Before dawn on 7 December 1941, the American strategic center of gravity in the Pacific reposed in the seven battleships then moored along "Battleship Row", the six pairs of interrupted quays located along Ford Island's eastern side. Quay F-2, the southernmost, which usually hosted an aircraft carrier, was empty. Northeastward, Battle Force flagship California was next, moored at F-3. Then came two pairs, moored side by side: Maryland with Oklahoma outboard, and Tennessee with West Virginia outboard. Astern of Tennessee lay Arizona, which had the repair ship Vestal alongside. Last in line was USS Nevada, by herself at quay F-8. These seven battleships, ranging in age from eighteen to twenty-five years, represented all but two of those available to the Pacific Fleet. The Fleet flagship, Pennsylvania, was also in Pearl Harbor, drydocked at the nearby Navy Yard. The ninth, USS Colorado, was undergoing overhaul on the west coast.
Together, these ships were one short of equalling Japan's active battlefleet. Clearly a worrisome threat to Japanese plans for Pacific Ocean dominance, they were the Japanese raiders' priority target. Twenty-four of the forty Japanese torpedo planes were assigned to attack "Battleship Row", and five more diverted to that side of Ford Island when they found no battleships in their intended target areas. Of these planes' twenty-nine Type 91 aerial torpedoes (each with a warhead of some 450 pounds of high explosive), up to twenty-one found their targets: two hit California, one exploded against Nevada and as many as nine each struck Oklahoma and West Virginia. The latter two ships sank within minutes of receiving this torpedo damage.
Horizontal bombers, armed with heavy armor-piercing bombs, arrived just as the last torpedo planes finished their attacks, and other horizontal and dive bombers came in later. Together, these planes scored many hits or damaging near-misses on the "Battleship Row" ships: two on California, Maryland and Tennessee; a few on West Virginia. Most spectacular of the bombers' victims was Arizona, which was struck many times. One bomb penetrated to the vicinity of her forward magazines, which detonated with a massive blast, immediately sinking the ship. Nevada, which got underway during the latter part of the attack, attracted many dive bombers, was hit repeatedly as she steamed slowly between Ford Island and the Navy Yard, and, sinking and ablaze, had to be run ashore.
The Japanese had thus put out of action all seven battleships present on "Battleship Row". Two, Maryland and Tennessee, were repaired in a matter of weeks, as was the Pennsylvania. However, three were under repair for a year or more. Oklahoma and Arizona would never return to service. Even with the addition of three more battleships brought around from the Atlantic, the Japanese battleline was assured of absolute superiority in the critical months to come.
USS Nevada (BB-36), eldest (by a few months) of the battleships in Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, was hit by one torpedo during the last part of the Japanese torpedo planes' attack. This opened a large hole in the ship's port side below her two forward turrets. Her anti-torpedo protection, of a type back-fitted to the Navy's older battleships, resisted the warhead's explosion fairly well. However, serious leaks were started in the inmost bulkhead, allowing a considerable amount of water into the ship.
The damaged Nevada got underway at 0840, about a half-hour after she was torpedoed, backed clear of her berth, and began to steam down the channel toward the Navy Yard. The slowly moving battleship was an attractive target for Japanese dive bombers, which hit and near-missed her repeatedly, opening up her forecastle deck, causing more leaks in her hull, starting gasoline fires forward and other blazes in her superstructure and midships area. Now in serious trouble, Nevada was run aground on the Navy Yard side of the channel, just south of Ford Island.
As her crew fought her many fires, the ship twisted around until she was facing back up the harbor. With the help of tugs, Nevada then backed across the way and grounded, stern-first, on the other side of the channel. Her old, much-modified structure proved itself to be anything but watertight, and water traveled inexorably throughout the ship. By the following day, she had settled to the bottom, fortunately in fairly shallow water. There she was to remain for over two months, the subject of one of the first of Pearl Harbor's many demanding salvage projects. Of USS Nevada's crew of nearly 1500, fifty officers and men were killed in action during the Pearl Harbor raid.
Destruction of the battleship Arizona, A direct hit to her forward magazine destroyed the forward half of the ship killing over 900 of her crew instantly. The time is 0810, approximately 12 minutes into the attack.
USS Arizona (BB-39) was moored inboard of the repair ship Vestal (AR-4) when the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor. Early reports claimed that she had been hit by one torpedo in the first part of the action. However, this appears not to have been the case, and the destruction of the ship was entirely the work of Japanese horizontal bombers, which struck her with several bombs. Some of these caused damage to her after and midships areas, but their effects were minor compared with what resulted from one that penetrated beside her forward turrets.
The massive explosion that followed has never been fully explained, since the bomb apparently did not pierce Arizona's armored deck, which protected her magazines. Many qualified authorities have blamed powder storage outside of the magazines as the cause, but this is conjectural and probably will always remain so. In any case, the battleship was utterly devastated from in front of her first turret back into her machinery spaces. Her sides were blown out and the turrets, conning tower, and much of the superstructure dropped several feet into her wrecked hull. This tipped her foremast forward, giving the wreck its distinctive appearance.
Blazing furiously, Arizona quickly settled to the bottom of Pearl Harbor, a total loss. She burned for more than two days and was subsequently the subject of only partial salvage. Over 1100 of her crew were killed, including Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, Commander Battleship Division One, and the ship's Commanding Officer, Captain Franklin Van Valkenburgh. Their sacrifice, and that of the other men lost at Pearl Harbor, is now permanently memorialized by the USS Arizona Memorial, erected over her sunken hull in the berth it has occupied since shortly after 8 AM on 7 December 1941.
The repair ship Vestal (AR-4), moored outboard of the battleship Arizona on the morning of 7 December 1941, was hit by two Japanese bombs and received additional damage from the force and heat of Arizona's explosion. Casting loose from the sunk and burning battleship at about 8:30 AM, Vestal moved up the harbor a short distance and anchored. However, one of the bomb hits caused her to flood aft, and the water could not be controlled in the ship's old hull. Accordingly, she hoisted her anchor and was beached on Aiea Shoal, in Pearl Harbor's northeastern corner. Vestal was repaired by mid-February 1942.
The battleships Tennessee (BB-43) and West Virginia (BB-48) were moored together on "Battleship Row" when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. West Virginia was struck by up to nine enemy torpedoes, tearing open her midships and forward hull and wrecking her rudder. She initially listed severely to port, but quick counterflooding by her crew allowed her to settle to the bottom on a relatively even keel. Her Commanding Officer, Captain Mervyn S. Bennion, was one of over a hundred of her officers and men killed in the raid.
West Virginia, sunk, largely full of water and further damaged by fire and bombs, was subsequently the subject of a massive salvage operation and a very thorough modernization. She did not return to active service until mid-1944.
USS Tennessee, the inboard ship of the pair, was hit by two bombs, which disabled her second and third 14" gun turrets but caused no further serious damage. She was set afire in several places by burning debris when USS Arizona , moored just astern, exploded. Her hull plates were also damaged by oil fires. Tennessee was wedged tightly between the sunken West Virginia and her mooring quay and had to be blasted free. She was given initial repairs at Pearl Harbor Navy Yard and steamed to the west coast for further work later in December. Five of her crew were killed in the attack.
On 7 December 1941, USS Maryland (BB-46) was moored inboard of USS Oklahoma (BB-37), and was thus protected by her when Japanese torpedo planes struck. The unfortunate Oklahoma, an older ship with much less adequate protection against underwater damage, was hit by up to nine torpedoes. Her hull's port side was opened almost completely from below the forward gun turret back to the third turret, a distance of over 250 feet. She listed quickly, her port bilge struck the harbor bottom, and she then rolled almost completely over. Oklahoma came to rest less than twenty minutes after she was first hit. Some of her starboard underwater hull and the starboard propeller were now all that showed above the surface of Pearl Harbor.
Some of Oklahoma's men were still alive inside her upturned hull, and their rescue became the focus of an intense effort over the next two days. Thirty-two Sailors were recovered alive, but over four-hundred were killed. In 1943, the capsized ship was rolled upright and raised in one of the salvage profession's greatest undertakings, but she was not further repaired.
Maryland was hit by two bombs, which caused relatively light damage and some flooding forward. Four of her men lost their lives. The battleship was able to steam to the west coast for final repairs later in December and was fully returned to service in February 1942.
USS California (BB-44), flagship of the Battle Force, was hit forward and aft by two Japanese torpedoes in the early minutes of the Pearl Harbor raid. She was later hit by a bomb and near-missed by another, which caused additional flooding. Though her design included very good protection against underwater damage, California's actual condition was much less satisfactory, with many watertight compartments open and some design details proving unable to resist the effects of torpedo warheads.
California had steam up and was nearly ready to get underway when a large mass of burning oil, drifting down "Battleship Row", threatened to set the ship afire. She was ordered abandoned, and, when the crew returned on board sometime later, it was impossible to control her flooding. Despite strenuous efforts, she slowly settled to the bottom of Pearl Harbor, coming to rest on 10 December. The battleship was raised in March 1942 and received repairs and modernization work that lasted until January 1944, over two years after she was sunk. Nearly a hundred of her officers and men were killed in action during the Pearl Harbor attack.
Having taken six torpedo hits and two bomb strikes in the first wave attack on Battleship Row, the West Virginia is ablaze, her bows already low in the water and decks awash. Ignoring the risk, crews push the Navy tug Hoga alongside with fire-fighting equipment and to pick up survivors. Overhead, Japanese Zeroes swoop through the smoke, aiming the second wave attack at installations on Pearl Harbor’s Ford Island, to complete one of history’s most devastating unprovoked declarations of war.
