World War II Subscribe to Excellent World War II Videos. Updated Weekly At 6:00 am on 7 December, the six Japanese carriers launched a first wave of 181 planes composed of torpedo bombers, dive bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters. Even as they winged south, some elements of US forces on Oahu realized there was something different about this Sunday morning. In the hours before dawn, US Navy vessels spotted an unidentified submarine periscope near the entrance to Pearl Harbor. It was attacked and reported sunk by the destroyer USS Ward (DD-139) and a patrol plane. At 7:00 am, an alert operator of an Army radar station at Opana spotted the approaching first wave of the attack force. The officers to whom those reports were relayed did not consider them significant enough to take action. The report of the submarine sinking was handled routinely, and the radar sighting was passed off as an approaching group of American planes due to arrive that morning. The Japanese aircrews achieved complete surprise when they hit American ships and military installations on Oahu shortly before 8:00 am They attacked military airfields at the same time they hit the fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor. The Navy air bases at Ford Island and Kaneohe Bay, the Marine airfield at Ewa and the Army Air Corps fields at Bellows, Wheeler and Hickam were all bombed and strafed as other elements of the attacking force began their assaults on the ships moored in Pearl Harbor. The purpose of the simultaneous ...
Keywords: World, War, II, Pearl, Harbor, December, 7th, 1941, attack, Pacific, Japanese, American, Hawaii, USS, Arizona, US, Fleet, Battleships, Cruisers, Destroyers
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