Hamilton Field, near San Francisco, December 6, 1941, 0900: Thirteen B-17s take off at 15-minute intervals for a 15-hour flight to Pearl Harbor. The journey was long and boring.
The young co-pilot of a B-17, Second Lieutenant Ernest “Roy” Reid, recalled: “We were low on fuel and unarmed as we approached our base leg to Hickam Field. It was 0800 when I noticed thick smoke coming out of Pearl . Harbor and asked our captain, Captain Swenson, what was going on. He replied, “Don’t worry, they’re probably locals burning sugar cane.” But I kept thinking, ‘When the hell did people start growing sugar cane?’ in water?'”
Seven minutes earlier, Japanese flight leader Mitsuo Fuchida shouted into his radio: “Tora! Tora! Tora!” to inform the entire Japanese Navy that complete surprise had been achieved over Pearl Harbor.
Five minutes earlier, a bomb exploded near the cruiser Helena and two torpedoes broke through the water and crashed into the cruiser Raleigh and the target ship Utah.
Two minutes earlier, Lieutenant Commander Logan Ramsey had sent the historic panic message: “AIR STRIKE, PEARL HARBOR. THIS IS NOT A DRILL!”
As B-17 co-pilot Reid continued to debate the feasibility of growing sugar cane on water, a series of torpedoes hit the USS Oklahoma. She was tied overboard of the USS Maryland.
Fred Johnson, a young Navy ensign aboard the Maryland, recalled: “We saw thousands of raindrops hitting the water, then quickly realized that the raindrops were fire from 7.7mm machine guns and cannon fire. 20 mm from Japanese strafing planes.”
In its agony, Oklahoma began to capsize. Johnson said, “We were tied to the Oklahoma, so we had to cut the lines or they would stop us with it.”
The disgusting slaughter continued. Johnson vividly recalled: “The oil on the water started burning. The good swimmers went under the water and made it to safety, but the bad swimmers… well, we saw those kids surface in the oil and catch fire.” like matches.”
At Schofield Barracks, squadron personnel and payroll clerk Bob Kerr stood stunned on the porch of a small barracks.
“The Japanese were strafing the field and barracks area. Our squad cook and another soldier were on the ground in front of me, both dead. I knew our squad list would be useful later, so I ran inside to open the safe. The sergeant first saw me and asked me for an explanation. I told him that the list would be valuable and he replied: ‘Good idea,’ but those were his last words. He was killed instantly by machine gun bullets.
As Oklahoma collapsed, as oil ignited hapless sailors, as Bob Kerr’s First Sergeant fell mortally wounded, the Japanese Navy’s dedicated champion bomber Kanai fatally targeted the USS Arizona. Her aim was correct: the bomb hit next to turret number 2 and detonated in the front magazine. The resulting explosion lifted the Arizona from the water before the large battleship sank in the shallow waters of Pearl Harbor, where she remains to this day, along with her buried crew of 1,177.
Reid’s B-17 was flying at less than 600 feet and on its final approach to Hickam Field when he saw at least six American aircraft burning furiously on the airfield.
He recalled: “Then I knew we were at war.” As if to demonstrate this, two Japanese fighters approached from the rear and opened fire.
Reid said: “Smoke began to enter the cabin because our pyrotechnics had been ignited by the Japanese bullets. We knew our only option was to try to land.”
With the bomber burning and the pilots blinded by smoke, the B-17 bounced hard on the runway, the tail fell and the fuselage folded and collapsed. The Flying Fortress heavy bomber broke into two pieces. Reid’s B-17 is remembered as the first American aircraft shot down in World War II.
Reid survived the crash and later commanded his own B-17 in the Pacific, completing 50 combat missions. Employee Bob Kerr saved lives on the “Day of Infamy” by transporting wounded men to the base hospital in an Army truck that he couldn’t get out of in first gear. He later qualified as a B-25 aerial gunner and radio operator, flying in combat over 32 different islands.
Ensign Fred Johnson subsequently received additional training at the U.S. Naval Academy and joined the crew of the newly commissioned USS Hornet CV-12 (replacing the USS Hornet CV-8 lost during the Battle of Santa Cruz). Johnson saw combat aboard the Hornet for 16 months, participating in the battles of Tinian, Saipan, Guam, Rota, Leyte Gulf, Okinawa, Iwo Jima, Chi Chi Jima and many more. The USS Hornet CV-12 was targeted by air strikes 59 times. She was never hit.
The Japanese bomber Kanai was reportedly killed in action over Midway Island. Mitsuo Fuchida survived the war to become a Christian evangelist.
He traveled through America and Europe articulating his story and finally settled permanently in the United States.
Thousands of stories have been told about the “Day of Infamy” and thousands of books have told even more versions, but most of the names, stories and sufferings will never be written down.
Pearl Harbor was a tactical victory for the Japanese, but strategically a regrettable failure. Battleships were a dying breed of fighting ship; the large carriers would become the new dominant force on the high seas, and none of our three Pacific carriers were in port on December 7, 1941. Those three surviving American carriers would later change the course of the Pacific War.
The Japanese pilots concentrated on the large ships. In doing so, the fuel oil storage facilities were left intact with 4.5 million gallons to fuel our revenge-seeking ships. Additionally, the dock’s repair facilities were left intact, thus leaving American ingenuity intact. These targets were scheduled to be destroyed in the third wave of Japanese attacks. Never arrived.
The attack fleet commander, Nagumo, fearing an American counterattack, decided to cancel the third wave attack force and headed home.
One of the biggest mistakes the Japanese made was not destroying the smallest American ships at Pearl: our submarines. They survived and went to sea to destroy more Japanese tonnage during the war than the Americans lost at Pearl Harbor.
And the biggest mistake of all? Underestimating the American public. We came together as Americans and the Greatest Generation saved a world from despotism.
When the brilliant Japanese naval commander Isoroku Yamamoto was asked about invading the United States after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he responded: “I have no intention of invading the United States.
“There would be a gun behind every blade of grass.”
If America’s enemies feared our Second Amendment then, perhaps we should fear losing it.
