The Pearl Harbor Attack, December 7, 1941--a Time Line

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 A Timeline of the Japanese Raid on Pearl Harbor
By Curt Smothers


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At five minutes until 8 a.m. on December 7, 1941,  Japanese bombers and torpedo planes began a coordinated attack of  U.S. military ships at Pearl Harbor and the Army Air fields at Wheeler Field and Hickam field.  


The attack was over by 10 a.m. when all but 29 of the over 180 Japanese war planes rendezvoused and headed back to the Japanese carriers, which departed for Japan at 1 p.m. on that fateful Sunday.


National Geographic’s web page Remembering Pearl Harbor: Pearl Harbor Time Line  is an excellent resource that recounts in detail  the events of December 7, 1941. The following is an excerpted summary of the important events of that day:


♦ 7:40 a.m. – The first wave of Japanese planes (49 high-altitude bombers, 51 dive-bombers, 40 torpedo planes, and 43 fighters) headed for Pearl Harbor through cloudy skies homing in on an Oahu radio station.


♦ 7:49 a.m. – Japanese attack commander Fuchida sends the famous message “to ra, to ra, to ra” (to = attack, ra = surprise achieved). Fuchida was disappointed that there are no American aircraft carriers in port, a stroke of bad luck (and poor intelligence) that would come back to haunt the Japanese later in the war at the Battle of Midway.


♦ 7:55 a.m. – The coordinated attack starts with dive bombers at Wheeler Field where the Japanese destroy most of the parked U.S. aircraft on the tarmac where they had been parked close together to prevent sabotage.


♦ 8 a.m. –  USS West Virginia is struck by aerial torpedoes and two bombs. The Commanding Officer orders the crew to abandon ship. Over 60 crew members die below decks.  


USS Utah likewise takes a torpedo hit, lists to port and settles on the shallow harbor bottom (58 dead).  


Three torpedoes strike the battleship USS Oklahoma, which capsizes, losing 429 sailors killed or missing.


♦ 8:10 a.m. – USS Arizona is struck by a high-altitude bomber in the forward deck. The bomb detonates the battleship’s extensive gunpowder stores and kills over 1100 sailors sending Arizona to the bottom.


The attack continues…


♦ 8:50 a.m. – USS Nevada manages to get under way after 45 minutes and heads for the open sea. The second wave of Japanese bombers attack Nevada, hoping to clog the narrow Pearl Harbor entrance. The Captain of the battleship deliberately runs the ship aground to avoid bottling up Pearl Harbor.


♦ 8:54 a.m. – A second wave of Japanese planes attacks the navy shipyard and disables another U.S. Navy battleship, USS Pennsylvania, hits oil storage tanks and seriously damages the destroyer, USS Cassin. Meanwhile the U.S. Navy cruiser Raleigh is hit by bombs after being torpedoed in the first wave.


♦ 9:30 a.m. – U.S. Navy destroyer Shaw suffers a bomb hit in its bow and is photographed in a spectacular explosion that becomes one of the most famous images of the Pearl Harbor attack.


The attack ends….


♦ 10 a.m. – Japanese planes rendezvous off Oahu and return to their carriers. The Japanese pilots, flushed with the excitement of their success want to return for another strike, but are overruled by the fleet commander. The American carriers are not in port and their whereabouts are not known. And the commander did not want to risk his task force.


♦ 10:30 a.m. – As the wounded begin to overwhelm Oahu’s military and civilian medical facilities, casualties are staged in makeshift emergency facilities on lawns, barracks, mess halls and at schools. The death toll will reach a staggering 2,390.


♦1 p.m. – The Japanese strike force reverses course and sails for Japan.


Retribution…


The Pearl Harbor Time Line article referred to above has a succinct description of the retribution wreaked by the United States on the Japanese Navy:


“In the 44 months of war that will follow, the U.S. Navy will sink every one of the Japanese aircraft carriers, battleships, and cruisers in this strike force. And when Japan signs the surrender document on September 2, 1945, among the U.S. warships in Tokyo Bay will be a victim of the attack, the U.S.S. West Virginia."

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