The first attack
Air raid Pearl Harbor. This is not a drill!" |
A radiogram reporting the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941.
The first wave of bomber attacks on Battleship Row.
_ At 7:49 A.M., Commander Fuchida started the first attack by ordering the radio signal "To! To! To!" The Japanese torpedo bombers, each with a single torpedo, swept into the harbor at 7:55 A.M. The torpedo planes bombed the
ships along Battleship Row in groups of three, as well as the Navy Air Corps bases.
_Seven battleships were anchored in Battleship Row including the Nevada, the Arizona, the Tennessee, the West Virginia, the Maryland, the Oklahoma and the California.
Tora! Tora! Tora!"
-Fuchida radioed, meaning that the Japanese had succeeded in surprising America
All at once, the fire blazed up and burned the shirt off my back. A lot of men were swimming around in the water, screaming and hollering for help... The burning oil and burning flesh mad a sickening, hard-to-describe smell."
-Bill Steedly on the USS Vestal
The first attack successfully surprised America and hit the battleships Arizona, California, West Virginia, and Oklahoma. The most devastating blow was to the Arizona, which sunk in nine minutes, killing most of the crew.
At approximately eight o'clock on the morning of December 7, 1941, I was leaving the breakfast table when the ship's siren for air defense sounded. Having no anti-aircraft battle station, I paid little attention to it. Suddenly I heard an explosion. I ran to the port door leading to the quarterdeck and saw a bomb strike a barge of some sort alongside the Nevada, or in that vicinity. The marine color guard came in at this point saying we were being attacked."
-Marine Corporal E.C. Nightingale aboard the Arizona
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