircraft carriers in the Pacific in More aware than the Americans, of the strategic advantage of carriers, the Japanese knew that they had to destroy them if they were to gain control over the Pacific. The Enterprise was scheduled to dock in Pearl Harbor Aircraft carriers

Observing radio silence and taking advantage of squally weather, the Japanese fleet arrives to the NW of Hawaii undetected. Planes were heavily laden with fuel and bombs

Dec Japanese bomber over Hickam field (US army air force) (Hawaii). Notice large plumes of smoke.

Hickam Field. An army B17 bomber lies cut in half.

US airfield under attack- notice all the planes lined up in neat rows. Easy targets for the Japanese fighters.

Ford Island in the middle of the harbour- One building is burning, and wrecked aircraft are scattered about. Notice the planes parked in the open.

Battleship Row as seen from a Japanese bomber Notice torpedo trails, and oil on the water. Notice the absence of torpedo nets.

US ships sinking at anchor. With the air force destroyed, the naval ships were now easy targets. Many sailors found ammunition stores locked as a peacetime security measure.

Water is already up to deck level, and fire is raging. With engines off there was no power to work fire hoses. Guns also had no power to operate, and ammunition hoists would not work.

One ship has turned over, and fires burn unchecked everywhere.

The USS Shaw explodes spectacularly. The navy would repair her though, and she would fight again.

USS Nevada. A single valiant crewman managed to get this ship moving from a stone-cold start (quite some achievement). Bomb damaged and sinking she was to be beached by her captain. He didn’t want to take the risk of blocking the harbor entrance by sinking in it.

USS California. Notice the ship listing severely and her crew abandoning ship to the left. Notice the oil in the water- some of which is already on fire.

Battleship Row. The front and rear ships have already sunk to the harbor floor.

Fire and smoke become major problems to rescue efforts, let alone fighting back.

Battleship Row from above. Notice the spreading oil slicks

The USS Arizona. A bomb blows up her ammunition and she is totally destroyed. She is the only ship deemed irrecoverable. In her lie the majority of casualties from the attack. Her wreckage forms the base of the Pearl Harbour memorial which you can see today.

The USS Oklahoma is pulled upright again by giant cables

The US lost 2,403 people dead, 1,178 wounded. 5 battleships, 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers and 188 planes were destroyed. Japan lost 64 men dead and 1 captured. 29 planes and 4 midget submarines destroyed. It was shocking to America because it was the first time since 1812 that the United States had been attacked on its own soil. (The next occasion would be 9/11- it too led to US involvement in a foreign war)

Aftermath

Courts-martial of the US navy and army air force commanders Both Kimmel and Short were dismissed the service on the grounds that they had neglected the defence of the fleet and were therefore in dereliction of duty

The memorial to the US dead.

The Pearl Harbour war memorial. This is built on top of the sunken USS Arizona to remind people of the 1177 sailors who died trapped inside her.