Pearl Harbor: shocking colorized photographs show the horror of the missile assault

Daily Mail ^ | 7 December 2017 | Chris Pleasance

[mairdie]

The full horror of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour has been laid bare in newly colorized pictures released on the 76th anniversary of the assault.

In just 90 minutes, more than 2,400 US servicemen and civilians lost their lives while 17 ships were damaged or lost - dragging America into the Second World War and forever changing the course of the conflict.

The pictures here show the wrecks of the USS California, which sank after being hit by two torpedoes and two bombs, and the USS Oklahoma, which was holed by four torpedoes and capsized.

[wny]

Over?! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor!?

[mairdie]

Reminder from another thread of the 50th anniversary documentary narrated by Edward Woodward from 1991.

YouTube Edward Woodward 50th Anniversary Pearl Harbor Documentary

[Red Steel]

Not original, Red. The title reads “Newly colorized images have brought home the full horror of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on the 76th anniversary of the assault (pictured, the USS West Virginia, which was hit by seven torpedoes)”
The photographs are the work of Cardiff-based British electrician, Royston Leonard, 55, who painstakingly added color to the images: ‘The photos show what was an island at peace hit by the horror of war.

I have that picture in front of me. It's in a book " The Universal History of the World; WW II and The Aftermath, Volume 15, on page 1255"; author Edna Ritchie published through the Golden Press, New York, 1966.

Unless Roy painstakingly painted the picture between 1 and 4 years of age, he didn't paint it. ...It's in its original color.

[AFret.]

Missile assault??

Forget it, he’s rolling.

---

The author must be referring to the German missiles..

[HombreSecreto]

Blutarski’s impassioned speech on this event is memorable...

[Big Red Badger]

Great Photos !

[redcatcherb412]

The author must be referring to the German missiles..

Yes, those super German V2's, the precursor to North koreas ICBMs were awesome wermacht weapons. /s

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Note: color has been removed to reduce the horror.

LOL. You win "FR Snark of the Day". By a country mile, too.

[Scrambler Bob]

Missile?

maybe, as opposed to Hittle.

[BenLurkin]

Werner Von Braun was behind the attack.

[jonno]

“the horror.”

It’s easy to condemn the US for dropping the bomb’s on Hiroshima & Nagasaki - until you understand the history of Japan’s atrocities.

I’m 3/4 of the way through “Unbroken” - Louis Zamperini’s story. The book gives an excellent account of Japan’s actions before and during the war and it’s treatment of other cultures - specifically it’s treatment of foreign prisoners. I would like to see just one leftist explain why it was wrong to drop the bombs - in the light of ‘the rape of Nanking’.

In the end, those bombs saved the lives of millions by forcing the Japanese to surrender. It’s horrible to ponder what would have happened otherwise...

[ProtectOurFreedom]

The DM is notorious for bad writing, poor headlines, and even worse photo captions. Pick any article on the DM and read the comments. People are always taking them to task for these problems. There is another article today with colorized photos of WW II aircraft and the captions are a complete mess. People are really ripping them. I thought that, maybe, "missile" in Brit English is synonymous with "bomb" in American English. That often happens. But, nope, their definition is pretty much the same as ours: missile in British (ˈmɪsaɪl ) noun 1. any object or weapon that is thrown at a target or shot from an engine, gun, etc 2. a. a rocket-propelled weapon that flies either in a fixed trajectory (ballistic missile) or in a trajectory that can be controlled during flight (guided missile) b. (as modifier) a missile carrier Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers I suppose you could stretch and say the "etc" in "any weapon thrown from an engine, gun, etc" could include aircraft. But that is really stretching it.

[mairdie]

That's absolutely amazing, Red, and an absolutely brilliant catch. I googled him and there are massive numbers of websites showing his work. Pushing for an explanation, it might be that his colorization of an old b/w image is very like a color version of the same shot. It could be that before computers he colorized by the traditional water color methods. And it could be that he's not being honorable. What a terrible shame, if the latter.

Facebook of his pictures

[353FMG]

Bombs and torpedoes are types of missiles, aren’t they?

[jmacusa]

The U.S.S. West Virgina.

[spel_grammer_an_punct_polise]

“Note: color has been removed to reduce the horror.”

Classic!

[mairdie]

Another possibility to give him an out. If the book in which he originally found the picture only showed it in b/w, he might have colorized that and never known a full color version existed. There. I feel much better for him now that he’s got a sensible excuse.

[GreyFriar]

The 2nd photo you posted is of the USS Shaw that had its bow blown off after being struck by a Japanese bomb. I remember when, on a Dec 7, in the early 1960’s, Mr. Murphy, one of our high school history teachers, talked about being in the Navy at Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941. He was a young sailor who was at the end of his enlistment and had signed off the USS Shaw the previous week and was in the transient barracks waiting to sail back to the west coast and receive his discharge. He noted that he was not discharged until after the end of the war. The reason that his story has stuck in my mind is that he said that he was bunked in the bow of the Shaw and, if he had not been signed off the ship due to being discharged, he would have been killed with all of his shipmates who were in the bow berths.

[mairdie]

Spine chilling. So glad he was safe.

[rdl6989]

British English can be fun.