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On Sunday, December 7th, 1941 the
Japanese launched a surprise attack against the U.S. Forces
stationed at Pearl Harbor , Hawaii By planning his attack on a
Sunday, the Japanese commander Admiral Nagumo, hoped to catch the
entire fleet in port. As luck would have it, the Aircraft Carriers
and one of the Battleships were not in port. (The USS Enterprise was
returning from Wake Island, where it had just delivered some
aircraft. The USS Lexington was ferrying aircraft to Midway, and the
USS Saratoga and USS Colorado were undergoing repairs in the United
States.)
In spite of the latest intelligence reports about the missing
aircraft carriers (his most important targets), Admiral Nagumo
decided to continue the attack with his force of six carriers and
423 aircraft. At a range of 230 miles north of Oahu, he launched the
first wave of a two-wave attack. Beginning at 0600 hours his first
wave consisted of 183 fighters and torpedo bombers which struck at
the fleet in Pearl Harbor and the airfields in Hickam, Kaneohe and
Ewa. The second strike, launched at 0715 hours, consisted of 167
aircraft, which again struck at the same targets.
At 0753 hours the first wave consisting of 40 Nakajima B5N2 "Kate"
torpedo bombers, 51 Aichi D3A1 "Val" dive bombers, 50 high altitude
bombers and 43 Zeros struck airfields and Pearl Harbor Within the
next hour, the second wave arrived and continued the attack. When it
was over, the U.S. losses were: |
