The Battle at Dawn: The first battle between the United States and Japan December 7-10, 1941

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The Battle at Dawn: The first battle between the United States and Japan

Prologue
Nearly all Americans and Japanese know of the series of battles around Hawaii in the opening week of the war between Japan and the United States. The “Date which will live in Infamy” was how President Franklin Roosevelt put it in his speech while the battle was still raging, and indeed the shock of the sudden Japanese attack united America behind the war effort like nothing else could of.

But the fateful battle that would change naval air warfare forever did not just last one day, but three exhausting desperate days, and only the foresighted leadership of Admiral Richardson and General Harmon, the dogged aggression of Admiral Halsey and the tireless determination of Admiral Yamamoto brought about the result that followed. The fighting which began on December 7 and did not end until the December 10, 1941 saw the first carrier versus carrier fight, the first surface actions between the Japanese and United States Navies, and great air battles between Japanese and American aviators that would prove that both were brave and skilled combatants.

This is the story of those days of fierce courage and determination.

 

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The Pacific Fleet moves to Hawaii

[Richardson] was one of the Navy's foremost figures. Since his earliest days, after leaving Annapolis, he had made the study of Japanese warfare his life's work. He was beyond question the Navy's outstanding authority on Pacific naval warfare and Japanese strategy (John Dyer, Pearl Harbor Countdown: The Biography of Admiral James O. Richardson by Skipper Steely, published by Pelican Press, Gretna, Louisiana, 2008.)

Frank Knox saves his commander
On October 8, 1940, in response to Japanese pressure that leads to the stationing of their troops in French Indochina, and the Japanese government signature on the Tripartite Pact, President Roosevelt decides to station the Pacific Fleet permanently at Pearl Harbor in hopes of restraining further Japanese aggression. Admiral James O Richardson, Commander in Chief US Fleet, who commands the Battle Force and Scouting Force in the Pacific, protests the move. He is ordered to Washington by Navy Secretary Frank Knox, who is worried that his outspoken but highly valuable commander is about to get himself into political trouble by challenging the President. In discussions that at times grow heated, the Secretary talks Richardson into agreeing to listen to the President and follow orders and most importantly, keeping his mouth shut.

Over the next few days Roosevelt and Knox meet privately and then with Richardson and Roosevelt promises to do what he can to strengthen Pearl Harbor but insists that the fleet must stay. Admiral Richardson finally accepts the decision, although it becomes clear to Roosevelt that Richardson is not the man he needs for Chief of Naval Operations, which means Admiral Stark will keep his job, but the Admiral accepts the decision to take what is in effect a partial demotion to Commander Pacific Fleet as the growing threat of Germany requires a new position, Commander Atlantic Fleet, which will require taking some ships from the Pacific and sending them to the Atlantic. Husband Kimmel is promoted to his new rank of Commander Atlantic Fleet in November 1940. Kimmel, with extensive experience with destroyers, cruisers and battleships, is viewed as a good choice for facing the possible war with Germany and the submarine threat from them, while Richardson, who is one of the authors of War Plan Orange, is best suited for the Pacific and the possible war with Japan.

Horse trading with Atlantic Fleet and Neutrality Patrol
Richardson does however manage to get a few things from his President. Plans to send the carrier Yorktown to the Atlantic are canceled, as Richardson argues that he needs every scout plane he can get, and instead the planned experimental escort carrier Long Island, as well as the carriers Wasp and Ranger, plus the new Hornet when she is completed, will be assigned to the neutrality patrol. He does lose the battleships Idaho, New Mexico and Mississippi, plus all of the Omaha class cruisers plus several heavy cruisers and numerous destroyers. Richardson is not pleased but considers it a worthwhile trade for keeping 4 carriers in the Pacific. He does manage to talk Stark and Knox into giving him a few more fleet oilers however, arguing that as the Atlantic Fleet is primarily patrolling the western Atlantic, that fleet does not need oilers as badly as his fleet does, and that it will extend the range of the Pacific Scouting Force. He gets 6 oilers that will arrive in mid 1941.

Richardson, who like Halsey is a strong proponent of carrier aviation, also asks Admiral Harry Yarnell, recently retired from his post as Commander Asiatic Fleet, to come to Hawaii for a visit and manages to get permission to conduct Fleet Problem XXII, which was planned for the Spring of 1941 and recently canceled be reinstated. The Admiral points out that as the Army is conducting its own maneuvers it is important that the Navy do so as well. Roosevelt, who still considers the Navy 'his service' agrees and Knox grants permission and the necessary funds for it.

 

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The Army is found wanting
On February 8, 1941, Lieutenant General Walter Short, an infantry commander with extensive experience and considered a 'comer' is sent to Hawaii to take command of Army forces there. Soon after his arrival, on February 17, Secretary Stimson sends a letter to General Short that the Secretary had received from Secretary Knox, warning as follows:

“"If war eventuates with Japan, it is believed easily possible that hostilities would be initiated by a surprise attack upon the fleet or the naval base at Pearl Harbor." The letter proceeded: "The dangers envisaged in their order of importance and probability are considered to be: (1) Air bombing attack (2) Air torpedo plane attack, (3) Sabotage, (4) Submarine attack, (5) Mining, (6) Bombardment by gunfire." (http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/pha/roberts/roberts.html) (The official Congressional Report)

Admiral Richardson, who has already received this letter, begins pushing for the strongest possible measures be taken by the Army to prepare for the first two likelihoods, considering sabotage reasonably unlikely with at least basic security measures, the next two a Navy problem, and the final possibility highly unlikely but certainly what the coast defense guns are supposed to defend against. He pressures General Short and General Frederick Martin, commander of the Hawaiian Air Force, to allow the assignment of Marine Corps and Navy personnel to the Air Information Center. The Admiral is also dissatisfied with the degree of anti aircraft protection his three naval air stations (Ewa, Ford Island, and Kaneohe Bay) have and assigns the 2nd and 4th Marine Defense Battalions (less their batteries of 5 inch guns which will be assigned to the 1st Battalion slated for Wake Island, and the 3rd Battalion slated for Midway). This gives Ewa and Kaneohe Bay each 16 3 inch guns and 48 .50 caliber machine guns, plus 2 machine gun companies (48 .30 caliber machine guns) to provide security for the bases (and which can also be sent to Wake or Midway once facilities are available). Richardson requests an additional Marine Defense Battalion once its available for Ford Island. War would come before he got that wish fulfilled. By November 1941 both bases have their Marine defenses completed and ready for war.

However, Richardson finds that Short simply does not understand the air threat, and indeed seems unusually concerned about the sabotage threat of the very large Japanese population in Hawaii. The General is also focused more on his infantry and preparing for an amphibious assault which Richardson believes is unlikely in the extreme due to Japanese shipping constraints. Several meetings in March and April are unproductive and Richardson realizes that only Fleet Problem XXII is going to serve to make his point.


Fleet Problem XXII May 1941
In a complex plan developed by Richardson and Yarnell, the fleet is divided into two forces. The Red Force, which will be commanded by Halsey (commander Aircraft Battleforce) and given the Saratoga, Lexington, Enterprise, plus 6 heavy cruisers, 12 destroyers and all 3 available oilers, and told to recreate Fleet Problem XIII. CINCPAC (Commander Pacific Fleet) purposefully neglects to inform the Army, or indeed Admiral Bellinger (commander US Navy Aviation Hawaii) of the first part of the problem, which will be a simulated surprise attack aimed at Pearl Harbor. Admiral Pye, commander of the Battle Force is appointed senior referee, as are several senior Naval officers, while Admiral Anderson is given the Blue Force, which consists of the battleships and their escorts, and Admiral Brown is given the Yorktown, the remaining cruisers and some destroyers as the scout force for Anderson. Most of the submarines are given to Blue Force as well.

Deciding that as the Red Force is simulating the Japanese, and thus the most likely approach is from the southwest (in the direction of the Japanese held Marshal Islands), Anderson sends Brown in that direction, while keeping his slower battleships in the harbor as directed. Bellinger, with only 40 available PBY Catalina long range flying boats, cannot patrol everywhere, and is forced to make choices. He decides to primarily support Brown, leaving only a handful for the northern search.

Halsey, fully aware of the limitations of the PBY, manages to avoid contact with all but one, and the referee determines that the fighters of his task force would have shot it down before it got off a contact report. The submarines, which are deployed mainly to the west and south, also miss him, and thus Halsey comes to within 200 miles of the north coast of Oahu on June 19. He launches 90 SBD Dauntless dive bombers, 36 TBD Devastator torpedo bombers and 36 Wildcat fighters as a strike. The dive bombers are to eliminate the primary Army airfields of Wheeler and Hickam fields, as well as Ewa and the two Navy patrol plane bases, while the TBDs will act as glide bombers and attack the fleet machine shops, drydocks, and oil tank farms. The fighters will provide cover and conduct simulated strafing attacks on the airfields. Convinced that the shallow depth of Pearl Harbor precludes a torpedo attacks with aerial torpedoes, Halsey ignores that possibility as Yarnell and Richardson also believed this.

The result is a stunning embarrassment for the Army. The Army has not yet received the new SCR270 radar sets and indeed has allocated minimal staff or preparation for them. The Air Information Center is still minimally staffed, and indeed the Marine Corps Liaison, 2 clerks and a lowly Army fighter pilot are the only staff present when the first Dauntless begins its dive on Hickam Field. The Army Anti aircraft units are either parked in storage, or for those guns that are present, their crews are too far away to man them quickly and their ammunition supply is locked. Only a handful of fighters manage to get off the ground during the simulated attack and the referees rule that they are destroyed and their bases wrecked. Only at Ewa and Kaneohe do the defenders score successes, as the Marines are closer to a war footing, although the referees rule that as these units are still below strength and lacking equipment and thus the bases are considered damaged. The strike on the fleet facilities is unopposed as Short has not yet deployed batteries to defend the base, and the referees decide that it would be a total loss.

In short, the Red Force has eliminated the ability of the Army to defend the fleet, and for the Navy to support the fleet. A fully detailed report is soon on the way to Secretary Knox.

The next part of the problem is designed to see if the fleet can intercept the Red Force or prevent further attacks. The Blue Force fleet sorties (which takes several hours), while Admiral Brown and his scouting force hurries north to try and find the Red Force. However Halsey steams due north and then swings north and west to put himself within strike range of Midway, which the referees rule is destroyed (particularly as no aircraft have yet arrived for the airfield). A report of this is also sent to Knox, although Brown is commended for his aggression in attempting to find Halsey.

The remainder of May and into June is spent conducting operations in the Midway area to simulate an amphibious invasion as well as to allow the battleship divisions to practice gunnery and maneuver.

A new Army Commander
Knox is appalled when he reads how successful the humiliation has been of the Army and thus the likely elimination of the ability of the Pacific Fleet to operate out of Hawaii. He forwards the report to Secretary Stimson and asks to meet with the President. In a short meeting, General Marshall and Secretary of War find themselves highly embarrassed by the debacle suffered by the Army, and soon after that Marshall decides that an aviator is needed for senior command in Hawaii. General Hap Arnold, commander of the Army Air Corps, decides he has just the man.

Brigadier General Millard Harmon, recently returned from his duties as an observer in the British Isles and one of the most senior pilots in the entire Army Air Corps, seems like just the man. He has a good understanding of the uses of radar, has watched the RAF use it and he is promoted to Lieutenant General, skipping an entire rank, and sent to Hawaii on July 19, 1941. General Walter Short is sent back to the United States and given command of the 2nd Army in Tennessee, which at present is a training organization.

 

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The Japanese Plan
Admiral Yamamoto has been planning for months a decisive blow against the American Pacific Fleet at the start of the war. He feels that in a single blow the First Air Fleet can eliminate at least 4 of the American battleships and clear the way for operations aimed at the Southern Resource Area. With proper planning and a bit of luck, all 8 of the battleships can be at least damaged enough to knock them out for some weeks, and with luck one or two or even more of the American carriers will be in port and they can be destroyed as well.

This will require eliminating the American ability to resist the strike by removing their fighters from the equation, as well as eliminating any counterstrike ability. A report from Takeo Yoskikawa regarding the embarrassment of the US Army in recent war games as well as the report that US Navy conducted a simulated strike against the Army airfields and fleet base poses a worry to Yamamoto, who thinks that possibly the Americans may anticipate his plan. Yamamoto decides to revise his plan somewhat, and more importantly, decides that as he is seeking Kantai Kessen (the decisive battle) with the Americans in their home waters,it would best be lead by him in person. The change takes several days to get approved by Admiral of the Fleet Nagano but in the end Nagano accepts the decision. The battleships Nagato and Mutsu replace the two fast battleships assigned to southern operations and to support them Yamamoto adds 4 more destroyers and 4 more fleet oilers to the Striking Force. Yamamoto also decides that to support future attacks against the American fleet base, Midway Island should be seized as well. A proposed landing in the Gilbert Islands is canceled, and those forces assigned to deal with the weakly defended US base at Guam, while the South Seas Detachment and the ships assigned to it are pulled from the Guam operation and instead will follow behind the Striking Force and after the raid on Pearl Harbor the carrier fleet will support the seizure of this base, which is good location to stage seaplanes from the Mandates to spy and harass Hawaii, as well as offering a refueling facility for submarines to patrol east of Hawaii and harass naval traffic from the US West Coast.

Operation AI
The plan has as its essentials the following tasks
1. Eliminate the threat of American aviation to the air strikes on the American fleet as well as its ability to launch coordinated strikes against the Striking Force
2. Eliminate the capability of the US Pacific Fleet to interfere with Japanese operations in the Southern Resource Area by sinking or severely damaging at least 4 battleships, and inflicting serious damage on the remainder.
3. Bring to battle American carriers and their escorts if they are not in port, or eliminate them as secondary targets if they are in port. This will remove American ability to harass Japanese operations and garrisons in the Central Pacific.

(authors note: With the exception of bringing to battle the American carriers if they are not in port, this was the historical Japanese plan. Note that nowhere is there any mention of attacking the repair facilities or fuel reserves at the base. The whole focus of the operation was to attack the FLEET, not the base except as incidental to hitting warships in drydock and of course the airfields. A change in the operational priorities of the Japanese Navy requires a bigger point of departure than I am willing to make)

Japanese Forces assigned Operation AI
Kido Butai (First Air Fleet) (Striking Force)
Carriers Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku, Zuikaku, battleships Hiei (fleet flag: Yamamoto), Haruna, Kongo, Kirishima, CA Tone, Chikuma, CL Abukuma, 14 destroyers, 12 fleet oilers, 414 combat aircraft (54 Zero fighters for fleet defense, 354 for striking force including 81 fighters, 143 B5N Kate torpedo/level bombers, 135 D3A Val dive bombers) plus 20 float planes for scouting

6th Fleet (submarines)
31 fleet submarines plus 5 special attack (midget) submarines

Midway Island Assault Force
CA Aoba, Furutaka, Kako, Kinugasa, 4 destroyers, 2 gunboats, 6 submarine chasers, 1 seaplane tender, 2 tenders, 9 transports, South Sea Force (4,886 troops

 

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Command and Plan changes September – October 1941
Admiral Yamamoto meets with Genda and after reviewing the initial plan overrules some of the assumptions made. He points out that with the American Fleet Problem XXIII and the likely American reaction to that means that surprise can be in no way be assured. The attack must be prepared to fight its way in from the start, and that means that Genda's original plan is less likely to meet with the needed success. Genda meets his rebuff professionally and goes back to work on a revised plan.

In Hawaii, General Harmon takes charge and after inspecting dispositions and plans, asks for a new commander for the 14th Fighter Wing, as well as a corps commander for the ground forces to take charge of their training. He also orders his fighter group and squadron commanders to review the points made by Claire Chennault in his visit in July and insists that his squadrons begin operational training using those tactics. He requests Brigadier John McConnell, who had experience in Hawaii as a fighter squadron commander in 1938, as a new commander for the Hawaiian Air Force and although Hap Arnold had other plans for him, the embarrassment of Fleet Problem XXIII means General Marshall is inclined to give Harmon what he wants.

By the middle of October General Harmon has persuaded Admiral Richardson to create a joint air defense command headquarters, which will have authority over all fighters stationed in Hawaii as well as visiting units while their carriers are in port. Instead of intensive alerts that wear out crews and aircraft, a longer term rotating schedule of retaining 25% of fighters (one flight per squadron), another 25% on 30 minute alert, the third flight of each squadron on 1 hour alert, and the fourth flight (the remaining 25%) on maintenance stand down. He also gives the 72nd Pursuit Squadron, which currently lacks aircraft, all of the 14 P26 Peashooters on the island, and assigns them the mission of point defense for the harbor, while the P36 squadrons are given point defense missions, along with the Marine Corps squadron at Ewa for defending airfields and the P40 squadrons given the general interception mission. General McConnell will head Hawaiian Interceptor Command. His first act is to ignore Department of Interior protests and places his 5 radar sets at locations to best optimize their performance. He is also given carte blanche to obtain the personnel he needs from them, and several dozen men are flown to Hawaii from the United States on a priority basis to help train and man the air defense command center and the radar stations and the communications network to make them work.

Harmon and Richardson also set up a combined air search and patrol headquarters which will have control of all Navy reconnaissance aircraft, as well as 18th Bomb Wing with its force of 33 B18 and 12 B17D aircraft for medium and long range missions. The 13th Bombardment squadron, with its 13 A20 Havoc aircraft, begins practicing low altitude attacks against shipping as General Harmon is unimpressed with their proficiency in that mission. Admiral Bellinger is given command of this force.

Admiral Richardson, happier now that the air defense and air search issues are being addressed, looks closer at the deployment of the Fleet. He organizes Task Force 9, giving that command to Rear Admiral Draemel, and issues orders that 9 4 stack destroyers (now operating as minesweepers and minelayers), as well as several S boat submarines he orders moved from the West Coast, be on station at all times to maintain a picket line 300 miles north and northwest of Hawaii, the approach he considers the most likely Japanese approach to Hawaii in the event of a carrier strike. The carriers will exercise primary to the south and southwest of Oahu, with the Army bombers covering the west and southwest in support. This allows the Navy Patrol Wings, with their 77 long range PBYs to cover the north, northwest and west along with Task Force 9. The 12 PBYs out of Midway will also support this mission. He also moves the seaplane tenders Avocet, Swan, Hulbert and Thornton on rotating duty at Kure Atoll and French Frigate Shoals on a rotating basis, along with a destroyer at each location as an escort. Assigned to them are detachments from 2 utility seaplane squadrons from Ford Island, and while the J2F Ducks have only a patrol range of just under 300 miles, they provide local patrol capability and allow the Catalina's to patrol other areas.

These American preparations are nearly complete as October comes to an end and the Japanese 1st Air Fleet is practicing in the Kuriles for their planned strike.

 

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Warnings and countdown to War
In early November, General Harmon finally gets a deputy commander in the form of General “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell who takes command of the newly organized I Corps. Although the corps lacks any significant support units, it does have 2 infantry divisions (the newly organized 24th and 25th Infantry Divisions that formed from the Hawaiian Division), a Coast Artillery Command, and a Anti Aircraft Command. He and General Harmon both urgently request additional engineer units, feeling that a couple of regiments would not be underused, but none are yet available. General Stilwell ends some of the peacetime practices that still remain, such as the emphasis on athletics over readiness, and backs his division commanders as they get rid of deadwood.

In the Kuriles, the Japanese First Air Fleet finishes its training regime by the middle of November and makes final preparations for their mission. Meanwhile the Midway Island Invasion force leaves port in Formosa and begins its voyage toward the Marshal Islands which will be their jumping off point.

November 17, 1941
Lewis Clark Grew, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, sends a message to U.S. secretary of state Cordell Hull. He emphasizes the need "for guarding against sudden military or naval actions by Japan in areas not at present involved in the China conflict."

November 20, 1941
Japan issues an ultimatum to the United States, demanding American noninterference in Japanese relations in Indochina and China.

November 25, 1941
The Axis renews the Anti-Comintern Pact for five years. Signatories include Italy, Japan, Spain, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Denmark, Finland, Manchukuo, and Japan's puppet government in Nanking.

Admiral Stark, Chief of Naval Operations, sends a war warning to all Pacific Commands, as does General Marshall. Admiral Richardson orders a steady stream of air raid drills for the Pacific Fleet while they are in Pearl Harbor itself. Although it disrupts the routine of maintenance, he continues them over the next few days until he is satisfied that even in port the Fleet can prepare for combat within at least 15 minutes. He also orders the Yorktown task force (TF 16) to see to patrol the southwestern approaches to Midway and Hawaii. Standing orders are now that at least one carrier task force will be at sea at all times.

The Japanese Carrier Striking Force leaves the Kurile Islands steaming east.


November 27, 1941
In Washington, Secretary Knox issues a general warning to all naval commanders in the Pacific telling them to expect an “aggressive move'' probably aimed at “the Philippines, Kra Peninsula or possibly Borneo”. Admiral Richardson decides this should also include the possibility of a strike at Hawaii as well.

November 28, 1941
From a Magic intercept originally sent November 19th: "In case of emergency...the following warning will be added in the middle of the daily Japanese language short-wave news broadcast:

1. In case of Japan-U.S. relations in danger: EAST WIND RAIN.

2. Japan-USSR relations: NORTH WIND CLOUDY.

3. Japan-British relations: WEST WIND CLEAR.

when this is heard, please destroy all code papers, etc."

In Washington, President Roosevelt convenes another "War Council". The implications of a large Japanese naval force sailing through the South China Sea towards British Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, and the Philippines are discussed. It is agreed that Roosevelt should send a message to Emperor Hirohito urging peace and address Congress about Japan' aggressive actions. However, it is also added that unless Congress should previously declare war, the U.S. cannot attack this Japanese force.

November 30, 1941:
From a Magic intercept of a cable from Tokyo to the Japanese ambassador in Berlin:

"The conversations between Tokyo and Washington now stand ruptured. In the face of this, our Empire faces a grave situation and must act with determination. Therefore, immediately interview Chancellor Hitler...and confidentially communicate to [him] a summary of the developments. Say to [him] that there is extreme danger that war may suddenly break out between the Anglo-Saxon nations and Japan through some clash of arms and

that the time of the breaking out of this war may come quicker than anyone dreams."

December 1, 1941:
In a Magic message, Japan's Foreign Minister advises his ambassador to prevent the U.S.

"from becoming unduly suspicious" and emphasizes to them that it is important to give the impression that "negotiations are continuing." Meanwhile, Japan's ambassador in Berlin has reported Hitler's assurance that "should Japan become engaged in a war against the U.S., Germany, of course, would join the war immediately." Japanese Prime Minister Tojo, then tells the ambassador to inform Hitler that "this war may come quicker than anyone dreams." At sea Admiral Yamamoto receives his orders to attack ("Climb Mount Nitaka!")

December 2, 1941:
Additional Magic messages indicate that Japan is still preparing for war, probably in Southeast Asia. Admiral Richardson discovers that naval intelligence has no real idea where the Japanese aircraft carriers are and is displeased. The Lexington Task Force (TF 2) leaves Pearl Harbor on a mission to deliver a Marine fighter squadron and scout bomber squadron to Midway Island. Orders are sent to Task Force 16 to link up with the Lexington and its task force and once the aircraft are delivered, Admiral Brown is ordered to scout the area between Midway and the Japanese Mandates. Admiral Halsey is sent orders to link up and take command of all three task forces once he completes his mission of delivering fighters to Wake Island. Richardson has orders not start a war with Japan, but he wants his fleet to be as concentrated as possible.

December 3, 1941 (Wednesday):
In Washington, an old Magic intercept, dated November 15th, is finally translated. It urges the Japanese consulate in Hawaii to make twice-weekly reports on the location of American warships in Pearl Harbor. No particular significance is attached to the message in Washington as it is assumed that the Japanese are merely updating their intelligence files on the U.S. Navy. However Admiral Richardson sees this entirely differently, and he persuades the Territorial Governor Poindexter and General Harmon to pressure the FBI to keep closer tabs on Japanese diplomatic personnel. A couple of days later, Lieutenant Commander Yoshikawa of the Imperial Japanese Navy, who is posing as diplomat, suffers a serious car accident and is hospitalized, where he remains until his internment once the war begins. Task Force 9, consisting of 4 oilers and 4 destroyers is ordered to sea where it is to link up with heavy cruiser Minneapolis and Rear Admiral Frank Fletcher will will lead this service group and escorts to rendezvous with Halsey and the carriers as Richardson wants them at sea longer.

December 4, 1941 (Thursday):
In Washington, the available Magic intercepts give a clear indication of Japanese intentions to go to war. For example, they urge Ambassador Nomura to destroy one of his special code machines. Admiral Halsey and the Enterprise task force (TF 3) delivers 12 F4F Wildcats to Wake Island. The American carriers and their supporting ships are moving toward a rendezvous.

(authors note: historical timeline with alterations)

 

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December 5, 1941
Richardson sends orders to Halsey and Brown to conduct maneuvers in the area south of Midway, with the Enterprise task group as a Red Force, and the Lexington/Yorktown task group as the Blue Force. Halsey is to simulate an attack on Midway from the North, while Brown is to move to simulate an attack on Red Force. As part of the exercise the Marine dive bomber squadron (equipped with 18SBU2 Vindicator dive bombers) will deploy to the island where it joins 12 PBY patrol bombers and 6 float planes that are already present. Heavy seas and rain prevent Halsey from conducting operations that day and the exercise is postponed for 48 hours. Brown orders his air groups to do a maintenance stand down aside from routine submarine patrols, air searches and fighter patrols.

Yamamoto and his fleet are battling these high seas as well but continue to encounter no traffic. Yamamoto is disappointed that a final report he was expecting from the Japanese Consulate in Honolulu is not transmitted. His best information is that two carriers, 8 battleships, 14 cruisers, and over 100 other warships are in Pearl Harbor. American air search aircraft, which are ranging 1,000 miles from Pearl Harbor, fail to spot the Japanese force in the gloom. The Japanese also fail to hear or spot the American B17D as it flies overhead in the late afternoon.

President Roosevelt—convinced on the basis of intelligence reports that the Japanese fleet is headed for Thailand, not the United States—telegrams Emperor Hirohito with the request that “for the sake of humanity,” the emperor intervene “to prevent further death and destruction in the world.”

The Royal Australian Air Force had sighted Japanese escorts, cruisers, and destroyers on patrol near the Malayan coast, south of Cape Cambodia. An Aussie pilot managed to radio that it looked as if the Japanese warships were headed for Thailand—just before he was shot down by the Japanese. Back in England, Prime Minister Churchill called a meeting of his chiefs of staff to discuss the crisis. While reports were coming in describing Thailand as the Japanese destination, they began to question whether it could have been a diversion. British intelligence had intercepted the Japanese code “Raffles,” a warning to the Japanese fleet to be on alert—but for what?

Britain was already preparing Operation Matador, the launching of their 11th Indian Division into Thailand to meet the presumed Japanese invasion force. But at the last minute, Air Marshall Brooke-Popham received word not to cross the Thai border for fear that it would provoke a Japanese attack if, in fact, the warship movement was merely a bluff.

Meanwhile, 600 miles northwest of Hawaii, Admiral Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese fleet, announced to his men: “The rise or fall of the empire depends upon this battle. Everyone will do his duty with utmost efforts.”

“The son of man has just sent his final message to the son of God,” FDR joked to Eleanor after sending off his telegram to Hirohito, who in the Shinto tradition of Japan was deemed a god. As he enjoyed his stamp collection and chatted with Harry Hopkins, his personal adviser, news reached him of Japan’s formal rejection of America’s 10-point proposals for peace and an end to economic sanctions and the oil embargo placed on the Axis power. “This means war,” the president declared. Hopkins recommended an American first strike. “No, we can’t do that,” Roosevelt countered. “We are a democracy and a peaceful people.”
from
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-...emperor-prevent-further-death-and-destruction

Japanese submarines are now in position in their patrol areas, with the special attack submarines moving into position to launch their mini-submarines. There are seven I-boats deployed in a semicircle southwest to southeast of Oahu. Another 3 are deployed in a line to the northeast of the island, one is due north, 3 are deployed in the waters between Oahu and Kaui, with two more deployed south of them and 5 boats are approaching the entrance of Pearl Harbor to launch their attack craft.

First Blood 1538 Hours December 6, 1941
A PBY piloted by Ensign G. Whitman is on its inbound track returning to base 530 miles north northeast of Oahu when the starboard waist gunner spots what he thinks are a fleet of ships 20 miles of to his starboard (right for you non mariner types). The PBY turns toward the sighting and at that moment is jumped by a flight of 3 Zeroes who blast the aircraft out of the sky. The radioman gets a partial distress call but is cut off in mid sentence and the signal is garbled. Kaneohe Naval Air Station is only able to determine that the aircraft is in trouble but does not identify why. Ensign Whitman and the 9 other men of his crew are determined to be the first American deaths in the Pacific Theater in World War II.

The destroyer mine layers Gamble, Ramsey and Montgomery are deployed in an arc 400 miles north of Oahu, and at 1600 hours report of an aircraft in distress reaches Admiral Richardson, who orders Fleet Operations to send the nearest, the Gamble, to the last reported position to look for survivors. It is at least 3 hours before the ship can reach the crash site however. Still uncertain as to what happened, Kaneohe is prepared to send another PBY out on a search and rescue mission, but it will be dark (sundown is 1719 hours) and the soonest the aircraft would reach the site would be 2 hours past twilight.

Aboard the Soryu, the fighter pilots land and make their report, and a signal is sent to the Akagi (Nagumo's flagship) and Tone (Yamamoto's flag). Yamamoto is forced to decide that the risk that the Americans got off a radio message is simply too high to assume that they did not. He orders Admiral Sentaro aboard the Abumkumo, a Nagara class light cruiser, and 4 of his destroyers (the Urakaze, Isokaze, Tanikaze, and Hamikaze) to steam further ahead of the fleet to a position of 20 miles in their van. They are to engage and sink any ships that they see.

December 7 1941
The first clash 0230 Hours 375 miles northwest of Oahu
The destroyer mine layer Gamble (D.A Crandell commanding) has his crew set to battle stations, boats ready to put over the side, extra lookouts ready and is steaming north at 25 knots with his recognition lights on and he and his crew are prepared to conduct what they hope will be a successful rescue but fear will be a hopeless search. His ship is plowing through heavy seas (heavy enough that the planned launch of the air strike by the Japanese will be delayed later that morning).

Meanwhile the Japanese advance screen picks up a series of radio exchanges between the Gamble and Pearl Harbor and moves to engage, spotting the American ship at 15,000 yards in the dark. The superbly trained Japanese lookouts with the best available binoculars and excellent doctrine have little trouble finding the American ship still running with recognition lights. A spread of torpedoes is fired by the destroyer Isokaze quickly races through the water and one detonates in her engine room spaces and nearly blows her in half right then. A frantic radio message from the Gamble reporting her position and that she has been torpedoed is all that her radio manages to get off before the ship is smothered in 6 inch and 5 inch shells, blasting her superstructure apart and a second spread from the Urukaze puts two more torpedoes into her, blasting the Gamble apart. Only a few dozen of her crew manage to get over the side as she goes down literally under them. Only six survivors, none of them officers or senior enlisted men, manage to survive until rescue on December 9.

Well within his 24 hour decision point to continue the attack whether discovered or not, Yamamoto orders the fleet by signal lamp to proceed to the launch point as planned.

Pacific Fleet prepares for action
Meanwhile, the report that the Gamble has been torpedoed, in light of the loss of a PBY at the same time, convinces Richardson that an attack is imminent. He sends an urgent cable to Washington at 0330 hours (where it is 830 Sunday morning and efforts to decode the 14th part of the Japanese message are already occurring). Richardson issues a string of orders.

First the entire fleet is put on alert, and all officers and men are to be ordered to their ships at once. A string of phone calls begins to ship commanders from base operations, followed by more calls to other officers and men. The Army is immediately notified and the Air Search Center is ordered to get every available plane in the air at dawn, while Harmon, concerned that the a bombing raid may be coming to support that evident Japanese submarine attacks offshore, orders that all squadrons are to be prepared for combat no later than dawn.

In the harbor, the outboard battleships of battleship row are moved while destroyers are moved alongside the battleships West Virginia (which is herself moved by tug), Tennessee, Maryland and Nevada. All ships are to go to general quarters right away, and if no sign of submarine activity occurs in the harbor in the next few hours can go to lower readiness. He is concerned that submarines may be trying to break into harbor, much like the Germans pulled off when the sank the Royal Oak, and orders the alert destroyers to reinforce the Ward.

Richardson also decides to send a task group to sea to reinforce the picket line, just in case that the Gamble met something other than a submarine which with the loss of a PBY seems not unlikely. He orders Admiral Leary to take the cruisers Phoenix and Helena, along with some destroyers, north to the position where the Gamble was lost to search for survivors and investigate the situation first hand.

By 0400 hours the harbor is a flurry of activity and meanwhile General Harmon is requesting an appointment with the Territorial Governor for 0800 hours, while Richardson schedules a conference between himself, Admiral Pye and Admiral Kidd aboard the Arizona at the same time.

 

[galveston bay]

the best map I can find of the fleet as of December 7 in OTL

http://swmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Pearl_Harbor_swmaps.jpg


US Navy Hawaiian area December 6, 1941
Task Force 9 Picket force
Destroyer minelayers Gamble, Ramsey, Montgomery, Pruitt, Tracy
submarines S-18, S-23, S-34, Gudgeon, Plunger, Tambor, Thresher

Air Search (North sector)
Navy VP11, VP12, VP14, VP21, VP22, VP23, VP24 (69 PBY, 53 available), Army RS 23, RS 31 (12 B17D, 8 available)

Air Search (South sector)
Army 18th Bomb Wing (33 B18, 21 available), Navy VJ1 (9 JRF Goose, 9 J2F Duck, 6 of each available) plus 8 SOC Seagull float planes from the battleships assigned to local patrol off the harbor entrance.

Scouting Force (Halsey)
Task Force 2 (Brown) carrier Lexington (w 37 Dauntless dive bombers, 18 Devastator torpedo bombers, 17 Buffalo fighters), carrier Yorktown (36 Dauntless dive bombers, 18 Devastator torpedo bombers, 18 Wildcat fighters) heavy cruisers Chicago, Portland, Astoria destroyers Porter, Drayton, Flusser, Lamson, Mahan, Cummings, Case, Tucker,

Task Force 3 (Halsey) carrier Enterprise (37 Dauntless dive bombers, 18 Vindicator Dive bombers,18 Devastator torpedo bombers, 14 Wildcat fighters), heavy cruisers Northampton, Chester, Salt Lake City, destroyers Blach, Maury, Craven, Gridley, McCall, Dunlap, Benham, Fanning, Ellet

Task Force 8 (Fletcher) heavy cruiser Minneapolis, destroyers Farragut, Aylwin, Monaghan, Farragut, destroyer minesweepers Chandler, Hovey, Boggs, Lamberton, fleet oilers Platte, Tippacanoe, Santee, Sangamon

French Frigate Shoals
Passing nearby: (returning from Midway) Seaplane Tender Wright (civilians aboard), Tranport Burrows (en route to Wake Island),
station: small seaplane tender Swan, Destroyer minelayer Sicard, patrol gunboat Sacramento

Kure:
small seaplane tender Avocet, destroyer minelayer Breese,

assembling off Honolulu harbor (as of 0600 hours)
TF 15 Light Cruiser (Rear Admiral Fairfax Leary) Helena, Phoenix, destroyers MacDonough, Phelps, Chew, Allen

In port Pearl Harbor
110 Dock: battleships Oklahoma (moved 0400 hours) target ship Utah (outboard)
California (inboard, moved 0400 hours), minelayer Oglala (outboard)(moved 0400 hours)
submarine Cachelot
Drydock: battleship Pennyslvania, destroyers Cassin, Downes
Floating drydock: destroyer Shaw

Naval Station docks: heavy cruisers San Francisco, New Orleans, St Louis, light cruiser Honolulu destroyers Jarvis, Mugford, Bagley, Cummings, minesweeper Greebe, destroyer minesweeper Trever, Zane, Perry Wasmuth, destroyer minelayer Breese, oiler Ramapo, repair ship Argonne, Rigel,

Southeast Loch (submarine base) docks: submarine tender Pelias, rescue ship Widgeon, repair ship Sumner, stores ship Castor, submarines Narwhal, Dolphin, Tautog,

Carrier Row: Seaplane Tenders Tangiers, Curtis (historic location of Utah), seaplane tenders (converted destroyers) Thornton (OTL location of Raleigh), Hulbert (OTL location of Detroit)

Middle loch: repair ship Medusa, hospital ship Solace (moved 0400 hours)

Battleship Row
battleship Nevada (inboard), destroyer Dobbin (moved 0400 hours)
battleship Arizona (inboard), repair ship Vestal (outboard)
battleship Tennessee (inboard), destroyer Hull (outboard)
battleship Maryland (inboard), destroyer Dewey (outboard)
tied to Ford Island dock: Oiler Neosho
battleship West Virginia (inboard), destroyer Worden (outboard)

East Loch
destroyers: Henley, Patterson, Ralph Talbot
destroyer tender: Whitney, destroyers Conyngham, Reid, Tucker, Case, Selfridge

harbor entrance
destroyers Blue, Ward, Helm, 4 minesweepers

 

[galveston bay]

A Breaking Dawn
0345 Hours
Aboard the carriers Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu, the aircrew of the First Wave man their planes and start engines.

The Plan for the First Wave
Impressed by the success of the night attack on Taranto, Yamamoto pushed Genda to revise his attack plan after news of Fleet Problem XXII reached him from intelligence sources. The older four carriers all have air groups trained in night flying. A torpedo attack just before nautical twilight is possible. There will be sufficient darkness to reduce visibility for anti-aircraft gunners, while all reports are that Hawaii has not instituted black out procedures so the towns and cities on Oahu will be brightly lit and indeed reports are that the fleet base is still lit up at night. The ships being targeted will be back lit by harbor lights, and their size will make them obvious, standing out from the shadows. The biggest difficulty will be avoiding crashing into the harbor waters if the approach is misjudged, or hitting a crane or another ship. To reduce the chances of that, a special mission will attack the aviation storage facility on Ford Island which will create flames that will bounce enough glare off the water to give the pilots something to orient themselves with. It will also provide some extra illumination of Battleship Row. Between that and the first bit of daylight, the pilots should be able to see their targets and the water, while the lights on buildings should enable them to avoid those obstructions.

While the practice exercises did result in the lost of several aircraft and crews, by the time the fleet sailed the handpicked crews for the torpedo attack mission are ready. Genda and Murata (commander of the torpedo attack force) both feel that operational losses and losses to flak will be far less than attacking in daylight against an alerted fleet, which they feel is the most likely result. The only potential flaw is that if the Americans decide to install torpedo nets. As of the time the plan was drawn up and practiced, the Americans still had not done that, and indeed up to the last report on December 3 the intelligence reports are that they still have not done so. However, the Americans do frequently have auxiliary vessel alongside one of the battleships. The answer to that is to set the torpedo depth so that run below the draft of most of the American auxiliaries, 25 feet or so, and have them run at 32 feet (the draft of the American battleships run at 35-40 feet). The other option is to instruct the pilots to aim for the parts of the battleships not screened by the auxiliaries, such as the Vestal which is frequently anchored near one of the battleships conducting repairs.

(authors note: 1 torpedo ran underneath the Vestal and impacted on the Arizona, so the Japanese did indeed solve this problem in OTL).

Another problem is avoiding detection for as long as possible. While flying directly across the island would be relatively simple in terms of navigation, a better option would be to avoid preventable discovery. To do that requires navigation check points, and as it will still be dark for the duration of the approach, rally points for the final attack run. Two submarines are assigned the mission of surfacing off the western and southern coast of Oahu and to turn on a low power radio signal that will be brief enough that the Americans are unlikely to determine its location or purpose before the mission parameters are met. They will also turn on a search light aimed at the sky for 2 minutes to provide a visual cue for the aircraft. Yamamoto feels that both submarines will likely be destroyed but losing two submarines in exchange for serious damage to the American fleet is considered worth the cost.

The final rally points will be over Pearl City and Honolulu (depending on the group) which will likely still be showing lights in the early twilight. From there the torpedo planes will make their attack runs on the ships of Carrier Row, the 110 Dock, and Battleship Row.

First Wave takes flight
At 0405, the first planes take off, in spite of heavy seas and an overcast sky. One plane, the number 3 plane lifting off from the Kaga piloted by Shigeharu Sugaya is caught by a large wave that breaks over the bow of the Kaga as he takes off, and he and is two other aircrew are the first Japanese deaths in the Pacific War against the United States at 0406 hours.

The aircraft begin making their way in groups of threes, still using their running lights for the first hour of the flight. Their first check point is the destroyer Arare, 130 miles north of Oahu, which has its running lights on for 15 minutes before departing the area at its best speed to rejoin the fleet.

Pearl Harbor 0400- 0600 hours
Meanwhile, Admiral Richardson is still not done deploying his fleet. He orders the Utah moved up alongside the California, and orders the Oglala moved to East Loch as the possibility of Japanese submarines laying mines off the harbor entrance cannot be precluded and he wants Pacific Fleet Mine Force, Admiral Furlong and his ships ready to take action to once daylight makes operations practical. The destroyer Selfridge is ordered to move alongside the Oklahoma and to remain at ready status to reinforce the Blue, Helm and Ward should it be necessary, and the remaining destroyers of the fleet are to prepare to sortie once daylight begins.

At Ford Island, Lieutenant Commander Logan Ramsey is modifying the daily patrol plane and orders are sent to all patrol aircraft to be armed with depth charges or bombs and to attack suspected submarine contacts. A fleet message is sent to American submarines to remain submerged for the first few hours of daylight to avoid accidental attack by American aircraft, particularly Army planes who are less skilled in ship identification than Navy aircrew.

At the air defense command center, General McConnell is in command and has placed his pursuit squadrons and army anti-aircraft gun crews on alert. Even if the Navy is wrong, and whatever happened to the Gamble was an isolated incident or simply a submarine attack and not a prelude to an air attack, a full scale alert will be valuable practice.

At Wheeler Field, 2nd Lieutenant “Gabby” Gabreski of the 45th Pursuit Squadron is helping his mechanics make sure that the proper ammunition load is aboard his P-36 Hawk, while at Haleiwa Field Lieutenants Kenneth Taylor and George Welch of the 47th Pursuit are running similar checks on their P40B Warhawks. All three pilots are about to have a very big day.

Over the Pacific, a flight of 11 B17E Flying Fortress bombers are en route to Hickam Field under the command of Major Truman Landon receives a message to be prepared to land at Hilo if so directed. A final message will be sent at 0630 hours to allow them sufficient fuel for that alteration to their flight plan. However the music being broadcast by CBS Radio station KGMB continues to play to aid the aircraft in their navigation. It is also a useful navigation tool for the Japanese bombers already flying toward the island of Oahu.

The first light of dawn
At 0554 Hours, the USS Ward and USS Helm both pick up sonar contacts near the harbor entrance and the Helm moves into attack position. The target, a Japanese special attack midget submarine is trying to make its way to the entrance of the harbor.

The first shots of the Battle of Pearl Harbor are about to begin.....

another useful map
http://www.bouwman.com/world/Hawaii/Oahu-WWII.gif

 

[galveston bay]

Japanese Forces assigned Operation AI

0400 Hours December 7, 1941
Kido Butai (First Air Fleet) (Striking Force)
(260 miles north of Oahu)
Carriers Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku, Zuikaku, battleships Hiei, Haruna, Kongo, Kirishima, CA Tone (fleet flag Yamamoto), Chikuma, CL Abukuma, 14 destroyers, 12 fleet oilers, 414 combat aircraft (54 Zero fighters for fleet defense, 354 for striking force including 81 fighters, 143 B5N Kate torpedo/level bombers, 135 D3A Val dive bombers) plus 20 float planes for scouting

the fleet turns to the west to launch, then returns to its base course heading south so that by 0930 it will be 180 miles north of Oahu

as of 0400 hours
CL Abukuma, 3 destroyers are 30 miles in front of the fleet as an advanced screen
1 Destroyer (Arare) is moving south at 32 knots toward it's assigned mission position (which it will reach 130 miles north of Oahu at 0500 hours)
the I74 is in position 30 miles off the north coast of Oahu, off Kamuka Point
the I3 is in position 10 miles off shore in Walmea Bay

First Wave: spotted on deck (commander Lieutenant Commander Murata)
40 Kate torpedo bombers (12 each Akagi, Kaga, 8 each Soryu, Hiryu), 3 Val dive bombers (Kaga)

Second Wave: spotted on deck
(Strike Commander: Commander Fuchida)
9 Zero fighters (Kaneohe Bay attack)(Shokaku)
21 Kate Level bombers (air base suppression)(Shokaku)
9 Zero fighters (Air Cover)(Zuikaku)
21 Kate Level bombers (air base suppression)(Zuikaku)
12 Zero fighters (air cover)(Soryu)
12 Zero fighters (air cover)(Hiryu)
9 Zero fighters (air cover)(Akagi)
9 Zero fighters (air cover)(Kaga)

Second Wave: hanger deck (begin moving to flight deck after First Wave launched, which takes 30 minutes total)
15 Kate Level bombers (Akagi)(fleet attack)
15 Kate Level bombers (Kaga)(fleet attack)
10 Kate Level bombers (Soryu)(fleet attack)
10 Kate Level bombers (Hiryu)(fleet attack)
6 Val Dive bombers (Akagi)(special attack unit)
6 Kate reconnaissance scouts (Zuikaku)
6 Kate reconnaissance scouts (Shokaku)

Third Wave (hanger decks, spotted and launched 1 hour after Second Wave)
(commander: Lieutenant Commander Egusa)
Group 1 (Egusa)
18 Val Dive bombers (Soryu)(fleet attack)
18 Val Dive bombers (Hiryu)(fleet attack)
9 Zero fighters (Hiryu)
9 Zero fighters (Soryu)

Group 2 (Shimazaki)
9 Zero fighters (Akagi)
27 Val Dive bombers (Shokaku)(air base suppression)
18 Val Dive bombers (Akagi)(fleet attack)
Group 3 (Sakamoto)
9 Zero fighters (Kaga)
27 Val Dive bombers (Zuikaku)(air base suppression)
18 Val Dive bombers (Kaga)(fleet attack)

Fleet Combat Air patrol
6 Zeros each carrier (36 total), spotted and launched after Third Wave departs

(refueling forces, the 12 fleet oilers, along with 4 destroyers are organized into 4 refueling groups. One is already en route for home, having completed its mission on December 4 (3 oilers, unescorted, meeting with 2 additional destroyers en route). Another group completed its task on December 6, and is en route for home with 2 destroyers as escorts. The third group if midway between Marcus Island and Wake Island with 2 destroyers, while a fourth group, with 2 destroyers and 3 oilers, is attached to the Midway Assault Force below)

6th Fleet (submarines)
31 fleet submarines plus 5 special attack (midget) submarines

Midway Island Assault Force
CA Aoba, Furutaka, Kako, Kinugasa, 4 destroyers, 2 gunboats, 6 submarine chasers, 1 seaplane tender, 2 tenders, 9 transports, South Sea Force (4,886 troops)

Wake Island Assault force
this force is en route to Wake Island as of December 7
CL Yubari, Tatsuta, Tenryu, 6 destroyers, 2 destroyer transports, 2 transports, (450 naval Special Landing Force Troops)

 

[galveston bay]

Call to Battle December 7, 1941
The Japanese strike force 0500 hours – 0605 hours
At 0430 hours, with the entire First Wave in the air, the crews of the Japanese carriers hurriedly bring up the remainder of the Second Wave strike force that was not already spotted on decks. Continued heavy seas causes delays, so the planned launch does not finally begin until 0515, which is 15 minutes later than anticipated. However by 0530 all of the Second Wave planes are in the air, and crews begin preparing the next wave. It is not until 0620 hours that the Third Wave has completed forming up over the fleet in the early morning light and proceeds south on its mission.

Lieutenant Commander Murita meanwhile is flying south along with 39 Kate torpedo bombers and 3 Val dive bombers. They are in groups of 2s and 3s, as attempting to form up in the dark over the fleet was considered too risky in terms of possible collisions as well as too time consuming. The aircraft are forced to drop down to below 450 feet, as an overcast ceiling is at 500 feet which blocks their ability to see the ocean below. The aircraft are able to see their first checkpoint (the destroyer Arare) well enough and finally as they approach within 100 miles of Oahu the clouds begin to thin out. A pair of Kates from the Akagi miss the Arare (the last flight of the bomber stream) they are still too low when they find a mountain peak just south of the Oahu North Shore and both are destroyed with their crews. Their fate would remain a mystery for nearly 2 years before American soldiers training for operations in the Pacific War find the wreckage.

As a result of this low level flying, the Japanese torpedo bombers are not discovered by radar until Kawailoa picks them up briefly as they travel west of Oahu, and then they are picked up again by the radar at Fort Shafter, just in time to pass the word to Air Defense Command and then the Fleet at 0612 hours. By that time the fleet was well aware that an attack was underway.

However, the Second Wave has fewer difficulties, and is relying more on radio signals than visual cues as it flies over the Arare, and are at 10,000 feet as they enter radar range 130 miles north of Opana Point. At 0600 hours the Japanese formation is picked up, and by 0605 a full scale air raid alert is underway.

American Land based Aviation Central Pacific
Air Defense Command Hawaii (Brigadier General McConnell)
Wheeler Field
HQ 14th Pursuit Wing (15th and 18th Pursuit Groups)
15th Pursuit Group w 44th, 47th Pursuit Squadrons (24 P40), 45th Pursuit squadron (12 P36)
72nd Pursuit Squadron (8 P26)
undergoing maintenance and repair (unassigned) 7 P26, 15 P36, 25 P40, 8 observation aircraft
53rd Coast Artillery brigade (AAA) with 18 x 3 inch, 12 x 37mm AA, dozens of machines guns

Operational aircraft are located in revetments, aircraft undergoing repair and maintenance or that are lacking needed spares are in hangers or parked on the ramp

(authors note: Wheeler had 108 revetments built prior to the attack in OTL. The aircraft were instead lined up on the ramp to protect them from sabotage).


Bellows Field
18th Pursuit Group w 6th, 73rd, 78th Pursuit Squadrons (36 P40), 46th Pursuit Group (12 P36)
6 operational observation aircraft of several types
all aircraft are parked on the ramp and dispersed. Revetments are planned but have not yet been built
15th Coast Artillery Brigade (AA) same as 53rd Brigade

Haleiwa Field
47th Pursuit Squadron -12 P40 (assigned as part of 15th Pursuit Group)
parked on the ramp but dispersed

Ewa Field
Marine Air Group 21 (fighters are assigned to 14th Pursuit Wing while in Hawaii)
VMF 211 – 12 Wildcats (operational)(4 additional undergoing maintenance)
VMSB 232 – 24 SBD (16 operational, 8 undergoing repair)
VMSB 231 – 8 SB2U (all undergoing repair, remainder of squadron aboard USS Lexington)
3rd Marine Defense battalion (18 x 3 inch AA, dozens of machine guns), deployed in fortified positions

Air Search Command (Rear Admiral Bellinger)
Midway NAS (forward deployed) VP21 w 12 PBY, VJ3 w 8 float planes
(all aircraft are parked on the ramp or floating in the lagoon and are dispersed)
6th Marine Defense battalion (750 men, 18 x 3 inch AA, 6 x 5 inch anti shipping guns, dozens of machine guns)

Kaheohe NAS
Patrol Wing 2 w VP 11, VP 12, VP 14 (30 PBY operational, 6 undergoing repair in hangers)
operational aircraft parked on the ramp or floating in the bay
4th Marine Defense battalion (18 x 3 inch AA guns, dozens of machine guns) deployed in fortified positions

Ford Island NAS
Patrol Wing 1 w VP 21, VP 22, VP 23 (29 PBY operational, 6 undergoing maintenance and repair)
VJ2 w 18 assorted floatplanes, plus 30 various float planes from the battleships and cruisers (25 operational aircraft)
all aircraft parked on the ramp (dispersed) or in hangers.
5 Wildcat, 5 Buffalo, 2 SBD from the carriers are at Ford Island in hangers undergoing repair

Hickem Field
HQ 18th Bomb Wing (Brigadier General Rudolph)
5th Bomb Group w 23rd, 31st Bomb Squadrons (8 B17D operational, 4 undergoing repair)
11th Bomb Group w 11th, 26th, 42nd Bomb Squadrons (24 B18 operational, 9 undergoing repair and maintenance)
58th Bomb Squadron (9 A20 operational, 5 undergoing repair and maintenance)
also assigned, 2 C33 transports (basically civilian DC2 transport aircraft)
16th Coast Artillery brigade (AA) same as 53rd

Hickem lacks revetments, but aircraft that are operational are dispersed while aircraft undergoing maintenance are in hangers or on the main ramp

Other Defenses
3 additional coast artillery (AA) brigades are deployed, with 1 at Pearl Harbor base, another across the harbor at Ford City, and a third at Schofield Barracks in reserve. This is in addition to the AA units that are part of the coast defense fortifications..

All Marine and Army AA units are on alert as of 0600 hours

The Scramble
As of 0600 hours, all aircraft that are operational are armed, fueled, and their crews are standing by for their daily missions and patrols. The Navy utility, Marine Scout Bombers, and Army B18s are scheduled to conduct close range patrols and are armed with light bombs and have orders to attack submarine contacts. The B17s and PBYs are scheduled to conduct long range patrols out to 500 miles, except for 8 PBY from VP21 which are specifically assigned to go find the survivors of the Gamble (if any). The first take offs will be at first light, 0605 hours (the B17s and PBYs) with a the morning dawn patrol of a fighter squadron each from Bellows and Wheeler (6th and 44th Pursuit squadrons). All other fighter squadrons are on strip alert for the next three hours. The Marine Corps fighter squadron has a flight of 4 Wildcats that is scheduled to take off at 0615 hours to patrol over Pearl Harbor.

However, as the first incoming blips are identified on radar at 0515 hours, these plans are changed. All aircraft that can fly are to take off as soon as it is light enough, at 0600 hours. Fighters are ordered to assemble over Wheeler Field and Bellows Field until Nautical twilight when they are to be prepared to engage incoming bogies. All other aircraft will take off and proceed on their missions. The Marines scramble their fighters at 0610 hours.

A urgent message is sent to Major Landon diverting his squadron of 11 B17s that are inbound to their alternate landing field at Hilo. A message is attempted to get CBS radio off the air, but does not reach the technicians until well after 0700 hours. In the rush to prepare, the signals transmitted by the Japanese submarines off the coast are missed, but reports eventually do make their way to Admiral Bellinger regarding the visual sightings made when they used their searchlights. The two Japanese submarines have long since submerged and departed those positions by that time.

US Navy Hawaiian area December 7, 1941
North of Oahu (400-450 miles north) Task Force 9 Picket force
Destroyer minelayers Gamble, Ramsey, Montgomery, Pruitt, Tracy (Gamble has been sunk)
submarines S-18, S-23, S-34, Gudgeon, Plunger, Tambor, Thresher

Refueling off Laysan Island
Scouting Force (Halsey)
Task Force 2 (Brown) carrier Lexington (w 37 Dauntless dive bombers, 18 Devastator torpedo bombers, 17 Buffalo fighters), carrier Yorktown (36 Dauntless dive bombers, 18 Devastator torpedo bombers, 18 Wildcat fighters) heavy cruisers Chicago, Portland, Astoria, Indianapolis (joined on December 6) destroyers Porter, Drayton, Flusser, Lamson, Mahan, Cummings, Case, Tucker,

Task Force 3 (Halsey) carrier Enterprise (37 Dauntless dive bombers, 18 Vindicator Dive bombers,18 Devastator torpedo bombers, 14 Wildcat fighters), heavy cruisers Northampton, Chester, Salt Lake City, destroyers Blach, Maury, Craven, Gridley, McCall, Dunlap, Benham, Fanning, Ellet

Task Force 8 (Fletcher) heavy cruiser Minneapolis, destroyers Farragut, Aylwin, Monaghan, Farragut, destroyer minesweepers Chandler, Hovey, Boggs, Lamberton, fleet oilers Platte, Tippacanoe, Santee, Sangamon

French Frigate Shoals
Passing nearby: (returning from Midway) Seaplane Tender Wright (civilians aboard), Tranport Burrows (en route to Wake Island, carrying extra five inch guns, Marines to man them, radar and signals equipment, ammunition and engineering supplies),
station: small seaplane tender Swan, Destroyer minelayer Sicard, patrol gunboat Sacramento

Kure:
small seaplane tender Avocet, destroyer minelayer Breese,

off Honolulu harbor
TF 15 Light Cruiser (Rear Admiral Fairfax Leary) Helena, Phoenix, destroyers MacDonough, Phelps, Chew, Allen

In port Pearl Harbor
110 Dock: battleships Oklahoma (moved 0400 hours)
California (inboard, moved 0400 hours), Fleet Target ship Utah (w 1 tug) (outboard)(in motion), submarine Cachelot
Drydock: battleship Pennyslvania, destroyers Cassin, Downes
Floating drydock: destroyer Shaw

Naval Station (Fleet) docks:
heavy cruisers San Francisco, New Orleans, St Louis, light cruiser Honolulu, destroyers Jarvis, Mugford, Bagley, Cummings, minesweeper Greebe, destroyer minesweeper Trever, Zane, Perry Wasmuth, destroyer minelayer Breese, oiler Ramapo, repair ship Argonne, Rigel,

Southeast Loch
(submarine base) docks: submarine tender Pelias, rescue ship Widgeon, repair ship Sumner, stores ship Castor, submarines Narwhal, Dolphin, Tautog,

Carrier Row:
Seaplane Tenders Tangiers, Curtis (historic location of Utah), seaplane tenders (converted destroyers) Thornton (OTL location of Raleigh), Hulbert (OTL location of Detroit)

Middle loch:
repair ship Medusa, hospital ship Solace (moved 0400 hours)

Battleship Row
battleship Nevada (inboard), destroyer Dobbin (moved 0400 hours)
battleship Arizona (inboard), repair ship Vestal (outboard)
battleship Tennessee (inboard), destroyer Hull (outboard)
battleship Maryland (inboard), destroyer Dewey (outboard)

tied to Ford Island dock: Oiler Neosho
battleship West Virginia (inboard), destroyer Worden (outboard)

channel in off battleship row: Destroyer Selfridge, minelayer Oglala, 6 PT Boats, numerous other boats, 3 tugs

East Loch
destroyers: Henley, Patterson, Ralph Talbot
destroyer tender: Whitney, destroyers Conyngham, Reid, Tucker, Case,

harbor entrance
destroyers Blue, Ward, Helm, 4 minesweepers

All ships are at Condition II (Modified General Quarters) with the exception of the duty destroyers and minesweepers which are at Condition I (General Quarters). At this level, all are at most a couple of minutes away from Condition I

As of 0610, all ships are at Condition One and several have already opened fire

 

[galveston bay]

The First Wave – Air Raid Pearl Harbor, this is no drill
Lieutenant Commander Ramsey is standing on the ramp waiting for the first of the PBYs to begin taking off when he sees the explosion aboard the Neosho followed by a wave of gunfire and tracers. Rushing to the message sender, he orders an urgent message be broadcast in plain English for all of the Fleet, and thus the world, to hear.

The USS Neosho
At 0605 hours, 3 Val dive bombers from the Kaga begin their glide bomb attack. After swinging past the harbor entrance, they line up using Honololu on their right as a reference, and fly over the harbor at 6,000 feet, beginning their attack using the lights of Ford Airfield as a final reference. As they are descending, they spot the tanker Neosho at the Ford Island dock and deciding it is a much easier target to hit than a relatively small of fuel tanks, they each drop a 250 kilogram bomb. The first two bombs hit the tanker, one amidships, another just forward of that, and immediately the tanker, loaded with aviation fuel, bursts into flame. The third Val is hit by fire from at several different ships and crashes into the water a few dozen meters south of the burning ship, not far from where its bomb impacts the water inflicting some crush damage of several hull plates and letting out gasoline while letting in water.

As the two surviving Val's are flying over Ford City seeking to escape, they blunder into 8 P26 Peashooters of the 72nd Pursuit Squadron and both are quickly shot down. However nervous American gunners, seeing aircraft with fixed landing gear just like the ones that bombed the Neosho open fire on them and 2 Peashooters are shot down in flames, their pilots killed, and the rest are all heavily damaged before they can break north away from the harbor. The 72nd Pursuit is out of the battle.

The bright flames of the Neosho however do the job just fine in lighting up Battleship row and providing the needed illumination.

The 110 Dock 0612 hours – 0627 hours
11 torpedo bombers from the Kaga have the mission of attacking Carrier Row, and if no carriers are present they are to join the 8 bombers from the Soryu in hitting targets on the 110 Dock. Both groups come in just west of Pearl City through the Middle Loch facing little flak initially as gunners aboard the 4 seaplane tenders, the Medusa and the army gunners at Pearl City are busy shooting up the 72nd Pursuit squadron. It is not until they are spotted by the ships around the 110 Dock that they are engaged, and with the dark night sky behind them the only illumination is from the flames of the Neosho and the city lights behind them. Nevertheless, they are engaged by the full anti-aircraft gun broadside of both the Utah and Oklahoma, machine gunners from the fighting tops of the California and West Virginia, a single machine gun from the Cachelot and fire from two PT boats and the forward guns of the destroyer Selfridge.

The Soryu torpedo bombers escape lightly from this blast of fire, as only 1 is downed and 3 others suffer damage but all manage to drop successfully. The Kaga bombers, having noted that the target size and shapes do not match a carrier at carrier row, come in behind the Soryu, but those few second quickly add up to their disadvantage. By the time they are engaged, the gunners have managed to overcome initial jitters and learned to make out the shapes moving in front of them and 5 of the Kaga torpedo bombers are blasted out of the sky before they can drop their torpedoes, while all 6 of the remainder are damaged. But those 6 also drop successfully.

The surviving torpedo bombers escape at their best speed but are engaged by gunners from Hickem field and then again as they fly over Honolulu by gunners aboard Task Force 15. Only 6 from the Soryu and 2 from the Kaga eventually make it back to their carriers and both of the Kaga bombers end up being write offs. But they report the location of Task Force 15 as they pass, and in the darkness confuse the Antares, an 11,000 ton cargo ship, as a third cruiser and are certain they spot a carrier as well.

The Japanese manage to drop successfully 18 torpedoes. Two of these end up buried in the mud due to malfunctions, another is dropped wide and smashes into the USS Cachelot, blowing off her entire stern and she sinks in less than a minute taking with her 15 men. Another smashes directly into the dock but does little substantial damage. But 4 torpedoes smash into the USS Utah, and 8 hit the Oklahoma and only heroic efforts prevent both of those ships from capsizing. However both sink quickly, and between the two ships nearly 400 men die.

Battleship Row 0615 – 0623 Hours
The 10 remaining (as 2 were lost en route to accidents) torpedo bombers from the Akagi come first with first plane spotted when it crashes into the Fleet Signal tower scattering flaming debris across the area. The two remaining aircraft, which are targeting the West Virginia are brought down before they can launch by fire from ships at the Fleet Dock, the minelayer Oglala, the destroyer Selfridge, as well as guns from the Worden and the fighting top machine gunners of the West Virginia. The lead plane smashes into the Selfridge however, setting a major fire in her aft superstructure and killing 12 American sailors.

The other 7 planes avoid mishaps but are brought under fire from the Vestal, Dewey, Dobbin, Hull, 4 PT boats, several Army guns, and the fighting top machine gunners on the Nevada, Arizona, Tennessee, and Maryland. The 8 from the Hiryu come in right behind and they end up getting the worst of the fire. All of the Akagi bombers manage to launch, but only 3 of the Hiryu bombers survive long enough to do so, and all of the survivors are damaged. They then blunder straight into VMF211 which has just taken off from Ewa and is still at low altitude west of the harbor. The Marines down all but 2 of the surviving torpedo planes as they attempt to escape, and only 2 of Hiryu bombers make it back to their carrier. However the Marine pilots exhaust their ammunition and are forced to land to rearm, placing them out of the fight for a over a half hour.

The Japanese manage to drop a total of 12 torpedoes at Battleship Row. Of these, 5 end up in the mud, another pair miss entirely and thus only 5 hit a target. The Vestal is hit twice, one by a direct hit that wrecks her engine room, while another blast ruptures her hull at her forward hold, causing serious flooding as the torpedo detonates against the Arizona after passing under her. This torpedo explodes against the torpedo void of the Arizona and does little damage although does cause some serious leaks. The next hit is against the USS Hull, which takes one directly into her aft magazine, causes the entire rear half of the ship to disappear in a massive explosion that starts fires on the Vestal, Tennessee, and Arizona. The other two pass underneath the Dobbin and hit the Nevada, causing serious flooding in her steering compartment as well as two boiler rooms. The Dobbin suffers serious damage from the concussion, as heavy flooding begins due to hull ruptures. Between these hits, over 300 Americans are killed.

In all the Japanese have sunk what they think are two battleships, severely damaged two others and the surviving pilots are convinced that they have met the minimal goal of the attack which is to knock 4 American battleships out of the war for months. What the Japanese have actually done is lost 75% of their best torpedo bomber crews (30 out of 40 lost, including those lost en route) to sink 1 battleship, 1submarine, 1 destroyer, 1 target ship, 1 repair ship and inflict serious damage on 2 battleships, 1 fleet oiler and 2 destroyers. They have also drawn 2 American fighter squadrons out of the fight for now.

 

[galveston bay]

Sunrise over Oahu

The First Lull
By 0630 it is clear that the torpedo attack is over. Air defense headquarters is reporting that a large force is 45 minutes out and approaching at medium altitude. Admiral Bloch, commander of the Hawaiian naval district, orders the Neosho moved, and 2 tugs and the Oglala assist Commander John Philips in moving her to the Middle Loch where all three vessels continue to assist her in dealing with her fires. This tremendous feat of seaman ship would earn Commander Philips a Medal of Honor and Navy Crosses were awarded to several of her crew as well as the commanders of the other vessels and Admiral Furlong who oversees the operation aboard his flagship.

At this point, the Ward reports attacking and sinking an enemy submarine right at the harbor entrance, and Admiral Richardson is forced to reconsider a sortie. He orders the seaplane tenders to move to the East Loch. The Maryland, California, and West Virginia, all undamaged, are sent to Carrier Row while the destroyer Dewey is ordered to move with them as a roving ship to provide extra AA coverage in case of another torpedo attack. All four ships are still in motion when the Second Wave reaches their target. The destroyers Henley, Patterson, and Ralph Talbot also move to the East Loch to provide additional AA support to the undamaged battleships and are also still moving as the Japanese aircraft approach. This leaves only the Arizona, Nevada, and Tennessee along with the Vestal (which is sinking) and the Dobbin (which is barely afloat) at Battleship Row.

Second Wave

0700 hours Fire in the Sky
The Japanese manage to form up by the time they are approaching the coast as visibility has improved and the morning light is now sufficient to enable safe formation flying. They have been spotted by radar and General McConnell vectors all of his P40s to hit them as they cross the coast. He sends the P36 squadrons to provide point defense, one to orbit over Diamond Head and the other to orbit over Barbers Point so that they can be committed against any formations that get through.

The American P40 squadrons have climbed to 14,000 feet by the time the Japanese formations begin crossing the coast. The Japanese are in a single massive formation, with the Val Dive bombers in the lead and the level bombers arranged by squadrons behind them. The bombers are at 10,000 feet and accelerating toward their attack speed. Providing cover are 18 Zeroes as the Kaneohe raid attack has been canceled because of the delays in launching. Another 42 Zeroes are above and behind the bombers to provide high cover at 12,000 feet. McConnell orders the 18th Pursuit Group to attack the enemy fighter escort while the 15th Pursuit Group goes for the bombers.

The Americans have studied the recommendations made by Chennault both in person and in writing, and attempt to make their first pass count. The Zeroes spot the approaching Americans and are climbing to meet them as the American fighters make their dives. The two American fighter groups score 9 kills as the Zero proves to be terribly vulnerable to the .50 caliber machine gun. The P40B and P40C has two in the nose, plus 4 .30 caliber machine guns on the wings. However many of the American pilots, while very experienced, and indeed in many cases even more experienced than their opponents, are still green and open fire at too great a range and fail to take into account the rapid closing rate. Thrilled by their success, the American aggressiveness soon turns into a mistake when the P40 pilots attempt to dogfight the Zero and learn that the Japanese is not to be trifled with in a dogfight.

However the 47th Pursuit has an open field while the other American squadrons keep the Zeros busy, and they rip into the 21 level bombers from the Zuikaku which has the mission of attacking Ewa Field. Lieutenant Ken Taylor is the high scoring pilot, shooting down 4, while his wingman George Welch gets 2 more and in all the 47th shoots down 13 of the Kates and force the rest to jettison their bombs and run for the coast as nearly all the rest are damaged to one degree or another. The 47th escapes with only 2 planes damaged by return fire.

Meanwhile the other 5 American squadrons learn the hard way that Chennault's lessons are to be heeded. Although they end up shooting down a total of 15 Zeros (including the aircraft shot down in the first pass) the Americans lose 11 P40s shot down and another 16 are damaged and the none of the rest manage to penetrate the fighter cover to engage any other bombers. However the Japanese pilots are lost forever while 6 American pilots manage to successfully bail out. The Japanese learn that the P40 is practically invulnerable to their rifle caliber machine guns and they do not have enough 20 mm ammunition for a long fight.

As the Japanese push through, McConnell makes a serious mistake and commits both of his P36 squadrons to defend Wheeler Field and both squadrons reach the 21 Kates from the Shokaku after the other 50 Kates and 6 Vals have split off to proceed toward Pearl Harbor. It is later learned that the radar operator at Fort Shafter lost them briefly in a radar shadow created by the mountains. By the time he discovers his error the formations have split.

For the 21 Japanese bombers attacking Wheeler Field, this is a costly disaster for them. The Americans attack with 24 P36 Hawks and while they have half the firepower of the P40 and are slower, they are plenty fast enough to fight a Kate. Lieutenant Gabreski leads the scoring, getting 2 in his first pass, but 9 are shot down by the American fighters, most of the others suffer damage from Army flak guns, and while 36 bombs hit the base and several hangers are set afire and over 25 aircraft are destroyed in hangers or on the ramp, it is hardly worth the cost. Particularly when the Hawks make another pass and shoot down 8 more of them. Only a single Kate makes it back to the Shokaku and is written off on landing, the rest are lost in combat directly or ditch on the way.

The Japanese attempt to neutralize the American fighter force has been a disaster. Of 42 bombers and 60 fighters, they have lost 33 bombers and 15 fighters and critically for the Japanese Naval Air Force, all of those air crew. Damage to Wheeler Field is serious but it is far from knocked out, and while 29 P40 and 4 Hawks are out of the fight (11 permanently, the rest for at least a day), the Americans still have 20 P36 and 47 P40s that remain available and they will be rearmed, refueled and ready for the next wave. Of course these are actual losses. The Japanese pilots claim 30 kills, and damage to 20 more, making the same inflated claims that pilots always do. The Americans claim 90 kills, certain that they completely destroyed the Shokaku and Zuikaku groups and ravaged the Japanese fighters and as gun cameras are not installed yet, and it will take days to find the wreckage of the aircraft shot down, many of those claims stand.

But while this disaster has cost the Japanese dearly, it has cleared the way for the Pearl Harbor attack force of 50 level bombers and 6 dive bombers and there are no fighters standing in their way.


0715 Hours: A rain of bombs
The Japanese level bombers fly just above the crest line of the Koo Lau Mountains and make their turn approaching the harbor at McGrew Point lined up on Battleship Row. The dive bombers then break off and begin their dive on the Fleet Headquarters building.

This target was the most difficult for Genda and Yamamoto to justify to themselves but the decision was made late in the planning that the best way to reduce the effectiveness of the American battle fleet was to hit their command center and communications facilities at the fleet headquarters building. While not aimed specifically at Admiral Richardson, his death would not be an unfortunate result. Of greater importance is temporarily paralyzing the American ability to coordinate their naval forces that are not at Pearl Harbor. The 6 Val Dive Bombers push over into their attack into a wall of fire from ships and Army flak guns who are also shooting at the far bigger target flying straight and level at 10,000 fleet toward Battleship Row. The dive bombers manage to get all 6 of their bombs on or near the target, and 3 bombs hit the building directly while 3 others land just in front of it. The building has most of the upper part of it destroyed, although the basement (and the critical decoding and intelligence office) are barely touched. However, Admirals Richardson and Pye are observing the approach of the level bombers through a window when a 250 kg bomb lands a mere 40 feet from that window, killing Admiral Richardson instantly and leaving Admiral Pye critically wounded (and missing his left arm). Losses to staff are also heavy and the Fleet Signals office is all but wiped out. Only 4 of the Japanese bombers escape as flak catches them as they pull out of their dives, and of the rest, all are damaged to varying degrees but manage to make it back to their ship.

Battleship Row
The Japanese have 50 level bombers, and leading the attack is Commander Fuchida. As he surveys the port for damage he is appalled to discover that there are 3 undamaged battleships at Carrier Row and the flak is too intense to risk more than one bomb run. He orders half of the force to focus on the Nevada and the rest to focus on the Arizona and a total of 50 bombs are dropped in a very tight group. Flak downs 6 of the bombers as they release or just after, and nearly all of the remaining aircraft take at least some damage, but results are exactly as expected, or so is claimed later. Of 50 bombs dropped, 11 hit a target. Of these 1 goes through every deck of the Dobbin including her engine room and detonates in the mud below the ship, breaking her back and sending her to the bottom within a few minutes. The Vestal is hit by two bombs, both of which plunge all the way through her and both of these bombs are disappointing from the Japanese perspective. The hurried weapons program that produced them was flawed, and nearly half of the bombs have serious problems that result either in low order detonations or complete failure to detonate at all. The Vestal is lucky as both of these bombs are duds. However, a near miss close alongside the Vestal results in exactly the result desired as it detonates normally, and yet more flooding hurries her to the harbor bottom. The Tennessee, which was just getting underway and as yet not seriously damaged aside from debris and fire damage from the explosion of the Hull, is hit twice. The first is a dud which nevertheless wrecks a 14 inch gun in her aft most turret, rendering that gun inoperable. The second bomb detonates in her stern, wrecking the steering compartment, the rudder and both screws, and brings her to a rapid halt.

However the Nevada and the Arizona are the far worst hit. Japanese planners had estimated a 24% chance of getting a hit in an engineering space, and a 20% chance of a magazine hit. These estimates turn out to be right on the money. Of 6 bombs, each battleship takes 3 hits. The Nevada suffers a low order explosion in the ships galley that wipes out an entire damage control team, while another bomb smashes her forward most turret but the low order explosion kills only the crewmen there but does no other damage. The final hit penetrates into her forward boiler room, detonating there and wiping out that space and several nearby compartments as well as letting in water that her crew is nevertheless able to stop although at this point several hundred tons of water has entered the ship and she will need months of repairs.

It is the Arizona however that suffers the fatal blow. One bomb hits her and breaks up after breaking the number 3 turret ring. Another penetrates her after engine room and fails to explode. However the fatal blow occurs when a bomb penetrates her forward magazine that starts a fire that 45 seconds later results in that magazine detonating and killing nearly 1,000 men in an instant.

The surviving Japanese aircraft break for home, and with the American fighters still rearming and refueling, they get away. A total of 8 aircraft are lost to flak during the attack, a result only possible because of the destruction of the Ewa and Wheeler Field attack forces. However, one battleship has been destroyed, and two others are knocked out of action for months at least. A fleet auxiliary has also been sunk as has a destroyer, and personnel casualties are very severe aboard the Arizona and very high aboard the Nevada, Vestal, Dobbin and Tennessee. Indeed this attack has resulted in the most casualties of the day as over 1,500 men are dead or missing never to be found among all the ships and at the base. Fleet headquarters is shattered, and communications are down until something can be restored. Among the dead are Admiral Richardson and Rear Admiral Kidd, and Admiral Pye is out of action as well. Admiral Bloch is senior officer present and takes command upon hearing the news while he is aboard the tug Ontario overseeing the movement of the battleships around Carrier Row.

 

[galveston bay]

The Second Lull 0725 Hours - 0800 Hours
Bloch orders the remaining battleships, destroyers, and support ships to sortie and to ignore the reports of submarines off the harbor entrance. Better to lose one or two ships to a submarine attack then have all of them trapped in the harbor with another raid already detected on radar. His ships need sea room and the ability to use all their guns. Air Defense Headquarters orders the 18th Fighter Group at Bellows to get back into the air as quickly as possible and once airborne they are take position over the ships offshore. Leary is ordered to proceed at high speed with his cruisers and destroyer from Honolulu and provide additional anti-aircraft and anti-submarine support.

Meanwhile radar picks up two raids. The first consists of 108 bandits and is on a course that will take it directly to Pearl Harbor, while raid 2 is 54 aircraft and is heading for Honolulu. Convinced that Raid 2 is likely heading for Leary (and thus will search for ships offshore), McConnell stands by the decision regarding the 18th Fighter Group. For the bigger raid, he directs the 16th Fighter Group, hurriedly rearming and putting some fuel into gas tanks, to intercept Raid 1, and for the Marine Wildcats at Ewa to intercept Raid 1 as well. All remaining operational and undamaged fighters are in the air by 0750 hours climbing at full military power to reach their assigned altitude.

As all of this is going on, the destroyers at the harbor entrance spot and destroy 2 midget submarines but miss the third, which fires both of its torpedoes blindly into the column of ships making their way through the channel at 0736 hours. By pure luck, both torpedoes miss the West Virginia and slam into the Thornton, an old four stack destroyer that has been converted into a seaplane tender. One slams into a boiler room, another into her bow, but the skipper manages to beach her at Hospital Point, and avoids blocking the channel.

As the fleet makes its way out of the harbor, Rear Admiral Anderson aboard the West Virginia forms it into a task group and the fleet proceeds at the speed of its slowest ship at 18 knots due south.

Meanwhile, Admiral Bellinger orders 9 A20 bombers, 22 Dauntless dive bombers and 2 Vindicator bombers (all of which are carrying bombs) to head north and once the Japanese fleet is spotted, to attack immediately. Regrettably there are no fighters available to escort them. They are flying to the western side of Oahu and thus miss the air battle that is about to occur in the central part of the island and off the southern coast. The bombers are in three formations, with the A20s flying at 4,000 feet at their cruising speed of 250 miles per hour and are carrying 3 500 pound bombs, and have four .50 caliber machine guns forward and a rear .50 for the dorsal gunner. Behind them are the 22 Marine Corps Dauntless bombers, each carrying a single 1,000 pound bomb, and they are flying at 180 miles per hour and are at 14,000 feet, which means they are very rapidly outdistanced by the Army bombers. Finally are a pair of Vindicators, which also each carry a 1,000 pound bomb and by the time they reach their altitude of 14,000 feet and cruise of 160 miles an hour, they are well behind both other groups.

The Third Wave 0800 Hours
This force, which consists entirely of Val Dive Bombers and escorting Zero fighters is at 10,000 feet and has accelerated to 230 miles an hour as it crosses the coast. The fighters are ahead and above the Val dive bombers at 12,000 feet. There are two groups in Raid 1 with each group consisting of 5 squadrons of 9 dive bombers, plus a squadron of 9 fighters in the van. Group 1 has 27 dive bombers that have the mission of eliminating Ford Island as an effective airbase, while 18 have the mission of hitting the Fleet Docks, specifically the cruisers tied up alongside them. Group 2 is organized the same way, with 27 having the mission of eliminating Hickam Field as an effective airbase, while 18 are to attack the dry dock and the battleship Pennsylvania presently sitting there.

Raid 2 has 36 dive bombers, escorted by 18 fighters, and it has the mission of attacking the suspected carrier task force reported by the First Wave off Honolulu. Failing that, it will search for it in case it has moved, and then attack it where it can be found. If there are no carriers present, it will attack any cruisers or battleships that have made their way to sea, as the 2nd Wave has reported that several are undamaged and underway. If no ships are found, it will attack the same targets that can be found in Pearl Harbor itself.

Air battle over Ewo Forest
The 16th Fighter Group has 28 P40s and 10 P36s, and includes with them the leading scorers during the First Wave of Lieutenant's Taylor, Welch and Gabreski. The 47th Pursuit (and with them Welch and Taylor) are the only intact squadron and they have the mission of keeping the fighters busy in the lead group, while the other two squadrons (down to 8 fighters each) will each take a dive bomber squadron as will the P36s. The 12 Marine Wildcats are still moving to intercept and McConnell orders them to hit any formations that make it through the interception unscathed.

The 9 Japanese fighters in the lead group spot the approaching Americans and joined by the fighters from the second group with both squadrons quickly climbing to intercept as the American fighters begin their dives.

The air battle takes place over one of the most beautiful mountain ranges on Earth, with blue sky and scattered clouds above, and all around the bright greens of the Hawaiian landscape and the blue sea beyond. This picturesque scene is rapidly spoiled by flame and smoke as aircraft hammer machine gun bullets and cannon shells into one another. Outnumbered 12 to 18, the 47th makes one pass, flaming 5 Zeros (with Welch and Taylor get one each, making Taylor the first American ace in World War II). The Zeros pursue but find that the P40 is far faster in a dive than they are.

This buys time for the other P40s and the P36s to hit the 3 lead Val squadrons (from the Shokaku) and they achieve good results, shooting 10 of them down, damaging 14 more and forcing them to jettison their bombs and completely disrupting the entire formation. While the P40s are fast enough to zoom away, the P36s lack the superb dive speed of the Warhawks, and the Zeroes catch them, shooting 5 of them down, and damaging all of the others. Gabreski, who gets 2 Val's and in the dogfight that follows knocks down a Zero, becomes the second American ace of World War II, and also manages to bring the wreck of his P36 down on a dirt road a few hundred yards from a farm near Pearl City. He would spend the next few weeks in a hospital but would travel with Welch and Taylor to Washington DC to be decorated by the President with the Medal of Honor. The P36s manage to get 2 Zero fighters but are out of the fight. The P40s however zoom away and regroup over Opana Point to catch the enemy as they depart.

Sadly the Marine Wildcat pilots did not have the benefit of a briefing of Claire Chennault, nor did they read his report on the A6M Zero Fighter. They attack and are caught by the 9 battle worthy Zeros that remain and in a dogfight, the Marines discover that the Zero is far better in a turn than they are. The Japanese shoot down 2 of the Wildcats, damage 8 others and prevent the Marines from reaching the bombers and knock them completely out of the fight. However, the Wildcat is a very tough aircraft and heavily armed, and 3 Zeroes go down before their guns.

The remaining bombers of Group 1 proceed to their target, and the 3 from the Zuikaku, now too few to seriously damage Ford Island, join in with the Akagi attack group.

Attack on the Fleet Docks
At total of 21 dive bombers, most from the Akagi, reach the harbor and begin their dives on the cruisers. They are met by heavy flak from the ships tied up on the docks, as well as Army batteries around the harbor. Flak gets 4 of the Val's as they dive, another 9 are damaged, but 19 bombs are dropped successfully. All four cruisers are hit, with the San Francisco taking a hit in her hanger deck which starts a severe fire, another blasts apart rear superstructure, causing considerable casualties and a fire. Both fires burn for a couple of hours before finally being put out. The New Orleans suffers two very near misses that causes flooding and casualties and a direct hit on her fantail that knocks out her rudder and one screw. Two bombs aimed at her hit the Oiler Ramapo, which is loaded with fuel oil and carrying 4 PT boats on her deck that were originally destined for the Philippines. Two of the boats are blasted apart, and a serious fire starts that becomes the primary focus of firefighting efforts for Navy base firefighters and is put out in 30 minutes. Casualties are heavy aboard the Ramapo, but relatively light aboard the New Orleans. The cruisers St Louis and Honolulu, tied up side by side, and both still dependent on shore power as their engines were offline being overhauled, are hard to miss, and indeed are hit hard. Both suffer two bomb hits each, with the near misses all around. The Honolulu suffers a hit that threatens to set her magazine afire, and the forward magazine is quickly flooded but B turret is wrecked, A turret is damaged, and of course the magazine is flooded. The second bomb knocks a 5 inch turret completely apart on her port side, and also starting a serious fire that will rage for over an hour. Ready ammunition also explodes and further damage results. Heroic efforts prevent a chain reaction reaching any magazine but casualties aboard her are heavy. The St Louis takes a hit on her fantail, another amidships that starts a serious fire, and two near misses cause heavy flooding in her forward boiler room. Her steering is knocked out, as is half of her power plant, and damage to the dock also knocks out power to both ships temporarily.

Attack on Hickam Field
The Zuikaku attack force of 27 dive bombers have the mission of knocking out Hickam Field, and while flak is heavy from Army anti-aircraft gunners, the Army gun crews fail to knock any Val's down and the Japanese inflict a severe pasting on the base. A total of 27 500 pound bombs hit the base, wrecking every hanger, wreck all 17 bombers that were undergoing repair plus a visiting B24 that was held over the previous day because of engine trouble. However the plan to strafe the base is canceled due to heavy fire and while none of the Japanese bombers were shot down 11 of them were damaged in their attacks. The Japanese formation breaks off after bombing and leaves the area along the other dive bombers.


Attack on the Fleet Dry Dock
The 18 dive bombers from the Kaga begin their dives on the dry dock even as the rest of the dive bombers are making their runs. Facing only light flak, these crews, probably the best crews in the Japanese Navy, drop all 18 of their bombs in a very tight pattern and blast the destroyers Cassin and Downes apart, seriously damage the dry dock, start a severe oil fire from the wrecked destroyers, and place four bombs on the Pennsylvania. She takes 3 hits amidships, starting a severe fire in the hanger, badly damaging both the fore and aft superstructure, and also getting a hit on C turret that fails to penetrate the turret armor but whose splinters cause serious casualties. Another pair of bombs wreck the dry dock crane. None of the Val's are shot down, but 5 are damaged by American flak as they pull out of their dives.

American ambush over the North Shore
The surviving aircraft of Raid 1, consisting of 6 battle worthy Zero fighters and 62 Val dive bombers begin their egress from the attack, flying due north and their exit over Kahuku Point. They find that 16 P40s of the 16th Fighter Group are waiting for them. In another slashing diving attack that focuses on bombers that are lagging behind the rest, Taylor and Welch add to their scores (getting 2 kills each) and Welch becomes the third American Ace of World War II. In addition to their 4, another 6 Vals and 2 Zeroes are shot down and the American fighters continue their dives and zoom away. Several suffer damage from Val's gunners but Zeros that turned into the attack manage to knock down 2 of the American P40s.

Raid One has inflicted serious damage to a battleship, four cruisers, a fleet oiler and wrecked 2 destroyers and 2 PT boats. Hickam Field is burning (although the runways are undamaged), and 18 aircraft have destroyed on the ground and 9 American fighters in the air. Another 12 American fighters are write offs. Japanese losses however have been heavy, with 12 fighters destroyed, 3 more are doomed to be write offs when they reach the carriers. The dive bombers suffered 24 shot down, 4 ditch on their way home (and their crews die with them), 30 more are doomed to be write offs, and nearly every other bomber has suffered at least some damage.

Raid Two
As fierce fighting wages over Oahu, Raid Two makes its way over Honolulu, sees only the Antares and a few merchant ships in Honolulu harbor and proceeds toward the entrance of Pearl Harbor looking for ships that have sortied. There it finds the American fleet of 19 ships, and just as importantly the 18th Fighter Group with 19 P40s and 10 P36s finds them.

Using the same tactics as their fellow Army pilots, the P40s dive on the 18 Zeros as they climb to meet them using the heavy firepower and daunting dive speed of the Warhawk to blast 4 of the enemy fighters out of the sky and then diving away to then use their built up air speed to zoom back up to altitude. The Zeros manage to shoot down 2 of the P40s however, and damage 3 others but 4 of the Zeros are too damaged to continue the fight and must also break away. Meanwhile the P36s shoot down 4 of the lead Vals (from the Soryu), damage 4 more (and force them to jettison their bombs) before also diving away to avoid enemy fighters.

Attack on the California
The 28 Val's that remain are all ordered to concentrate on the lead battleship, the California, which was first to exit the harbor and still remains in the lead. American flak is murderous however, as well over 100 5 inch guns and numerous 3 inch guns all have clear firing arcs, as do the machine guns of the fleet as the Val's pull out of their dives. The Americans blast 6 out of the sky before they can drop, another 4 are shot down after they drop their bombs, and nearly every bomber takes at least some damage. The fierce flak throws off the Japanese aim and while 22 bombs are dropped at the battleship, only 4 manage to score, all amidships. Casualties are heavy aboard the California and she is left with a serious blaze that burns for nearly two hours before damage control teams manage to get it under control.

As the Japanese bombers flee the scene with they are once again attacked by the American fighters who have dive on them again. The remaining Japanese fighters manage to engage the P36 squadron before it can reach their prey however, and blast 6 out of the sky and wreck the rest at no loss to themselves, but the 12 P40s that remain in the fight shoot down another 9 Val dive bombers (the more seriously damaged lagging behind) before breaking off as fuel and ammunition are exhausted.

For the Japanese this has been a bitter disappointment. While a battleship has been seriously damaged and 14 American fighters either destroyed or doomed to be write offs when they land, they have lost 23 Val dive bombers and 4 Zeros shot down, another 4 Zeros and 20 Vals are doomed as write offs when they finally reach their ships. A disastrous trade for the Japanese 1st Air Fleet.

By 0855 the last Japanese plane has departed Oahu and the last American fighter has returned to base.

The Air Raid on Pearl Harbor is over. But the Pacific War has only just begun....

 

[galveston bay]

US Navy Hawaiian area December 7, 1941 1100 Hours
Task Force 9 Picket force (all are at least 150-200 miles from Striking Force to northwest, west, or northeast)(submarines are making best speed to block the likely Japanese return heading either to the north or west)(surface ships are moving to last position of the Gamble)
Destroyer minelayers Gamble (sunk) , Ramsey, Montgomery, Pruitt, Tracy

submarines S-18, S-23, S-34, Gudgeon, Plunger, Tambor, Thresher

Scouting Force (Halsey)
Task Force 2 (Brown) carrier Lexington (w 37 Dauntless dive bombers, 18 Devastator torpedo bombers, 17 Buffalo fighters), heavy cruisers Chicago, Portland, Astoria, destroyers Porter, Drayton, Flusser, Lamson, Mahan, Cummings,

Task Force 4 (Fletcher) carrier Yorktown (36 Dauntless dive bombers, 18 Devastator torpedo bombers, 18 Wildcat fighters)heavy cruisers Minnapolis, Indianapolis, light cruisers Helena, Phoenix destroyers Farragut, Aylwin, Monaghan, Tucker, Ellet, Blach, Case (several of these ships meet up with the Yorktown just after dawn on December 8 after a high speed run from Pearl Harbor)

Task Force 3 (Halsey) carrier Enterprise (37 Dauntless dive bombers, 18 Vindicator Dive bombers,18 Devastator torpedo bombers, 14 Wildcat fighters), heavy cruisers Northampton, Chester, Salt Lake City, destroyers Maury, Craven, Gridley, McCall, Dunlap, Benham, Fanning,

Task Force 8 destroyer minesweepers Chandler, Hovey, Boggs, Lamberton, fleet oilers Platte, Tippacanoe, Santee, Sangamon

The Scouting Force is refueling 0730 hours – 1350 hours

Other Forces
French Frigate Shoals
Passing nearby: (returning from Midway) Seaplane Tender Wright (civilians aboard), Tranport Burrows (en route to Wake Island),

station: small seaplane tender Swan, Destroyer minelayer Sicard, patrol gunboat Sacramento

Kure: small seaplane tender Avocet, destroyer minelayer Breese,

(returns to Pearl Harbor afternoon December 7) California (3 bomb hits amidships, serious fires, secondary armament and fire control wrecked)

Task Force 1 (Anderson) (Midway Reinforcement Force)(returned to Pearl Harbor afternoon December 7, return to sea morning of December 9 after taking on personnel, cargo, stores and refueling)
battleships Maryland, West Virginia seaplane tenders Tangiers, Curtis, Hulbert stores ship Antares destroyers MacDonough, Phelps, Chew, Allen, Henley, Patterson, Ralph Talbot,

In port Pearl Harbor
110 Dock: battleships Oklahoma (sunk 8 torpedo hits, 2 in stern, part of stern missing, 5 amidships, 1 removed much of the bow, serious casualties, abandoned, on fire, serious oil fire covering much of this part of the harbor)
Fleet Target ship Utah (2 torpedo hits, sunk, abandoned)
submarine Cachelot (sunk by 1 torpedo, abandoned)(scrapped in place in 1942)

Drydock: battleship Pennyslvania (3 x 500 pound bomb hits, severe fire damage amidships wrecking 6 inch secondary 5 inch mounts), destroyers Cassin, Downes (both destroyers are constructive total losses due to multiple bomb hits, magazine explosions, fire damage)
Floating drydock: destroyer Shaw

Naval Station docks: heavy cruisers San Francisco (2 x 500 pound bomb hits, severe fire gutted hanger deck and aft superstructure, several 5 inch AA guns ruined), New Orleans (broken plates and some flooding from 2 x 500 pound bomb near misses, fantail, rudder, starboard screw need major repairs or replacement from 500 pound bomb hit) light cruisers St Louis (2 x 500 pound bomb hits, steering compartment wrecked, forward boiler room wrecked, severe fire damage amidships), Honolulu (2 x 500 pound bomb hits, B turret wrecked, 1 5 inch turret wrecked, forward 6 inch magazine flooded, fire damage amidships and forward superstructure),
destroyers Jarvis, Mugford, Bagley, Cummings, minesweeper Greebe, destroyer minesweeper Trever, Zane, Perry Wasmuth, destroyer minelayer Breese,
oiler Ramapo (severe fire damage from 1x 500 pound bomb hit),
repair ship Argonne, stores ship Rigel,

Southeast Loch (submarine base) docks: submarine tender Pelias, rescue ship Widgeon, repair ship Sumner, stores ship Castor, submarines Narwhal, Dolphin, Tautog,

Middle loch: repair ship Medusa, hospital ship Solace

Battleship Row
battleship Nevada (inboard)(2 torpedo hits, steering compartments, 2 boiler rooms flooded)(3 AP bomb hits, galley destroyed, 2 damage control teams wiped out, more damage to boilers, A turret penetrating hit and out of action)(fires are under control but has settled on the bottom),

destroyer Dobbin (outboard of Nevada)(serious flooding engineering spaces from concussion from Nevada torpedo hits)(1 AP bomb hit, detonated below the ship, keel broken, engineering spaces flooded)(sunk and being abandoned)

battleship Arizona (inboard)(1 torpedo hit, 3 AP bomb hits, forward magazine detonation, on fire, abandoned and sunk)
Repair ship Vestal (outboard) (1 torpedo hit, engineering spaces flooded)(flooded forward hold from Arizona torpedo hit, 1 damaging near miss and 2 AP hits that were duds, ship has sunk, severe fires from Arizona detonation, serious casualties from that and hits it has suffered, being abandoned)
battleship Tennessee (inboard)(D turret has lost a 14 inch gun to a AP dud, 1 AP hit has flooded the steering compartment)(fires from flaming debris from Hull and Arizona, being taken under tow by harbor tugs to move her from flaming oil from Arizona)
destroyer Hull (outboard) (destroyed by 1 torpedo hit which caused a detonation that broke her in two. Both halves are on fire and have sunk preventing magazine explosions. Severe casualties)

East Loch
destroyer tender: Whitney, minelayer Oglala, Destroyer Selfridge (fighting fire amidships from plane crash) oiler Neosho (three quarters of ship on fire, has been abandoned)

harbor entrance
destroyers Blue, Ward, Helm, Dewey, Worden, 4 minesweepers, 6 PT boats,

seaplane tender Thornton ( 2 torpedo hits from midget submarine, heavy casualties, beached off Hospital Point

Post attack fates of ships hit in the attack
Arizona broke in two as a result of the detonation of its magazine and can not be raised. Much of the steel above the deck level is taken off over the course of the war and recycled, while the guns end up assigned to the US Army Coast Defense branch. Her crew suffers the worst casualties numerically during the attack.

Oklahoma had an entire side of the vessel ripped open by 5 torpedo hits amidships and avoided rolling over only by heroic damage control work and ruthless counterflooding as well hits that followed that removed part of her stern and bow (essentially blowing the forward 20 feet of the bow completely apart) which opened up the starboard side to flooding (as did the removal of a substantial part of the stern). Basically enough water flooded in from the front and back of the ship, along with counterflooding, to allow her to sink with a severe list but not roll over. This rate of flooding was increased further by a torpedo that went into a hole created by a previous torpedo and blew out not only several compartments but vented the port side to flooding as well. Nearly 500 men die aboard her in flooded compartments or from the explosions of torpedoes. The second oldest battleship in the Pacific Fleet, and over 25 years old, she is considered a constructive total loss and not worth repairing. However she does take up valuable space at the 110 Dock, and so is refloated in a herculean effort in July 1942, and then towed out to sea and scuttled with honors. Over 100 bodies are discovered in compartments when she was pumped out and those men are buried with many of their crewmates at Honolulu National Cemetary. Her guns also end up with Army Coast Defense but are never used however some are used on other old battleships to replace damaged guns or guns worn out later.

Nevada is raised in May 1942, steams to Bremerton Naval Yard for repairs and modernization, and rejoins the fleet January 1943. Over 100 men were killed aboard her during the attack.

Pennsylvania is sent to Bremerton Naval Yard for repairs and modernization in January 1942, once the wreckage of the Cassin and Downes are removed and the dry dock is repaired sufficiently to return to service. Indeed the Dry Dock is the first priority of repair efforts. Two of the new Fletcher class destroyers get the names Cassin and Downes.

California is sent to Mare Island Naval Yard for repairs and modernization, rejoining the fleet in May 1942. Over 50 are killed during the attack off Oahu.

Tennessee is sent to Bremerton Naval Yard for repairs and modernization with the help of fleet tugs in late December 1941. She is then sent to Mare Island for further modernization and rejoins the Fleet in June 1942. Almost 200 were killed aboard her, mostly exposed personnel killed by the blasts and debris spread by the detonation of a destroyer alongside of her and a battleship directly astern of her.

The heavy cruiser San Francisco is sent to Mare Island in December 1941 and rejoins the fleet in February 1942 after modernization. Over 100 die aboard her during the attack.

The heavy cruiser New Orleans is towed to East Loch until the drydock is available again and then gets a new rudder and new screws and is sent to Bremerton for repairs and modernization. She rejoins the fleet in June 1942 and suffered 67 dead during the attack.

The light cruisers Honolulu and St Louis were high priority ships, as they are modern highly capable light cruisers. Both are given sufficient repairs at Pearl Harbor to send them to Bremerton in January 1942, and both rejoin the fleet in April 1942. Between them over 150 are killed.

The Vestal, Neosho, and Utah are all considered constructive total losses. The Vestal and Utah are raised, and along with the Neosho (which did not sink but simply was burned out) are towed out to sea and scuttled as not worth the risk of towing to the West Coast to be scrapped. Over 250 die aboard these three ships. The wreckage of the Hull, Thornton, and Dobbin are also raised, as the two destroyers are in valuable anchorages and the Thornton is too close to the channel for comfort, and they also are towed out to sea for scuttling. The Hull took the highest percentage casualties of the day, with only 14 of her crew of 160 man crew surviving the explosion of her magazine. Another 100 men died aboard the other two ships.

The Selfridge is quickly repaired and rejoins the fleet in February 1942 and suffered the loss of 23 dead during the attack.. The fleet oiler Ramapo rejoins the fleet soon after in March 1942, with 13 of her crew buried at Honolulu National Cemetary.

Other naval casualties from strafing, stray bombs and plane crashes number over 100.

Total Navy dead (including those killed on the Gamble) total 2357

 

[galveston bay]

American Counterattacks December 7
Three American formations are in route toward where the Japanese fleet is assumed to be. The Army aircraft are well in the lead, but also are of on their heading and are forced to do a box search. Thus the Marine Dauntless dive bombers arrive at 845 Hours. The Japanese have 36 fighters up as a combat air patrol and they swarm all over the Marine aircraft, shooting 17 of them down and only 5 manage to make a combat dive, where 2 are blasted apart by Japanese flak. Only 3 manage to drop their bombs, and all three miss the Kaga, the biggest target in the Japanese fleet. One is then caught escaping by the Zeros and both survivors escape but only one makes it back to Oahu where it lands at Haleiwa, while the other ditches on the way home. Only 1 Marine of the 44 who took part in the attack survives, the pilot who made it to Haleiwa, and his gunner is dead in the seat behind him. His aircraft is a write off.

A B17 spots the Japanese fleet next at 0907 hours, and makes an attack after providing a position report. It too is spotted by the Japanese CAP, and the Japanese learn that the B17 is a very tough aircraft, as while it is shot to pieces it manages to escape where it ends up making an acceptable landing at Wheeler Field (in that everyone survives the landing) but the wreckage is pushed off the runway. By a miracle all of the crew survives although only two remain unwounded (the pilot and the flight engineer). Their bombing attack is a failure however, as three bombs land in the water well to the starboard of the Kirishima. The crew claims two hits on a battleship and that it was sinking, as flames and flashes were very visible from the Japanese ship.


However, the position report is picked by by the A20s, who are about to return home, and the Vindicators, who are approaching the Japanese fleet as well. The Army bombers come in at 300 miles an hour in a shallow dive and pick the first carrier they see, the Akagi at 0918 hours. The Army bombers are far faster than the Japanese expect, and the Japanese fighters only have a 30 mile an hour speed advantage over them. Three of the fighters make the mistake of making a head on attack against the A20s, and learn the hard way that the Americans have four fixed .30 caliber machine guns forward. One is blasted apart, and the other two are damaged and forced to break off. The Japanese manage to shoot down 8 of the bombers in the air battle that follows but 5 of them manage to drop their bombs but miss their target. However, heavy strafing does cause numerous casualties aboard the Japanese ship as all 5 bombers concentrate their fire on the Akagi's island. The bridge and flag bridge are both swept by machine gun rounds and Nagumo and several of his staff are killed. The lone surviving A20, badly shot up, ditches on its return home resulting in the deaths of both crew members.

However, the 2 Marine Vindicator's reach the Japanese fleet at that moment, and they dive on the first carrier they see, the Zuikaku. With the Japanese attention firmly focused on the Army bombers, they are not even spotted until they pull out of their dives and both place their 1,000 pound bombs squarely on the flight deck of the Japanese carrier. The forward elevator is blasted into wreckage by one bomb, while the other penetrates the flight deck and explodes in the hanger below, wrecking it and starting a serious fire that destroys the spare aircraft that were being assembled and killing dozens of men. Although the fires are put out within 30 minutes, the Zuikaku is no longer available for flight operations and its aircraft are recovered by the other carriers. Both bombers escape making it into clouds before they can be swarmed by the Japanese fighters and both manage to make it home.


The Japanese finish recovering their aircraft 180 miles north north west of Oahu at 1030 hours and then begin their retirement at 24 knots heading west. Meanwhile, Major Landon and his 11 B17s arrive at Hickam Field, which is still burning when they land. Army personnel hurriedly refuel, arm and bomb up the aircraft and all 11, along with the 5 B17Ds that are available take off at 1400 hours heading for the most likely Japanese position. At 1700 hours they find the Japanese fleet, and bombing from 20,000 feet, surround the Japanese warships with splashes but score not a single hit. The Japanese fighters fail to reach altitude before the American bombers are long gone and break off the pursuit.

At 1810 hours, with dusk rapidly approaching, the American submarine S-23 is nearly run down by the Japanese fleet but manages to fire all its forward torpedo tubes at the nearest carrier, the Soryu. Of four torpedoes, three actually hit the carrier and two of them detonate. A chain reaction of explosions results and after 20 minutes it is clear that the ship is doomed. Two destroyers are left behind to take off survivors and the rest of the Japanese fleet steams on into the gathering darkness. The S-23 is attacked by Japanese destroyers for 20 minutes but escapes unscatheed. The Soryu goes down with 432 men, and takes with it all of its aircraft as well.

With that the first day of battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy and the United States Navy comes to an end.

 

[galveston bay]

Japanese aircraft losses Pearl Harbor Raids
31 A6M Zero fighters, 56 D3A Val Dive Bombers, 68 B5N Kate Torpedo Bombers (155 of 360, or 43%)

Japanese aircraft damaged beyond repair or jettisoned due to need for clear fight deck
8 A6M Zero fighters, 50 D3A Val Dive Bombers, 5 B5N Kate Torpedo/Level Bombers

the Japanese have 3 of each aircraft type on each carrier partially disassembled and are ready for use by late afternoon December 7.

Fleet Combat Air patrol
6 Zeros each carrier (36 total), spotted and launched after Third Wave departs (1 shot down from Hiryu, 2 damaged from Hiryu)

lost aboard Zuikaku
3 Val dive bombers, 3 Zero fighters, 3 Kate torpedo bombers (destroyed in hanger fire)(includes spares lost)

lost aboard Soryu
9 Val dive bombers, 15 Zero fighters, 15 Kate torpedo bombers (3 Zero fighters were in the air at the time)(includes spares)

Total aircraft lost December 7 all causes 268 aircraft.

 

[galveston bay]

well after looking at some maps, finding one that would show were all the various task forces are AND would fit as an attachment in this forum didn't work out

so sorry folks, you will have to rely on the locations I post and put them on a map that you might have... I am reasonably certain everyone has access to a reasonably good map somewhere, online if nothing else

this one is pretty good for the Hawaiian Islands and it still doesn't cover the entire operational area involved
https://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/islands_oceans_poles/hawaiian_islands.jpg

(the Tropic of Cancer is 157 miles north on Honolulu, so the Gamble was sunk around the 28th Parallel, the Japanese launch point is around the 26th Parallel, second launch point just below that and recovery point is about 30 miles north of the Tropic

The American Carriers (Brown and Halsey) are approaching Laysan Island to meet up with Fletcher and the oilers as of the early morning of December 7 (Brown and the Lexington/Yorktown from the southwest, Halsey and the Enterprise from the Northwest, and Fletcher from the East)

the Leary task group is just off the harbor of Honolulu, along with the fleet auxiliary Antares

http://www.theodora.com/maps/new9/principal_hawaiian_islands.jpg

The Japanese Midway Attack Force (cruisers, escorts and transports) are 150 miles east northeast of Wake Island steaming NNE at 10 knots (best speed of the transports and support ships) on a direct course to Midway (which is still 1000 miles, or 100 hours away) which means the American carriers are a lot closer to them than the Japanese carriers are

https://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/pacific_area_1942.jpg

 

[galveston bay]

December 7 Night – December 8 Evening
Japanese Forces
Japanese striking Force
1030 hours 180 miles NNW Oahu (150 NM due north Kaui) (final recovery position)
speed 24 knots for 12 hours (2230 hours) 120 NM west


course change N 27 knots (2230 hours – 0830 hours) puts them 500 miles north of Nihoa Island, meets with supply group 2. Destroyers refuel 0900 – 1700 hours
Position is 700 miles from Oahu and 800 miles from Midway Island, just out of air search range for both. After refueling, the Zuikaku, 3 destroyers, 5 fleet oilers (from supply group 1) all head for Japan at 12 knots (reaching Japan on December 21). Remainder of the Striking Force steams toward Midway beginning 1700 hours December 8 at 21 knots, which will put them strike range of Midway Island on the afternoon of December 9, and the bombardment force can reach the island after dark.

Midway Invasion Force and Supply Group 3 is 600 miles west of Midway Island heading due east heading directly for Midway as of dusk on December 8. This fleet accelerates to its best speed of 15 knots just after dark, which will place them off Midway the morning of December 10.


Meanwhile

American Forces
Scouting Force completes refueling 200 miles south Laysan Island until 1350 hours December 7. Turns east and runs at 18 knots until 0700 hours December 8 to meet with TF 15 (2 CL) which steams from just off Pearl Harbor at 31 knots from 1100 hours December 7 until 0700 hours December 8 where it joins Yorktown task force. At that point the Scouting Force has no idea where the enemy is as it waits for contact reports. Halsey orders the fleet to steam north in 3 task forces, each 10 miles apart, to a Point Option, at 30 degrees N, 170 degrees W. Worried that the Japanese might have slipped by air search from Midway and Pearl Harbor, he has 36 SBDs operating in pairs searching out to 200 miles, and 30 TBDs looking for submarines, which are suspected to be nearby in strength. By nightfall the American carriers have reached Point Option and there is still no report regarding the Japanese.


Air search from Midway looks Northeast, North and Northwest out 500 miles, does not spot enemy, nor does the air search from Oahu, which is also patrolling out 500 miles.

However, American destroyers and destroyer minesweepers along with float planes and B18s are searching off the coast of Oahu for enemy submarines. They find two of them, sinking the I-3 and the I-70 near Oahu.

Task Force 1 loads up reinforcements for Midway in Pearl Harbor with orders to head to Midway on the morning of December 9.


The Saratoga is loading its airgroup off San Diego along with 6 destroyers and 2 fleet oilers. In addition, it is loading a Marine Corps bombing squadron with orders to steam to Pearl Harbor on December 10. A Warning Order is issued for several patrol squadrons on the West Coast to prepare for deployment to Hawaii.

The Louisville and Pensacola convoys are diverted to Brisbane, Australia pending further decisions. In Washington DC, the Navy Department and President Roosevelt are suddenly looking for a new commander of the Pacific Fleet and several names are discussed. Overnight reports reach Pearl Harbor of heavy losses suffered by the USAAF Far East, attacks on Guam, a disastrous air raid on Wake Island, Japanese attacks on Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Malaya. The US Navy issues instructions to conduct unrestricted submarine warfare on Japan.

 

[galveston bay]

special notes:
Ships equipped with CXAM Radar as of December 7 (and with the Pacific Fleet)
BB California, West Virginia, Pennsylvania
CV Lexington, Yorktown, Enterprise
CA Pensacola, Northhampton, Chester, Chicago
seaplane tender Curtis

All US destroyers have sonar, none yet have radar

CXAM has a search range of 50 to 100 miles (depends who you ask), but the Lexington picked up a Japanese strike at 65 miles at the Battle of Coral Sea so I am going with that (but assuming 50-60 miles factoring in decision time frames)

No Japanese ships have radar (and will not for some time to come), Japanese destroyers, even the best equipped, only carry 12-20 depth charges and these are set too shallow (for now)


Air Search
The Japanese use float planes from their cruisers (which are in trouble from just about anything else that flies and has guns), and Kates if they are really serious and know American carriers are about. In this timeline they are looking for American CVs, so usually 12 Kates provide additional coverage to the seaplanes aboard the Tone and Chikuma. The BB float planes generally are used for antisubmarine patrols

The Americans use the Dauntless, indeed one squadron is a Scouting Squadron, so up to 18 per carrier is typical. These search aircraft carry bombs (usually a 500 pound bomb as the 1,000 pound bomb reduces their air search time). The float planes are not used for search and indeed spent a lot of time simply being fire hazards (after Savo Island they were flown off right away if a surface action was expected). They did good work in the search and rescue missions.

The Americans still have the overwhelming majority of the PBY force at Oahu (about 65) and Midway (12 or so, plus a couple that were on their way to the Dutch that were kept on December 7). These have an effective search range of 500-600 miles. However it is a big ocean, and while that sounds like a lot of search aircraft, they still miss things.

There are two American submarines off Midway on December 7, and both will remain on station, the Argonaut) whose captain hid below the surface when two Japanese destroyers from the Pearl Harbor attack force shelled that island that evening in OTL) and the Trout, which was on the opposite side of the atoll and thus out of position that evening.

The Japanese submarines are all clustered around Oahu, however a few are heading toward Midway.. However their speed is 22 knots at most, but as they are a long way from home a more conservative 18 knots (high end of cruise) is called for, and they can only do that safely during night time hours. They are thus out of position until around December 9 at the very least (this is a departure from historical in terms of where the submarines went after Pearl Harbor)

The American S boats and fleet boats from the Picket Force have pretty much been left behind. The three submarines at Pearl Harbor that are available will not be able to sortie until December 9 as they were undergoing maintenance at the time of the attack.

MidwayIsland
The AAA batteries and 5 inch batteries are present, and like Wake Island, they are still under manned and there is no radar yet at Midway (its on its way). The airfield is completed, and there are stores, including bombs, present for the VMSB 231 and its Vindicators which were supposed to be flown off on December 7.

There are stores and fuel for the PBYs present (and plenty for any other aircraft). If necessary the PBYs can rebase to French Frigate Shoals, especially as the Curtis is en route there to provide support to PBYs from Oahu that are about to be sent there.

Japanese land based aircraft in the Mandates are busy attacking Wake Island at the moment and are well out of range in any event