Attack on Pearl Harbor (36 page)

A pre-war photograph of Battleship Row (top right), the Supply Base (center, on the peninsula), and a portion of the Submarine Base (lower left), and the edge of the shipyard piers (upper left) along the Southeast Loch. All but a few attackers avoided hopping the Supply Base and instead followed the loch past the shipyard to attack the southern end of Battleship Row.
Source: Naval Archives, Washington DC

The attack route past the shipyard piers. The best approach would have been to arrive in echeloned waves with 50 yards between aircraft, with each aircraft attacking the ship to the right of that attacked by the previous aircraft. This would have better distributed the attack and split the defensive AA fire.

With a 10 to 15 knot crosswind, a bomber would encounter turbulence over the fuel storage tanks and an alternating zone of lift over the warming ground and the relatively colder water. The warehouses had to be cleared by only 20 feet. Past the warehouses the pilot would have 5 to 6 seconds to establish the right weapons delivery altitude, attitude, and airspeed.

A late 1941 photograph showing Hickam Field, a fuel tank farm, and the Naval Shipyard. To the right is the channel leading to the open sea at the top of the photograph. The channel was 400 yards wide.
Source: Naval Archives, Washington DC

A 600-foot plume of water is next to
Oklahoma
. A torpedo bomber is above
Neosho
. Another can be seen over the Naval Shipyard, in a left turn to line up for a run down the loch, possibly a
Hiryu
or
Soryu
bomber cutting into
Kaga
or
Akagi’s
stream of attackers.
Source: Naval Archives, Washington DC

Leaking black oil covers the water around
Oklahoma
and
West Virginia
. Note the two splashes in the water on
Arizona’s
starboard quarter, and one in line outboard of
Vestal
, from high-altitude AP bombs. Of the other two bombs from this formation, one hit
Vestal
and one hit
Arizona
. Note that there is no discernable signature from the hits.
Source: National Archives at College Park, MD

California
after the first wave has departed. She is listing and near to settling onto the bottom. Note all the debris in the water, from the capsized
Oklahoma
and
Arizona’s
explosion. Flotsam like this, drifting with the current, was likely the source of many of the reported submarine and periscope sightings.
Source: Naval Archives, Washington DC

California
in drydock, showing the damage produced by one aerial torpedo. The explosion did not penetrate the ship’s anti-torpedo defenses.
California’s
belt armor, 14 inches thick on top tapering down to 8 inches above the hole, does not appear to be damaged or deformed by the explosion. The bilge keel, lower left, is bent down in the vicinity of the hit.
Source: Naval Archives, Washington DC

Pearl Harbor, ~0900. A more famous version of the scene telescopes in on the smoke pouring out of Battleship Row. Heavy cloud cover disrupted the dive-bombers’ attack.
Neosho
is in the center of the channel and easily visible. Fuchida, overhead observing the attack, should have noted that ship’s movement.
Source: Naval Archives, Washington DC

A photograph taken during the second wave attack on the fleet. Note the heavy cloud cover. The small black smudges are AA shell bursts. A dive-bomber can be seen to the left about two-thirds of the way up the photograph, silhouetted against the clouds.
Source: National Archives at College Park, MD

A D3A Val after releasing its bomb. The dive brakes under the wings are extended. The bomb release yoke or
bukadan-ka
(bomb rack) is extended under the fuselage. The yoke, called by Americans the “trapeze,” guides the bomb away from the aircraft’s propeller.
Source: Naval Archives, Washington DC