The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II - Robert J. Cressman

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and Seaman First Class James R. Ward, as the ship is abandoned, hold flashlights to allow their shipmates to escape; on board West Virginia, her commanding officer, Captain Mervyn Bennion, directs his ship’s defense until struck down and mortally wounded by a fragment from a bomb that hits battleship Tennessee (BB 43) moored inboard; on board Utah, Austrian-born Chief Watertender Peter Tomich remains at his post as the ship capsizes, securing the boilers and making sure his shipmates have escaped from the fireroom. Flaherty, Ward, Bennion, and Tomich are awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously.40

      Japanese bombs also sink battleship Arizona (BB 39); the cataclysmic explosion of her forward magazine causes heavy casualties, among them Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, Commander Battleship Division 1, who thus becomes the first U.S. Navy flag officer to die in combat in World War II. Both he and Arizona’s commanding officer, Captain Franklin van Valkenburgh, are awarded Medals of Honor posthumously. The ship’s senior surviving officer on board, Lieutenant Commander Samuel G. Fuqua, directs efforts to fight the raging fires and sees to the evacuation of casualties from the ship; he ultimately directs the abandonment of the doomed battleship and leaves in the last boat. He is awarded the Medal of Honor.

      When Arizona explodes, she is moored inboard of repair ship Vestal (AR 4); the blast causes damage to the repair ship, which has already been hit by a bomb. Vestal’s captain, Commander Cassin Young, earns the Medal of Honor by swimming back to his ship after being blown overboard by the explosion of Arizona’s magazines, and directing her beaching on Aiea shoal to prevent further damage in the fires consuming Arizona.

      Battleship California (BB 44), hit by both bombs and torpedoes, sinks at her berth alongside Ford Island; during the battle, Ensign Herbert C. Jones, USNR, organizes and leads a party to provide ammunition to the ship’s 5-inch antiaircraft battery; he is mortally wounded by a bomb explosion. Gunner Jackson C. Pharris, leading an ordnance repair party, is stunned by concussion of a torpedo explosion early in the action but recovers to set up an ammunition supply train by hand; he later enters flooding compartments to save shipmates. Chief Radioman Thomas J. Reeves assists in maintaining an ammunition supply party until overcome by smoke inhalation and fires; Machinist’s Mate Robert R. Scott, although his station at an air compressor is flooding, remains at his post, declaring, “This is my station and I will stay and give them [the antiaircraft gun crews] air as long as the guns are going.” Jones, Pharris, Reeves, and Scott receive the Medal of Honor (Jones, Reeves, and Scott posthumously).

While launches and boats ...

      While launches and boats ply the waters of Pearl Harbor (left), battleship Nevada (BB 36) steams past 1010 Dock during the Japanese raid of 7 December 1941, in her bid for the open sea. In foreground lies the administration building for NAS Ford Island and small seaplane tender Avocet (AVP 4) (right, beyond smokestack); tank farms and submarine base in distance (left) will not be touched by the Japanese, nor will the Navy Yard, a part of which is visible at right, dominated by the hammerhead crane (right). (NA, 80-G-32559)

      Japanese bombs damage destroyers Cassin (DD 372) and Downes (DD 375), which are lying immobile in Drydock No. 1.

      Minelayer Oglala (CM 4) is damaged by concussion from torpedo exploding in light cruiser Helena (CL 50) moored alongside, and capsizes at her berth; harbor tug Sotoyomo (YT 9) is sunk in floating drydock YFD 2.41

      Battleship Nevada (BB 36), the only capital ship to get under way during the attack, is damaged by bombs and a torpedo before she is beached. Two of her men are later awarded the Medal of Honor: Machinist Donald K. Ross for his service in the forward and after dynamo rooms and Chief Boatswain Edwin J. Hill (posthumously) for his work in enabling the ship to get under way and, later, in attempting to release the anchors during the effort to beach the ship.

      Battleships Pennsylvania (BB 38), Tennessee (BB 43), and Maryland (BB 46), light cruiser Honolulu (CL 48), and floating drydock YFD 2 are damaged by bombs; light cruisers Raleigh (CL 7) and Helena (CL 50) are damaged by torpedoes; destroyer Shaw (DD 373), by bombs, in floating drydock YFD 2; heavy cruiser New Orleans (CA 32), destroyers Helm (DD 388) and Hull (DD 350), destroyer tender Dobbin (AD 3), repair ship Rigel (AR 11), and seaplane tender Tangier (AV 8) are damaged by near-misses of bombs; seaplane tender Curtiss (AV 4) is damaged by crashing carrier bomber; and garbage lighter YG 17 (alongside Nevada at the outset) is damaged by strafing and/or concussion of bombs.

      Destroyer Monaghan (DD 354) rams, depth charges, and sinks Type A midget submarine inside Pearl Harbor proper, during the attack.42

      Light minelayer Gamble (DM 15) mistakenly fires upon submarine Thresher (SS 200) off Oahu, 21°15′N, 159°01′W.43

      Carrier Enterprise (CV 6) Air Group (CEAG, VB 6, and VS 6) search flight (Commander Howard L. Young, CEAG), in two-plane sections of SBDs, begins arriving off Oahu as the Japanese attack unfolds. Some SBDs meet their doom at the hands of Japanese planes; one (VS 6) is shot down by friendly fire. Another SBD ends up on Kauai where its radio-gunner is drafted into the local Army defense force with his single .30-caliber machine gun. Almost all of the surviving planes, together with what observation and scouting planes from battleship (VO) and cruiser (VCS) detachments, as well as flying boats (VP) and utility aircraft (VJ) that survive the attack, take part in the desperate, hastily organized searches flown out of Ford Island to look for the Japanese carriers whence the surprise attack had come.

      Navy Yard and Naval Station, Pearl Harbor; Naval Air Stations at Ford Island and Kaneohe Bay; Ewa Mooring Mast Field (Marine Corps air facility); Army airfields at Hickam, Wheeler, and Bellows; and Schofield Barracks suffer varying degrees of bomb and fragment damage. Japanese bombs and strafing destroy 188 Navy, Marine Corps, and USAAF planes. At NAS Kaneohe Bay, Aviation Chief Ordnanceman John W. Finn mounts a machine gun on an instruction stand and returns the fire of strafing planes although wounded many times. Although ordered to leave his post to have his wounds treated, he returns to the squadron areas where, although in great pain, he oversees the rearming of returning PBYs. For his heroism, Finn is awarded the Medal of Honor.

      Casualties. Killed or missing: Navy, 2,008; Marine Corps, 109; Army, 218; civilian, 68. Wounded: Navy, 710; Marine Corps, 69; Army, 364; civilian, 35.44 Acts of heroism by sailors, marines, soldiers, and civilians (from telephone exchange operator to yard shop worker), in addition to those enumerated above, abound.45

      Japanese losses amount to fewer than 100 men, 29 planes of various types, and four Type A midget submarines. A fifth Type A washes ashore off Bellows Field and is recovered; its commander (Ensign Sakamaki Kazuo) is captured, becoming U.S. prisoner of war no. 1.

      Japanese Naval Aviation Pilot First Class Nishikaichi Shigenori, from the carrier Hiryu, crash-lands his Mitsubishi A6M2 Type 0 carrier fighter (ZERO) on the island of Niihau, T.H. He surrenders to the islanders who disarm him and confiscate his papers but, isolated as they are, know nothing of the attack on Pearl Harbor. “Peaceful and friendly,” Nishikaichi is not kept in custody but is allowed to roam the island unguarded (see 9 and 12–14 December).

      First night recovery of planes in World War II by the U.S. Navy occurs when Enterprise turns on searchlights to aid returning SBDs (VB 6 and VS 6) and TBDs (VT 6) that had been launched at dusk in an attempt to find Japanese ships reported off Oahu. Friendly fire, however, downs four of Enterprise’s six F4Fs (VF 6) (the strike group escort) that are directed to land at Ford Island. Other Enterprise SBDs make a night landing at Kaneohe Bay, miraculously avoiding automobiles and construction equipment parked on the ramp to prevent just such an occurrence.

      Damage to the battle line proves extensive, but carriers Enterprise and Lexington (CV 2) are, providentially, not in port, having been deployed at the eleventh hour to reinforce advanced bases at Wake and Midway. Saratoga (CV 3) is at San Diego on this day, preparing to return to Oahu. The carriers will prove crucial in the coming months (see February–May 1942). Convinced that he has proved fortunate to have suffered as trifling

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