CHAPTER 3 - DEVASTATION AT PEARL HARBOR
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As the undetected Japanese planes approached Pearl Harbor, 35 American pilots at Hickham Field were eating in the mess hall. At about 7:50 a.m., the first bombs of Japan's war against America destroyed the mess hall, killed the breakfasting pilots and damaged United States air power at Hickham Field. The battleships, lined up without torpedo nets alongside Ford Island, were easy targets for Japanese pilots. One of those pilots took a picture documenting the last moments of the great ships. Note the wake of torpedoes about to hit the Oklahoma, the West Virginia and the California (at the far right), as Hickham Field burns in the background. With the Oklahoma hit at 7:57 a.m., Lt. Cmdr. Murata, the Japanese pilot who dropped the torpedoes, makes his escape. As the West Virginia, the Tennessee, and the Arizona burn, Battleship Row is first struck with torpedoes (follow the link to view a Japanese pilot's photo showing the height of the sea spray after the strike) and then engulfed in flames. The Shaw takes a direct hit. Her on-board munitions ignite and the whole ship explodes. Within hours, the once-mighty Shaw is a jumbled piece of wreckage. The Commander in Chief of the Pacific fleet sends an urgent dispatch: AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR X THIS IS NOT DRILL |
