The Pittsburgh Press (December 6, 1942)
FULL STORY OF PEARL HARBOR!
19 warships and 177 U.S. planes crippled
Most of enemy fliers died in 110 flaming minutes of Jap treachery
By Sandor S. Klein, United Press staff writer
Three battleships burn, Japs blasted five more
Their powerful guns helpless and their crews surprised and stunned, these three mighty ships of the line, the battleships Arizona, West Virginia and Tennessee, burn in Pearl Harbor after the Jap sneak attack. The Arizona (right) was a total loss. The West Virginia (next in line) was severely damaged and it not yet back in service. The Tennessee (the third ship) was damaged but returned to the fleet several months ago. The Jap torpedo and dive bombers hit five other battleships besides these. They were the Oklahoma, California, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Washington – (Dec. 5)
The Navy Department tonight released hitherto secret details of the Pearl Harbor disaster revealing that eight U.S. battleships and 11 other naval vessels were crippled and 177 of our planes destroyed in 110 flaming minutes of Japanese attack.
Hitting every battleship in the harbor, the Japanese put out of action temporarily the bulk of the Pacific Fleet’s battle line.
A high naval officer said it was fair speculation that the balance of the Pacific Fleet could have been annihilated if the main Japanese battle force had followed up the initial blow. Hawaii then might have been open to an invasion attempt.
However, the officer said, the Japanese apparently aimed only at knocking out the fleet so they would be free to carry out their conquest of the Philippines and the Southwest Pacific without interference. There was no evidence that they had intended the attack as a prelude for an invasion of Hawaii.
In launching undeclared war a year ago, the Japanese fliers executed one of the most perfectly-timed, precise attacks in modern warfare.
In hitting every U.S. battleship in port, they accounted for eight out of the 17 battleships then in the entire U.S. Navy.
They destroyed or disabled “most of the aircraft in the Hawaiian area,” the Navy said.
All told, the Navy revealed in an anniversary statement, 86 ships of the Pacific Fleet – exclusively of small craft – were moored at Pearl Harbor on the morning of Dec. 7.
The Japanese struck at 7:55 a.m. At 9:45 a.m., when the last of the raiders had retired, the U.S. Pacific Fleet had been crippled to this extent:
PUT OUT OF ACTION: 11 ships
- Battleships (5): Arizona (sunk), Oklahoma (capsized), California, Nevada and West Virginia
- Destroyers (3): Shaw, Cassin and Downes
- Minelayer Oglala
- Target ship Utah
- A large floating drydock
DAMAGED: 8 ships
- Battleships (3): Pennsylvania, Maryland and Tennessee
- Cruisers (3): Helena, Honolulu and Raleigh
- Seaplane tender Curtiss
- Repair ship Vestal
Other losses:
PLANES DESTROYED: 177
- Navy: 80
- Army: 87
In addition, 70 Navy planes and a still-undisclosed number of Army planes were disabled.
PERSONNEL KILLED, WOUNDED OR MISSING: 4,575
- Navy: 2,177 killed, 960 missing and 876 wounded
- Army: 226 killed and 396 wounded.
Shore facilities were damaged at the naval air stations on Ford Island and Kaneohe Bay and at the Army air bases at Hickam and Wheeler Fields.
It cost the Japanese at least 48 planes out of an estimated 105 in the attacking force. They also lost three baby subs, which had caused no damage.
Of the 19 U.S. vessels sunk or damaged, the Navy said, only the 26-year-old battleship Arizona will be “permanently and totally lost.”
The hulls of two other ships – the destroyers Cassin and Downes – were too badly damaged to be repaired but their main and auxiliary machinery was saved. In addition, the capsized battleship Oklahoma may be lost for the duration. She still lies bottom side up and the Navy has not yet decided whether to right her for repairs soon.
At least nine of the remaining 15 damaged ships have been repaired and again taken their places in the fleet. The rest are in process of repair and modernization.
Thus, a number of the ships which Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox listed as lost in his report of Dec. 15, 1941 – eight days after the Japanese attack – will see service again. In that previous official report, Mr. Knox announced that the Arizona, the destroyers Shaw, Cassin, and Downes, the target ship Utah and the minelayer Oglala had been lost and the Oklahoma had been capsized. He did not disclose the number or types of vessels damaged, saying merely that the “Navy sustained damage to other vessels.”
Commenting on Mr. Knox’s earlier summary, the Navy’s Pearl Harbor anniversary statement said:
Fortunately, the salvage and repair accomplishments at Pearl Harbor have exceeded the most hopeful expectations.
The battleships Pennsylvania, Maryland and Tennessee, the three damaged cruisers, the plane tender and repair ship, all were repaired and returned to the fleet “months ago,” the Navy said. A number of the other vessels, including the destroyer Shaw, are also now in full service but the Navy withheld their names.
The Navy indicated that, from one standpoint, the fleet will ultimately benefit from the injury suffered at Pearl Harbor. Because certain of the damaged ships required extensive machinery and intricate electrical overhauling, naval yards are taking advantage of the opportunity to incorporate up-to-the-minute features and improvements.
At a press conference called to discuss the Navy’s new report, a naval spokesman said that considering the lack of an “air umbrella” – since the preponderance of the Army and Navy planes were either destroyed on the ground or were grounded because of damage to the airfields – the naval vessels did a magnificent job fighting off the enemy.
Some ships were firing two minutes after the start of the initial assault. The average for all ships was five minutes.
The spokesman suggested that if the fleet had been caught at sea without air protection, instead of in harbor, most of the ships probably would have gone down.
The Japanese, he said, were poised to hit well in advance and had probably been getting into position for weeks. He estimated they used three and possibly four aircraft carriers.
The assault was so perfectly executed, he added, that it was probable the enemy rehearsed it “like a Hollywood movie.” Appreciating the thoroughness of the Japs, he said it was not improbable that the enemy may have set up a replica of Pearl Harbor in a restricted area of the inland sea off Japan to practice.
Naval experts assumed, he said, that most of the Jap fliers failed to get back to their carriers because they could not have carried sufficient fuel and large bomb or torpedo loads to have completed the round trip. In that respect, he added, they had engaged in a suicidal mission.
The spokesman said it was most fortunate for the U.S. Navy that the Japs failed to hit many cruisers and destroyers. These ships, because of their great worth as convoy escorts, made it possible for the United States to continue the war in the Pacific.
He said the Japs had made passes at the destroyers but the ships put up such a stiff fight the enemy gave up the attempt.
Asked why the Navy had held up its complete disclosure of our losses at Pearl Harbor for nearly a year, the spokesman said that the Pacific situation was “touch and go” until battleship repairs had progressed to their present point.
The report conceded that the damage suffered last Dec. 7 was “most serious.”
It concluded:
But the repair job now is nearly completed, and thanks to the inspired and unceasing efforts of the naval and civilian personnel attached to the various repair yards, especially at Pearl Harbor itself, this initial handicap soon will be erased forever.
On the morning of Dec. 7, the Pacific Fleet was divided into four task forces – two at sea and two at Pearl Harbor.
There were two phases to the Jap attack. The first began at 7:55 a.m., when dive bombers struck at Hickam Field and the naval air stations at Ford Island and Kaneohe Bay. A few seconds later, torpedo planes and dive bombers swarmed in from all directions to concentrate on the heavy ships at Pearl Harbor.
The Navy said:
The enemy attack, aided by the element of surprise and based on exact information, was very successful.
Twenty-one torpedo planes, which constituted the major threat initially, made four attacks and 30 dive bombers came over in eight waves. In addition, 15 horizontal bombers participated in the first phase which lasted about a half hour.
Except for sporadic attack by dive and horizontal bombers, there was a comparative lull between 8:25 and 8:40. Then, the horizontal bombers came back in numbers, crossing and recrossing their targets from various directions. The Navy said they caused “serious damage.” Dive bombers reappeared, but contented themselves with strafing. The last enemy plane left by 9:45.
The Navy estimated the attacking planes numbered 105 in all – 21 torpedo carriers, 48 dive bombers and 36 horizontal bombers. At least 48 of these planes were lost. Navy action accounted for 28. The few Army pursuit planes that were able to get off the ground shot down more than 20. In addition, the enemy lost three “midget” submarines.
Before the attack, there were 202 U.S. naval aircraft of all types on Oahu in flying condition. In the first few minutes of the raid, 150 were disabled. Of the 52 remaining, 38 took to the air. The other 14 were made ready for flight too late or were blocked from takeoff. Eighty of the Navy’s planes were totally lost.
The Army had 273 planes on Oahu. Of those that escaped damage, few were able to take off because of damage to the runaways at Hickam and Wheeler Fields. Of the 97 that were destroyed, 23 were bombers, 66 fighters and eight were other types.
Aircraft replacements were made within a few days of the attack, the Navy said, and interference with facilities at the naval base and elsewhere on the island “was generally limited to a matter of hours.”
A few days after the attack, Secretary Knox visited Pearl Harbor. In his report, Mr. Knox at that time declared that “the United States services were not on the alert against the surprise air attack on Hawaii.”
The following day, President Roosevelt appointed an investigating board headed by Supreme Court Justice Owen J. Roberts. And on the next day, Adm. Husband E. Kimmel was removed as Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet and the U.S. Fleet, and Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short was deprived of his command as Chief of the Army’s Hawaiian Department.
The Roberts Committee reported, on Jan. 24, that there was inexcusable negligence on the part of trusted officers of the Armed Forces in Hawaii. Both Kimmel and Short then retired from active service and were ordered to be tried by courts-martial. The trials will probably be held after the war.
Navy report fills in gaps of statement by Knox
Washington (UP) – (Dec. 5)
The Navy’s Pearl Harbor anniversary report tonight filled in many of the gaps in the only previous official account of the crippling Japanese attack on the Pacific Fleet – that which Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox released eight days after the attack.
Mr. Knox, in a statement at Dec. 15, said five ships (including the battleship Arizona) were lost, that the battleship Oklahoma had capsized but could be righted and repaired, and that other vessels had sustained damage.
The new report reveals that 19 ships, including all eight battleships that were moored in Pearl Harbor, were hit. Mr. Knox’s report mentioned only the two battleships.
Of the five ships Mr. Knox listed as lost, the Navy now says that only the battleship Arizona was permanently out of action, although the Navy does not consider them wholly lost because their main and auxiliary machinery was saved. As for the capsized Oklahoma, the Navy said it has not yet decided whether to right and repair her soon.
Secretary Knox said the damage varied from ships already repaired as of Dec. 15 last to “a few which will take from a week to several months to repair.” He included the Oklahoma in the latter category.
Big ship beached foiling attempt to block harbor
Washington (UP) – (Dec. 5)
A high-ranking naval officer revealed tonight how the damaged battleship Nevada averted a Japanese attempt to block the entrance to Pearl Harbor last Dec. 7 by beaching herself.
The ship was heading out of the harbor toward the entrance when it became apparent the Japanese bombers were trying to sink her at a point where she would block the channel.
Whereupon, her commanding officer ordered a hard right rudder, which sent the nose of the big ship up on a sugarcane field not far from the entrance.