Day of Infamy

When America
Needed Heroes

When the morning sun broke across Diamond Head on December 7, 1941, it sparkled across the smooth waters of Pearl Harbor to reveal fully half of the entire United States Navy's Pacific Fleet.  Scattered around Ford Island, and resting peacefully at anchor, were nearly 150 ships of the Navy and Coast Guard, most of which subsequently sustained damage in the ensuing attack.  Eighteen vessels were sunk or severely damaged beneath two waves of Japanese Zeroes and torpedo bombers, including all eight of the fleet's huge battleships, 3 light cruisers, and 3 destroyers.  Of the more than 2,400 Americans killed during the two-hour attack 1,177 were lost aboard the USS Arizona.  It was the most disastrous day in the history of the United States Navy, truly A Day of Infamy.  In one swift stroke the Japanese Imperial Navy and Air Force rendered the American Navy virtually impotent to defend the vast Pacific.

Almost listed as a historical footnote to the Navy's losses at Pearl Harbor is the devastation wreaked upon the United States Army Air Forces.  The image of a burning P-40 fighter on an airfield pales next to the drama of the sinking USS Arizona or the over-turned hull of the USS Utah.  Perceptions aside, the overall result to any American hope of mounting a Pacific defense was the same.  On the same morning that the Japanese destroyed the US Navy's Pacific Fleet, it also decimated the ability of the Army's Air Force to rise to the challenge of the new war.

Five air stations were scattered across the island of Oahu, including the Naval Air Station at Kaneohe Bay and the smaller Marine Air Station at Ewa.  The bulk of the American Army's air presence in the Pacific was located on three airstrips: Wheeler Field near Schofield Barracks in the center of the island, Hickam Field between Honolulu and Pearl Harbor, and the new Bellows Field on the island's southeast coast line.  In all, these five fields were home to some 400 aircraft on the morning of December 7, 1941.  All were priority targets for Japanese Commander Mitsuo Fuchida's first wave of 183 fighter planes and torpedo bombers.

When the first wave approached the north end of the island from their carriers just 200 miles away, they split up to attack in all directions.  One flight peeled off towards the Naval Air Station at Kaneohe Bay, home to the three squadrons of Navy Patrol Wing One.  Each squadron consisted of twelve new, twin-engine, PBY Catalina flying boats.  All but three of them were parked neatly near their hangers, or floating peacefully in the bay.  It was here, at 7:48 a.m, that the first shots were fired on that Day of Infamy.  Within minutes twenty-six PBYs were destroyed where they sat.  Six more were severely damaged.  Only the three planes that were out on an early morning patrol survived the attack.

Six Zeroes from the enemy flight that skirted the west coastline to attack Pearl Harbor peeled off as they passed the Marine Air Station at Ewa to strafe the fields.  Of forty-eight American aircraft based there, thirty-three were destroyed or damaged.  Before the first bombs fell on American ships around Ford Island, Naval and Marine Corps aviation in the Pacific had been reduced by half.

The damage was even worse for the Army Air Forces.

The threat of sabotage was far greater than the threat of attack at Pearl Harbor late in 1941. To minimize this risk the Army Air Force Commander Lieutenant General Walter C. Short had ordered his airplanes to be neatly parked in highly visible rows, away from the hangers.  At 7:51 a.m. Japanese aircraft descended on Wheeler Field and, four minutes later, other enemy aircraft simultaneously launched the assault on Pearl Harbor and nearby Hickam Field. Only a few American pilots like Lieutenant Philip Rasmussen who flew into combat in his pajamas, or Lieutenant George Welch who shot down four enemy airplanes that day, managed to get their fighters off the ground.  The bulk of the United States Army Air Force was destroyed on the ground.  By the time the second wave of Fuchida's attack force arrived over Oahu, perhaps as many as 20 American airplanes had risen to the defense.  It was a feeble attempt to preserve what remained.  When the sun set over the Hawaiian Islands on December 7, 1941, of nearly 230 Army aircraft assigned to duty in the Pacific, 64 were destroyed and 82 were damaged.  More than 500 airmen were either killed or wounded.

If the losses suffered by the Army Air Forces at Pearl Harbor were overshadowed by the devastating losses of the U.S. Navy in the reports that spread across the mainland in the hours that followed,  it is understandable.  Those initial reports sparked shock, horror and rage when special editions of the newspapers hit the streets in the afternoon.  Outrage and anger however, quickly turned into fear and frustration.  Before the normal Monday morning newspapers could hit the streets eighteen hours later, the news became even worse. 

 The United States was not a super power in 1941; its fledgling Army ranked only 17th in the entire world.  The U.S. Navy had only seven big aircraft carriers, three of them assigned to the Pacific Fleet which lay in burning ruin before noon on December 7.  Fortunately, all three aircraft carriers had been away from Pearl Harbor on the morning of the attack and were spared destruction.  This was the only ray of hope in a day otherwise filled with nothing but bad news--fearsome news that would only continue to mount.  

The aircraft carrier USS Saratoga was in San Diego when the bombs fell over Pearl Harbor.  The USS Lexington and the USS Enterprise were elsewhere in the Pacific, on separate missions from Pearl Harbor to deliver Marine Corps aircraft to the isolated American outposts on Midway and Wake Islands.  Both carriers and their escort ships were well south of Japanese Admiral Yamamoto's  carrier fleet when it turned homeward shortly before noon.  The islands to which the carriers were delivering those aircraft however, were not outside the range of attack.

 

Falling Like Dominoes

When the attack began at Pearl Harbor it was 4 a.m. of December 8 at the isolated American outpost of Guam on the other side of the International Date Line.  Less than five hours later the morning sun had risen on the strategic island that was home to 150 Marines and a few assorted Naval personnel.  With the sunshine came waves of aircraft from the Japanese 18th Naval Air Unit based on Saipan.  The badly outnumbered Americans and their small contingent of local Chamorro from the Guam Militia were nearly helpless.  The island had no artillery, only a few machine guns, and virtually no shelter to escape the torrent of bombs that followed.  Though the defenders held throughout the day, and even through the following day of continued bombardment, there was no doubt that Guam was on the verge of collapse.

 

One hour east of Guam was Wake Island (it is actually three small islands), an isolated American outpost of strategic importance to the American presence in the Pacific.  Prior to December 7 it was the only island in the region  not under Japanese rule and control.  Major James P. S. Devereux commanded 400 Marines to defend the position that consisted of a newly constructed air field and a few bunkers.  

Four days earlier the carrier  Enterprise had sailed in close enough to dispatch twelve F4F Wildcats under the command of Major Paul Putnam in order to fly patrols from the new airfield.  Then the big aircraft carrier had turned for home.  

At 8 a.m. on December 7 the Enterprise was only 200 miles west of her home port and launched Scouting Squadron 6 to land at Ewa Airfield.  These pilots flew unsuspecting into a maelstrom that was Pearl Harbor while the bombardment was still in progress, and engaged enemy aircraft in the final stages of the attack.

It was 6:00 a.m. on December 8 at Wake Island when the first bombs fell over Pearl Harbor, and Major Devereaux received word of the attack with his morning coffee. While he alerted his small shore defenses, Major Putnam and three Marine pilots began immediate patrols over the north side of the atoll.  A rain squall darkened skies to the south.  It was nearing noon when 36 twin-engine Japanese bombers slipped through the storm to surprise Wake's defenders.  The four airborne American pilots returned to meet the enemy in the air, but not before the Japanese destroyed seven of the twelve Wild Cats on the ground and damaged an eighth.  The heavy bombardment further destroyed most of the aviation fuel and spare parts needed for the Marine flying squadron that was now reduced to but four aircraft.

Despite the damage, the 400 intrepid Leatherneck riflemen held on, determined to rebuff the enemy bombardment.  Unknown to them at the time, even as the first bombs rained down on Wake Island, a large Japanese landing force was departing from Kwajalien to finish the job.  They would arrive within three days.

Further west it was daybreak along the China coast.  With dawn the Japanese continued their onslaught including attacks at Peking, against a small Marine guard unit in Chinwangtao near Tientsin, at the port at Singapore, and elsewhere throughout the region.  The time was now 9:00 a.m. in Tokyo, nearly midnight in Washington, D.C., and it was still early afternoon at Pearl Harbor.  The Day of Infamy was yet young, with even more bad news to follow.  Before evening shadows could fall over Oahu to hide what wreckage was not illuminated by the still burning fires from the early morning raid, far to the west additional attacks would continue.  One of them, due its extreme damage to what was left of American military power in the Pacific, would become known as:

MacArthur's
"Pearl Harbor"

Word of the Pearl Harbor attack reached the Philippine Islands by commercial radio shortly after 3:00 a.m. (local time) on the morning of December 8.  Due the time zones and the International Date Line, this announcement arrived while the second wave of enemy planes were returning to the aircraft carriers from their deadly mission at Oahu.  Within half-an-hour the American radar station at Iba Field on the west coast of Luzon plotted a formation of airplanes approaching Corregidor at the mouth of Manila Bay from 75, miles off-shore.  Several American P40 fighters were airborne by 4:00 a.m. and flying to intercept.  Blips on the radar screen at Iba showed the two forces engaging, though in fact the American pilots never saw the approaching force.  Flying at an altitude of more than 20,000 feet, the Japanese bombers passed above the lower American fighters in the pre-dawn darkness.

The 7,000 Philippine Islands are located 5,000 miles from Hawaii but only 1,800 miles from Tokyo.  Under American control since the Spanish-American War, in 1941 the Philippines comprised the westernmost American outpost and stood as the last natural barrier between Japan and the rich resources of East and Southeast Asia.  

Formosa, less then 600 miles to the north, had been under Japanese rule since 1895.  By 1941 nearly all other surrounding islands were under Japanese rule and control and in November the Japanese 11th Air Fleet moved 300 aircraft to Formosa.  They immediately began intensive training for night bombing missions.  The intent was clear; the Japanese were preparing to launch bombing raids on the Philippine Islands. 

Most of the 17 million people scattered through the Philippines lived on one of the 11 largest islands, including the big island of Luzon.  Luzon was home to both the capitol city of Manila and the headquarters of General Douglas MacArthur.  In 1941 MacArthur's ground defenses numbered fewer than 25,000 trained soldiers, more than half of which were Philippine regulars or scouts.  An irregular force of 100,000 reserve militia was in training, but on December 8, 1941, most were ill-equipped and unprepared for combat.

American naval presence in the south Pacific was small, consisting primarily of the heavy cruiser USS Houston, fewer than a dozen light cruisers, and two dozen submarines.  The real defense of the region had been delegated to the Far East American Air Force, based primarily on Luzon and on the southern island of Mindanao.  Though airfields were scattered across Luzon, most of MacArthur's FEAAF was based around Manila.  This force consisted of nearly 100 P-40 and P-35 fighters, with squadrons consisting of a eighteen fighters each at Iba, Clark, and Nichols Fields.  Also based at Clark Field were nineteen of the FEAAF's thirty-five new Boeing B-17 bombers.  The remaining sixteen were based 500 miles south, at Del Monte on the Island of Mindanao .   

The largest 4-engine bombing squadron in the world, these B-17s were capable of delivering destruction to Japanese positions not only on the surrounding islands, but as far away as heavily fortified Formosa.  Realizing that these bombers posed America's only viable means of retaliation, Japanese war planners had intended to strike Luzon nearly simultaneously with the attack at Pearl Harbor.  The attack against the FEAAF had been planned for 2:00 a.m. local time.  That plan was delayed nearly 12 hours by a heavy fog that shut down flights out of Formosa.

At 9:30 a.m. American radar picked up enemy aircraft heading south over Lingayen Gulf, apparently destined for Manila.  Fighters from Clark and Nichols Fields were dispatched to repel the invaders, and eighteen operational B-17s were scrambled at Clark Field so as not to leave them unprotected on the ground.  Instead of continuing towards Manila however, the enemy airplanes turned inland to bomb ground forces at Baguio and Tarlac, as well as the small airfield at Cabantuan.  American fighters failed to make contact and shortly before noon both these and the airborne B-17s were running low on fuel and returning to their respective fields.  

An American war plan code named Rainbow Five called for the B-17 pilots to refuel, arm with 100 and 300-pound bombs, and launch an immediate retaliatory strike against Japanese airfields on Formosa.  What the pilots or ground crews did not realize as they bent to the task of loading bombs and fuel on the grounded and now vulnerable Flying Fortresses was that at that very moment, a flight of 84 Zeroes was inbound.  They were escorts for more than 100 Japanese bombers that had left Formosa (Tainan) as quickly as the fog lifted.

The radar station at Iba Field picked up the incoming enemy aircraft and flashed a warning to both Del Monte and Clark Fields.  On the island of Mindanao fighters were scrambled to head north and defend Clark Field.  There, but another twist of bad luck, the warning had gone unnoticed.  The radio-operator was away from his headset...at lunch.  

Minutes later more than 100 Zeroes and Mitsubishis peeled off to attack Iba Field, where the eighteen P-40s of the 3rd Pursuit Squadron were refueling on the ground.  In moments, sixteen of them were destroyed where they sat.  Other enemy planes continued towards Clark Field only 40 miles further inland.

At Clark Field one B-17 was still airborne and circling the airfield amid a flurry of activity below.  On the ground pilots and crew joked and laughed while they bent to their tasks.  Over commercial radio they could hear a commentator announcing that Clark Field was under attack.  To the contrary, the pilots knew, they were preparing to launch an attack of their own.  Three B-17s outfitted with cameras for a reconnaissance flight over Formosa were taxiing into position, while the remaining bombers were being loaded for "Payback".   

When the skies were suddenly filled with aircraft, someone looked up and gleefully announced, "Here comes the Navy!" Another puzzled soldier glanced upward and asked, "Why are they dropping tinfoil?"  Then the air raid sirens sounded, and MacArthur's Little Pearl Harbor was under way. 

The three B-17s that had been preparing for takeoff exploded where they sat, followed by explosion after explosion.  Enemy aircraft swooped down in two waves, bombing and strafing everything they could see.  Men died, buildings burst into flames, and mighty B-17s exploded all around.  Only four P-40 fighters managed to take off and enter the fray.  The one-hour assault left little to be salvaged from Army Air Force in the Far East.  The only Flying Fortress to survive was the one that had been in the air; all eighteen others were destroyed on the ground.  Also destroyed were a dozen P-35 and twenty P-40 fighters.  American air power in the South Pacific had been reduced to half.

Back in Hawaii it was shortly after dinner time, December 7, 1941.  Fires still burned in the harbor, exploding munitions still rocked the airfields, and efforts were still under way to find survivors.  In Washington, D.C. it wasn't yet midnight.  

President Roosevelt had already penned the first draft of the speech he planned to deliver the following morning to the United States Congress.  As reports continued to reach the Capitol of each new attack, with sorrow and disgust he was forced to revise his account to Congress.

Midway

The Japanese plan of attack at Pearl Harbor had called for three waves of invading aircraft.  The damage inflicted by the first two waves far exceeded any victory Admiral Yamamoto or  Commander Fuchida could have hoped for, but the absence of all three American aircraft carriers had provided the one disappointment.  Due their absence, the third assault was cancelled and upon the return of the pilots from the second wave, the Imperial Fleet made haste to return home.  Japan lay 4,000 miles west, far beyond the reach of any American retaliatory strike, but the unknown whereabouts of the American carrier task forces posed potential dangers for the returning fleet.

One of those absent American carriers was the USS Lexington. At that moment she was en route to the small islands of Midway to deliver a Marine air squadron. It was a mission similar to the one just completed at Wake Island by the USS Enterprise.  Escorting the Lexington were three heavy cruisers (Chicago, Portland, and Astoria) and four light cruisers (Mahan, Drayton, Lamson, and Flusser).  When news of the attack on Oahu reached the Lexington the big carrier was 425 miles southeast of Midway, and hoping to reach the 400-mile range limit from which it could launch the 18 planes of Marine Scouting Bombing Squadron 231 for the last leg of their trek to their new base.  Instead, the Lexington upon learning of the attack, launched scout planes to seek out the Japanese fleet and turned south to join the Enterprise.

Meanwhile far to the north, Admiral Yamamoto was returning home unmolested.  When darkness settled on that Day of Infamy, he was within striking range of Midway and dispatched some of his ships to launch one final attack.  It was after 9 p.m. on the night of December 7 that his destroyers were close enough to the isolated outpost at the far west end of the Hawaiian archipelago, to allow the defending Marines to rake their decks with machineguns.  The Japanese commenced a half-hour naval bombardment, killing four Marines and wounding nineteen.

On Midway's Sand Island a large Japanese shell struck and penetrated the air vent of the main communications center.  Commanded by twenty-six year old Marine First Lieutenant George Cannon, the resulting explosion in the confined concrete bunker was deadly.  Nearly deaf and bleeding from numerous wounds, Lieutenant Cannon refused to be evacuated and remained throughout continued shelling to organize the evacuation of other wounded.  When the Japanese guns ceased fire and the big ships returned to join their fleet for the trek home, Lieutenant Cannon finally allowed his broken body to be evacuated to the aid station.  

It was too late, his blood loss had been too extreme to spare his life.  He became the first Marine of World War II to earn the Medal of Honor.   Back at Pearl Harbor the clock struck midnight...

The Day of Infamy had finally ended!

President Roosevelt addressed the Nation.     

(From Start to Finish--Fewer than 24 Hours had elapsed.)

 Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

Yesterday, the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya.
Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong. 
Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam.
Last night, Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.
Last night, the Japanese attacked Wake Island.
This morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

On December 7, 1941, the carefully crafted war plans of the Japanese armed forces crushed the might of American Naval and Army air power in the Pacific.  In the two weeks that followed, despite a valiant resistance exhibited at places like Wake Island, Guam, China and the Philippine Islands, nothing could stop the swift-moving Nippon war machine.  Though ground forces on Luzon continued to hold on in hopes that reinforcements would arrive, by Christmas virtually all of the Pacific was under enemy control and the Japanese Islands themselves were beyond the range of any hope for retaliation.

In that last full week of the year President Roosevelt held a meeting in his White House office.  Attending was Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall, ; General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, chief of staff of the Army Air Forces; Admiral Ernest King, Chief of Naval Operations; Secretary of War Henry Stimson; Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, Admiral Harold Stark, and the President's personal advisor Harry Hopkins.

In that top-secret meeting the President announced that he wanted to strike back at the Japanese as quickly as possible.  He indicated that such a strike needed to be more than a military victory; it needed to be a moral victory that would bolster the hopes of the American people.  The President went so far as to identify such a mission as a bombing raid on the Japanese homeland itself.

It was an impossible request, a dream of "Payback" by a military force that had been reduced to half of its pre-Pearl Harbor strength. It called for a mission against a target half-a-world a way, and insulated by a buffer of enemy-held territory that extended thousands of miles in all directions.

In the weeks that followed that meeting, America's highest ranking generals and admirals seldom met without discussing the President's call for retaliatory strikes.   In the islands of Japan there was no fear of such a strike, for there was no way it could be accomplished.  America had been brought to her knees, humbled, humiliated, and rendered impotent.  

Therein lay the first major error of Japan's well-laid plan for world dominion...they underestimated the will and determination of the American people in time of crisis.  Instead, they should have headed the words spoken by their own commander following his successful attack on Pearl Harbor:

"I fear that we have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve" Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto December 7th, 1941

PAYBACK!

Jimmy Doolittle's Tokyo Raid

Sources:

Cerasini, Marc, Heroes - U.S. Marine Corps Medal of Honor Winners, Berkley Books, New York, NY, 2002
Doolittle, General James and Carroll V. Glines, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again, Schiffer Publishing Ltd., Atglen, PA, 1991
Frisbee, John L., "AAF's First Ace", Air Force Magazine, September 1996, Vol. 79, No. 9
Frisbee, John L., "Valor at Vigan", Air Force Magazine, September 1984, Vol. 67, No. 9
Manchester, William, American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, Dell Publishing, 1983 
Thomas, Lowell, These Men Shall Never Die, The John C. Winston Company, 1943
Van Der Vat, Dan, Pearl Harbor, The Day of Infamy-An Illustrated History, Madison Press, Toronto, Ontario, 2001

 

Part II - World War 2 Wings of Valor Home Page Introduction Day of Infamy When America needed Heroes Pay Back The Tokyo Raid Harl Pease Too Young to Fly MacArthur Kenneth Walker  Reprimand or Medal Hamilton and Craw The Banker & The Soldier Airmen on the Ground  Jack Mathis Bombardier Brothers Snuffy Smith You don't have to be a saint To Become a hero. Sarnoski & Zeamer 1 Plane - 9 Heroes TWO Medals of Honor John C. Red  Morgan Medically Unqualified Morally Determined  The Ploesti Raid  When Heroes Filled the Sky  Ralph Cheli  Leadership by Example Sacrifice by Design Neel Ernest Kearby The First Top Gun Raymond Wilkins The Last Survivor Forrest Vosler  Blind Determination  James H. Howard  "I seen my duty and I done it!"  Lawley, Truemper,  & Mathies  Coming Home the Hard Way Ed Michael Until the Last Man Comes Home Leon Vance Burden of Command David Kingsley  The Ultimate Sacrifice Donald Pucket  Darrell Lindsey  Richard Bong  Horace Carswell  Robert Femoyer  Gott & Metzger  Frederick Castle  Thomas McGuire  William Shomo  Henry Red Erwin The Courage to LIVE Raymond Knight

A Very Special Thanks to Author/Historian Barrett Tillman for his special assistance and creative support in the development of this series. Part I World War One Coming in November 2006 Part III US Air Force