Posted on 12/06/2011 6:08:10 PM PST by Kathy in Alaska
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Amen.
Battleship Pennsylvania - Medium damage from bombs
Battleship Arizona - Sunk by bombs
Battleship Nevada - Heavy damage from bombs, beached to prevent sinking
Battleship Oklahoma - Sunk by torpedoes
Battleship Tennessee - Medium damage from bombs and fire from Arizona
Battleship California - Sunk by torpedoes, salvaged
Battleship Maryland - Minor damage from bombs
Battleship West Virginia - Sunk by torpedoes, salvaged
Heavy Cruiser New Orleans - Minor damage from near miss
Light Cruiser Raleigh - Heavy damage from torpedo
Light Cruiser Honolulu - Minor damage from near miss
Light Cruiser St. Louis - Minor damage from strafing
Light Cruiser Helena - Medium damage from torpedo
Destroyer Hull - Minor damage from near miss
Destroyer Aylwin - Minor damage from near miss
Destroyer Cummings - Minor damage from near miss
Destroyer Shaw - Heavy damage from bomb hit
Destroyer Cassin - Destroyed by bomb hit, salvaged
Destroyer Downes - Destroyed by bomb hit, salvaged
Destroyer Bagley - Minor damage from near miss
Destroyer Helm - Minor damage from near miss
Destroyer Henley - Minor damage from strafing
Minelayer Oglala - Sunk by ruptured hull plates (was docked alongside Helena when she was hit by the torpedo), salvaged
Destroyer Tender Dobbin - Minor damage from near miss
Seaplane Carrier Curtiss - Medium damage from bomb hits
Ammunition Ship Pyro - Minor damage from near miss
Repair Ship Vestal - Heavy damage from bomb hits and explosion of Arizona alongside
Repair Ship Rigel - Minor damage from near miss
Target Ship Utah - Sunk by torpedoes
Survey Ship Sumner - Minor damage from exploding AA gun
Good evening, Mayor...thank you for today’s sustenance for body and soul.
0342 hours..... The minesweeper Condor is on patrol less than two miles ) off the entrance to Pearl Harbor.... The officer of the deck sees something about fifty yards ahead off the port bow..... He asks a sailor what he makes of the object..... Thats a periscope, sir, the sailor replies. And there arent supposed to be any subs in the area.
The Condor sends a blinker-light message to the destroyer Ward:...... Sighted submerged submarine on westerly course, speed 9 knots.
0610 hours.... Already in flight, Comdr. Mitsuo Fuchida, who will lead the Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor, sees the Japanese aircraft carriers rocking on a choppy sea...... As the carriers pitch and roll, waves crash across on the flight decks. Crewmen cling to the aircraft to keep them from going over the side.
The carriers turn into the wind, and the first wave of planes183 fighters, bombers, and torpedo planesroar into the sky........ Pilots reconfirm their navigation by using a Honolulu radio stations music as a guiding beam.
0645 hours..... The U.S. destroyer Ward, which had not been able to find the midget submarine reported by the minesweeper Condor,.... moves in for the kill..... The Wards captain, Lt. William W. Outerbridge, has been in command for only two days...... He orders men to commence firing. The first shot misses. The second strikes the submarine at the waterline.
The submarine heels over and appears to slow and sink. The Ward assures the sinking by dropping a full pattern of depth charges.
0653 hours ..... From the Ward to the 14th Naval Headquarters, at Pearl Harbor Naval Station:
We have dropped depth charges upon sub operating in defensive sea area”.
Then, almost immediately, a second, more detailed message:
We have attacked, fired upon, and dropped depth charges upon submarine operating in defensive sea area.
The Wards captain believes that the message will show superiors that the destroyer had not just responded to a submarine sighting but actually had shot at something.
0702 hours .... The Armys Opana Mobile Radar Station is one of six radar stations on Oahu.... Radar is a new defense tool in Hawaii; the system has been in operation for less than a month.
One of the two privates on duty looks at the radar oscilloscope and cant believe his eyes..... He asks his buddy to take a lookand he confirms the sighting:.....
50 or more aircraft on a bearing for Oahu..... The privates call the Fort Shafter information center, the hub of the radar network.
0715 hours.... The Ward had sent out its messagethat it had attacked an unidentified subin code...... At headquarters, code clerks decode the message, then routinely put it in... paraphrase.... so there will not be an exact paper copy that might aid an enemy code breaker.
The message gradually makes its way to the top:
Adm. Husband E. Kimmel, commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet...... Because there had been so many false reports of submarines recently,.....Kimmel decides to wait for verification of the report.
0720 hours..... An Army lieutenant who is in training at the radio-network operations center at Fort Shafter gets the Opana radar station report:
the biggest sightings the radar operator had ever seen.... By now the planes are about 70 miles (113 kilometers) away...... The lieutenant believes that the radar had picked up a flight of U.S. B-17 Flying Fortress bombers heading from California to Hawaii..... For security reasons, he cannot tell this to the radar operators. All he says is, ....Well, dont worry about it.
0733 hours ..... U.S. code breakers, though stymied by Japanese naval codes, have cracked the Japanese diplomatic code..... From a Tokyo-to-Washington message, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Gen. George C. Marshall, Army Chief of Staff,.... learn that Japanese negotiators in Washington have been told to break off talks..... Believing this may mean war,... Marshall sends a warning to Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short, commander of U.S. Army forces in Hawaii.
Because atmospheric static blacks out communications with Hawaii, Marshalls message goes via commercial telegraph.... (It will reach Shorts headquarters at 1145 hours. He will not see it until about 1500 hours.)
0740 hours.... Planes of the first wave take off from the Japanese carriers49 high-altitude bombers, 51 dive-bombers, 40 torpedo planes, 43 fighters..... They fly through clouds, wondering if Pearl Harbor will be visible.
Then, as they near Oahu, the attack commander hears a Honolulu weather report: ...clouds mostly over the mountains. Visibility good. The clouds break. The fliers see a long white line of coast..Oahus Kakuku Point.
0749 hours.... Air-attack commander Mitsuo Fuchida, looking down on Pearl Harbor, sees no aircraft carriers, which the Japanese hoped to destroy and thus thwart U.S. retaliation..... He orders his telegraph operator to tap out to, to, to: attack..... Then other taps: to ra, to ra, to ra:.... attack, surprise achieved.
Though not meant to have a double meaning, to ra is read by some Japanese pilots as toratiger...... And according to a Japanese saying,.... A tiger goes out 1,000 ri [2,000 miles/3,218 kilometers] and returns without fail.
0755 hours..... At the Command Center on Ford Island, Comdr. Logan C. Ramsey looks out a window to see a low-flying plane..... A reckless U.S. pilot, he thinks..... Then he sees... something black fall out of that plane and realizes its a bomb.
Ramsey runs to a radio room and orders the telegraph operators to send out an uncoded message to every ship and base:
AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR X THIS IS NOT DRILL!!!
Don’t rush the walker....keep using it as long as needed.
Did you get a railing on the front porch? I hope you are using your sons for help.
I’m off for home with my homework....back in a bit.
bttt
Thanks Stonewall....we surely took it hard and then some!
Amazing——we are contemporaries.We are called The Silent Generation which really annoys me. Everyone seems to forget we were also The Korean War Generation.
Sunday was family time——always going someplace for dinner or having someone in.Sunday “dinner” was at 1:00 PM sharp in my family.
No money but good memories.
An amazing, heart moving, touchable moment in that photo...goes right to the heart and emotions.
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God bless ALL the heroes!
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