December 7, 1941
10am EST - FDR reads 14th message that does not declare war nor sever relations, but concludes "it is impossible to reach an agreement through further negotiations."
11am EST - FDR reads 15th message setting 1pm delivery time for 14-part message to Hull - but still no indication of where Japanese attack would take place
11:30am EST - Marshall orders "be on the alert" warning sent to all Pacific bases - but does not use scrambler telephone or define nature of the alert
6:30am PHT - 11:30am EST - Catalina spots sub trying to enter Pearl Harbor.
6:45am - first shot of war in Pacific by US forces fired by USS Ward, as she fires on sub trying to follow USS Antares into harbor. Ward reports first shot missed, but second shot hit sub at conning tower water line.
7:02am - Opana Radar Station privates Joseph Lockhard & George Elliott sight Japanese planes 132 mi. northeast (1st wave had taken off from carriers at 6:00am 230 miles away)
7:20am - Lt. kermit Tyler dismisses radar sightings as B-17s due from California
7:25am - Kimmel informed of Ward's attack on sub, but no action taken
7:33am - Marshall's warning received at Western Union office in Honolulu
7:49am - Fuchida radios his planes to attack with "To To To" code for "charge"
7:53am - Fuchida prematurely radios "Tora Tora Tora" code ("tiger") that the surprise attack on Pearl was successful
7:55am - 1st wave of 183 Japanese planes led by Fuchida attack Pearl from NW. 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 it’s 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.
The coordinated attack begins as dive-bombers strike the Army Air Forces’ Wheeler Field, north of Pearl Harbor, and Hickam Field, near Ford Island’s Battleship Row. The Japanese, wanting control of the air, hope to destroy American warplanes on the ground.
8:10am - An armor-piercing bomb, dropped by a high-altitude bomber, pierces the forward deck of the Arizona, setting off more than a million pounds (450,000 kilograms) of gunpowder, creating a huge fireball, and killing 1,177 men.
8:10am (1:10pm EST) In Washington, President Roosevelt is informed by Navy Secretary Frank Knox that there has been a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. This is "just the kind of unexpected thing the Japanese would do," says FDR. "[A]t the very time they were discussing peace in the Pacific, they were plotting to overthrow it."
8:17am - Through the flames and smoke, the destroyer Helm speeds to the open sea.
8:39am - As the destroyer Monaghan tries to “get out of that damn harbor as fast as possible,” a nearby U.S. ship signals that it has sighted a submarine. The Monaghan heads for the sub at top speed, hits it with gunfire, then rams it and drops depth charges. The charges are so close that when they explode, the blasts lift the Monaghan out of the water but do not damage her.
The sinking midget submarine has managed to fire a torpedo. But it does not hit anything.
8:50am - The Nevada gets her steam up in 45 minutes and, with antiaircraft guns blazing, heads for the open sea. A sailor sees her U.S. flag flying in the smoke and thinks of the words of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Japanese planes of the second wave bomb her, hoping that by sinking her in the narrow channel she will bottle up the fleet. Rather than risk that, she deliberately grounds herself off Hospital Point.
8:50am (2:20pm EST) - In Washington, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, well aware of what is transpiring in Hawaii, erupts when given a note from the Japanese breaking off peace talks: "I have never seen a document that was more crowded with infamous falsehoods and distortions�on a scale so huge that I never imagined until today that any government on this planet was capable of uttering them."
8:54am - The second wave—35 fighters, 78 dive-bombers, and 54 high-altitude bombers—meets heavy antiaircraft fire. Bombers attack the navy yard dry dock and hit the battleship Pennsylvania. Another bomber hits oil tanks between the destroyers Cassin and Downes. Onboard ammunition explodes, and the Cassin rolls off her blocks and into the Downes.
Bombs hit the light cruiser Raleigh, which had been torpedoed in the first wave. Crewmen jettison gear to keep her from capsizing.
9:30am - A bomb blows off the bow of the destroyer Shaw; pieces of the ship rain down half a mile (.8 kilometer) away. A photo of the spectacular explosion becomes one of the best known images of December 7, 1941. Repair workers are on the job immediately. The Shaw eventually gets a new bow and is back in action by July 1942.
10:00am - Japanese fighters do not have homing devices or radar. They rendezvous with bombers off Oahu and follow them back to the carriers.
Exultant Japanese pilots urge a third strike. If the gasoline tanks at Pearl Harbor are hit, they reason, the Pacific Fleet will be out of action for weeks. But superiors, saying the attack has been successful, rule out a third strike. One reason: the whereabouts of the U.S. carriers is still unknown.
Locations of US carriers that morning:
CV - 2 Lexington - At sea transporting aircraft to Midway Island.
460 Miles East of Midway.
CV - 3 - Saratoga - At San Diego California.
CV - 6 - Enterprise - At sea returning to Pearl Harbor from Wake Island.
200 Miles West Of Pearl Harbor.
1:00pm - The Pearl Harbor strike force turns for home.
Damage report: Twenty-one ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet were sunk or damaged: the battleships USS Arizona (BB-39), USS California (BB-44), USS Maryland (BB-46), USS Nevada (BB-36), USS Oklahoma (BB-37), USS Pennsylvania (BB-38), USS Tennessee (BB-43) and USS West Virginia (BB-48); cruisers USS Helena (CL-50), USS Honolulu (CL-48) and USS Raleigh (CL-7); the destroyers USS Cassin (DD-372), USS Downes (DD-375), USS Helm (DD-388) and USS Shaw (DD-373); seaplane tender USS Curtiss (AV-4); target ship (ex-battleship) USS Utah (AG-16); repair ship USS Vestal (AR-4); minelayer USS Oglala (CM-4); tug USS Sotoyomo (YT-9); and Floating Drydock Number 2. Aircraft losses were 188 destroyed and 159 damaged, the majority hit before the had a chance to take off.
Casualties: American dead numbered 2,403. That figure included 68 civilians, most of them killed by improperly fused anti-aircraft shells landing in Honolulu. There were 1,178 military and civilian wounded.
Japanese losses were comparatively light. Twenty-nine planes, less than 10 percent of the attacking force, failed to return to their carriers.
The Japanese success was overwhelming, but it was not complete. They failed to damage any American aircraft carriers, which by a stroke of luck, had been absent from the harbor. They neglected to damage the shoreside facilities at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base, which played an important role in the Allied victory in World War II. American technological skill raised and repaired all but three of the ships sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor (the USS Arizona (BB-39) considered too badly damaged to be salvaged, the USS Oklahoma (BB-37) raised and considered too old to be worth repairing, and the obsolete USS Utah (AG-16) considered not worth the effort). Most importantly, the shock and anger caused by the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor united a divided nation and was translated into a wholehearted commitment to victory in World War II.
For the US Navy timeline of the attack (constructed from ships' logs) go here: http://www.navsource.org/Naval/logs.htm
Another minute-by-minute timeline is here: http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/pe ... eline.html
*Also today, Japan launches aerial attacks on Guam and Wake Island; they invade Siam (Thailand) and Malaya; Japan declares war on the United States and the United Kingdom.
Air attacks also on Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, and Shanghai.
Canada declares war on Japan (Prime Minister King announces war on evening of 7th, the Canadian parliament confirms the declaration the following morning.)
In Europe:
*German "Night and Fog decree" dictating the elimination of anti-Nazis in Western Europe.
Dawn
Pearl Harbor
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