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Full Pearl Harbor Casualty List
December 7, 1941
 
 


Pearl Harbor under Attack
Sunday, December 7, 1941
the Japanese launched a surprise attack against the U.S. Forces stationed at
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
By planning his attack on a Sunday, the Japanese commander  Admiral Nagumo, hoped to catch the entire fleet in port.

As luck would have it, the Aircraft Carriers and one of the Battleships were not in port. (The USS Enterprise was returning
from Wake Island, where it had just delivered some aircraft. The USS Lexington was ferrying aircraft to Midway, and the USS Saratoga and
USS Colorado were undergoing repairs in the United States.)

In spite of the latest intelligence reports about the missing aircraft carriers (his most important targets), Admiral Nagumo decided
to continue the attack with his force of six carriers and  423 aircraft. At a range of 230 miles north of Oahu, he launched  the first wave
of a two-wave attack. Beginning at 0600 hours his  first wave consisted of 183 fighters and torpedo bombers which  struck at the
fleet in Pearl Harbor and the airfields in Hickam, Kaneohe and Ewa.

The second strike, launched at 0715 hours, consisted of 167 aircraft,
which again struck at the same targets.  At 0753 hours the first wave consisting of 40 Nakajima B5N2  "Kate" torpedo
bombers, 51 Aichi D3A1 "Val" dive bombers, 50 high
altitude bombers and 43 Zeros struck airfields and Pearl Harbor.  Within the next hour, the second
wave arrived and continued the attack.
When it was over, the U.S. losses were:

Casualties:
    USA: 218 KIA, 364 WIA.
    USN: 2,008 KIA, 710 WIA.
    USMC: 109 KIA, 69 WIA.
    Civilians: 68 KIA, 35 WIA.
    TOTAL: 2,403 KIA, 1,178 WIA.

Battleships:
    USS Arizona (BB-39) - total loss when a bomb hit her magazine.
    USS Oklahoma (BB-37) - Total loss when she capsized and sunk in the harbor.
    USS California (BB-44) - Sunk at her berth. Later raised and repaired.
    USS West Virginia (BB-48) - Sunk at her berth. Later raised and repaired.
    USS Nevada - (BB-36) Beached to prevent sinking. Later repaired.
    USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) - Light damage.
    USS Maryland (BB-46) - Light damage.
    USS Tennessee (BB-43) Light damage.
    USS Utah (AG-16) - (former battleship used as a target) - Sunk.

Cruisers:
    USS New Orleans (CA-32) - Light Damage..
    USS San Francisco (CA38) - Light Damage.
    USS Detroit (CL-8) - Light Damage.
    USS Raleigh (CL-7) - Heavily damaged but repaired.
    USS Helena (CL-50) - Light Damage.
    USS Honolulu (CL-48) - Light Damage.

Destroyers:
    USS Downes (DD-375) - Destroyed. Parts salvaged.
    USS Cassin - (DD-372) Destroyed. Parts salvaged.
    USS Shaw (DD-373) - Very heavy damage.
    USS Helm (DD-388) - Light Damage.

Minelayer:
    USS Ogala (CM-4) - Sunk but later raised and repaired.

Seaplane Tender:
    USS Curtiss (AV-4) - Severely damaged but later repaired.

Repair Ship:
    USS Vestal (AR-4) - Severely damaged but later repaired.

Harbor Tug:
    USS Sotoyomo (YT-9) - Sunk but later raised and repaired.
Aircraft:
    188 Aircraft destroyed (92 USN and 92 U.S. Army Air Corps.)


0342 hours  The minesweeper Condor is on patrol less than two miles (3.2 kilometers) off the entrance to Pearl Harbor.
The officer of the deck sees something "about fifty yards [45 meters] ahead off the port bow."
He asks a sailor what he makes of the object. "That's a periscope, sir," the sailor replies.
"And there aren't supposed to be any subs in the area."

The Condor sends a blinker-light message to the destroyer Ward: "Sighted submerged submarine on westerly course, speed 9 knots."

  0610 hours  Already in flight, Comdr. Mitsuo Fuchida, who will lead the Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor, sees
the Japanese aircraft carriers rocking on a choppy sea. As the carriers pitch and roll, waves crash across on the flight decks.
Crewmen cling to the aircraft to keep them from going over the side.

The carriers turn into the wind, and the first wave of planes—183 fighters, bombers, and torpedo planes—roar into the sky.
Pilots reconfirm their navigation by using a Honolulu radio station's music as a guiding beam.

  0645 hours  The U.S. destroyer Ward, which had not been able to find the midget submarine reported by the minesweeper Condor,
moves in for the kill. The Ward's captain, Lt. William W. Outerbridge, has been in command for only two days. He orders men
to commence firing. The first shot misses. The second strikes the submarine at the waterline.

The submarine heels over and appears "to slow and sink.
" The Ward assures the sinking by dropping "a full pattern of depth charges."

  0653 hours  From the Ward to the 14th Naval Headquarters, at Pearl Harbor Naval Station: "We have dropped depth charges
upon sub operating in defensive sea area." Then, almost immediately, a second, more detailed message: "We have attacked, fired upon,
and dropped depth charges upon submarine operating in defensive sea area."

The Ward's captain believes that the message will show superiors that the destroyer had not just
responded to a submarine sighting but actually had "shot at something."

  0702 hours  The Army's Opana Mobile Radar Station is one of six radar stations on Oahu. Radar is a
new defense tool in Hawaii; the system has been in operation for less than a month.

One of the two privates on duty looks at the radar oscilloscope and can't believe his eyes. He asks his buddy to take a look—
and he confirms the sighting: 50 or more aircraft on a bearing for Oahu.
The privates call the Fort Shafter information center, the hub of the radar network.

  0715 hours  The Ward had sent out its message—that it had attacked an unidentified sub—in code. At headquarters,
code clerks decode the message, then routinely put it in "paraphrase" so there will not be an exact paper copy that might aid an enemy code breaker.

The message gradually makes its way to the top: Adm. Husband E. Kimmel, commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet. Because
there had been so many "false reports of submarines" recently, Kimmel decides to "wait for verification of the report."

  0720 hours  An Army lieutenant who is in training at the radio-network operations center at Fort Shafter gets the Opana radar station report:
"the biggest sightings" the radar operator had ever seen. By now the planes are about 70 miles (113 kilometers) away.
The lieutenant believes that the radar had picked up a flight of U.S. B-17 Flying Fortress bombers heading from California to
Hawaii. For security reasons, he cannot tell this to the radar operators. All he says is, "Well, don't worry about it."

  0733 hours  U.S. code breakers, though stymied by Japanese naval codes, have cracked the Japanese diplomatic code.
From a Tokyo-to-Washington message, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Gen. George C. Marshall, Army Chief of Staff,
earn that Japanese negotiators in Washington have been told to break off talks. Believing this may mean war, Marshall
sends a warning to Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short, commander of U.S. Army forces in Hawaii.

Because atmospheric static blacks out communications with Hawaii, Marshall's message goes via commercial telegraph.
(It will reach Short's headquarters at 1145 hours. He will not see it until about 1500 hours.)

  0740 hours  Planes of the first wave take off from the Japanese carriers—49 high-altitude bombers, 51 dive-bombers,
40 torpedo planes, 43 fighters. They fly through clouds, wondering if Pearl Harbor will be visible.

Then, as they near Oahu, the attack commander hears a Honolulu weather report: "clouds mostly over the mountains.
Visibility good." The clouds break. The fliers see "a long white line of coast"—Oahu's Kakuku Point.

  0749 hours  Air-attack commander Mitsuo Fuchida, looking down on Pearl Harbor, sees no aircraft carriers, which the
Japanese hoped to destroy and thus thwart U.S. retaliation. He orders his telegraph operator to tap out to, to, to: attack.
Then other taps: to ra, to ra, to ra: attack, surprise achieved.

Though not meant to have a double meaning, to ra is read by some Japanese pilots as tora—tiger. And according to a Japanese
saying, "A tiger goes out 1,000 ri [2,000 miles/3,218 kilometers] and returns without fail."


USS Arizona Memorial

  0755 hours  At the Command Center on Ford Island, Comdr. Logan C. Ramsey looks out a window to see a low-flying plane.
A reckless U.S. pilot, he thinks. Then he sees "something black fall out of that plane" and realizes it's a bomb.

Ramsey runs to a radio room and orders the telegraph operators to send out an uncoded message to every ship and base:
AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR X THIS IS NOT DRILL

The coordinated attack begins as dive-bombers strike the Army Air Forces' Wheeler Field, north of Pearl Harbor, and Hickam Field,
near Ford Island's Battleship Row. The Japanese, wanting control of the air, hope to destroy American warplanes on the ground.

Most U.S. planes have been parked wingtip-to-wingtip in neat rows to make it easy to guard them against sabotage. Most are destroyed.

  0800 hours  As part of a U.S. plan to bolster the Pacific forces, 12 B-17 Flying Fortresses have been ordered to the Philippines.
The first stop is Oahu. Unaware that Japan is attacking Oahu, they prepare to land.

Because they are unarmed—to save weight—the B-17s can only dodge Japanese fighters and U.S. antiaircraft gunfire.
Most manage to land intact-one touching down on a golf course.

  0810 hours  An armor-piercing bomb, dropped by a high-altitude bomber, pierces the forward deck of the Arizona, setting off
more than a million pounds (450,000 kilograms) of gunpowder, creating a huge fireball, and killing 1,177 men.

A sailor on the torpedoed battleship Nevada sees the Arizona "jump at least 15 or 20 feet [5 or 6 meters] upward in the water
and sort of break in two." In nine minutes the Arizona is on the bottom.

  0817 hours  Through the flames and smoke, the destroyer Helm speeds to the open sea.

As the Helm leaves the channel, a lookout spots a Japanese sub snagged on a reef. The Helm "turned hard right toward enemy
submarine," shoots—and misses. The two-person sub breaks free and submerges. But it snags again. Trying to escape the foundering sub,
one crewman drowns. The other is washed ashore—and becomes the United States' first World War II prisoner of war.

  0839 hours  As the destroyer Monaghan tries to "get out of that damn harbor as fast as possible," a nearby U.S. ship signals that it has
sighted a submarine. The Monaghan heads for the sub at top speed, hits it with gunfire, then rams it and drops depth charges.
The charges are so close that when they explode, the blasts lift the Monaghan out of the water but do not damage her.
 

USS Arizona -- "that terrible day

The sinking midget submarine has managed to fire a torpedo. But it does not hit anything.

  0850 hours  The Nevada gets her steam up in 45 minutes and, with antiaircraft guns blazing, heads for the open sea.
A sailor sees her U.S. flag flying in the smoke and thinks of the words of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Japanese planes of the second wave bomb her, hoping that by sinking her in the narrow channel she will bottle up the fleet.
Rather than risk that, she deliberately grounds herself off Hospital Point.

  0854 hours  The second wave—35 fighters, 78 dive-bombers, and 54 high-altitude bombers—meets heavy antiaircraft fire.
Bombers attack the navy yard dry dock and hit the battleship Pennsylvania. Another bomber hits oil tanks between the destroyers Cassin
and Downes. Onboard ammunition explodes, and the Cassin rolls off her blocks and into the Downes.

Bombs hit the light cruiser Raleigh, which had been torpedoed in the first wave. Crewmen jettison gear to keep her from capsizing.

  0930 hours  A bomb blows off the bow of the destroyer Shaw; pieces of the ship rain down half a mile (.8 kilometer) away.
A photo of the spectacular explosion becomes one of the best known images of December 7, 1941. Repair workers are on the job
immediately. The Shaw eventually gets a new bow and is back in action by July 1942.

Except for the Arizona, Utah, and Oklahoma, every ship sunk or damaged on December 7 will sail again.

  1000 hours  Japanese fighters do not have homing devices or radar. They rendezvous with bombers
off Oahu and follow them back to the carriers.

Of the 29 Japanese planes lost, antiaircraft guns probably shot down 15.

Exultant Japanese pilots urge a third strike. If the gasoline tanks at Pearl Harbor are hit, they reason, the Pacific Fleet will be out of action for weeks.
But superiors, saying the attack has been successful, rule out a third strike. One reason: the whereabouts of the U.S. carriers is still unknown.

  1030 hours  From the ships and airfields come the wounded—some horribly burned, others riddled by bullets and shrapnel.
At some hospitals casualties are laid out on lawns. Medics convert barracks, dining halls, and schools into temporary hospitals.

For many severely wounded and dying men, all nurses can do is give them morphine. They then put a lipstick M on their foreheads
to indicate the painkilling drug. Trucks become ambulances and hearses. The death toll eventually reaches 2,390.

  1300 hours  The Pearl Harbor strike force turns for home.
In the 44 months of war that will follow, the U.S. Navy will sink every one of the Japanese aircraft carriers, battleships, and cruisers
in this strike force. And when Japan signs the surrender document on September 2, 1945, among the U.S. warships in
Tokyo Bay will be a victim of the attack, the U.S.S. West Virginia.

  1220 hours  A heavily guarded black limousine pulled up to the south entrance of the U.S. Capitol. President Franklin D. Roosevelt
got out of the car and entered the Capitol, assisted by his son Captain James Roosevelt, who wore the uniform of the U.S. Marines.
The chamber of the House of Representatives was jammed with members of both houses of Congress, the
U.S. Supreme Court, official guests, and onlookers in the galleries.

  1229 hours  The President, still on his son's arm, entered the Chamber of the House, was introduced briefly by Speaker
Sam Rayburn, and received a thunderous ovation. For the past nine years, Republicans had shown little enthusiasm toward the
President when he addressed a Joint Session of Congress. This time, the Republicans joined in, signifying the nation's sudden unity.
Solemnly, he began his speech requesting a declaration of war: "Yesterday, December 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."

  1300 hours  The Senate unanimously adopted a resolution declaring war on Japan. At 1:10 p.m. the House voted for war, 388 to 1.
The single dissenting vote was cast by Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana, who had also voted against a declaration of war in 1917.

© 2001 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.
 
 
 


California Battleship 44 1919 21.0 knots Battleship Row; forward of the Maryland and Oklahoma 2,200 2 torpedo hits, 0800-0810 hours; 1 bomb hit

Maryland Battleship 46  1920  21.0 knots  Battleship Row; tied to the Oklahoma  2,100  2 bomb hits

Oklahoma Battleship 37  1914  20.5 knots  Battleship Row; tied to the Maryland  1,301  5 torpedo hits; ship capsized; 429 men dead; 32 survivors cut out of hull in following days

Tennessee Battleship 43  1919  21.0 knots  Battleship Row; inboard of the West Virginia  2,200  2 bomb hits

West Virginia Battleship 48  1921  21.0 knots  Battleship Row; outboard of the Tennessee  2,350  6 torpedo hits; 2 bomb hits; half sunk

Arizona Battleship 39  1915  21.0 knots  Battleship Row; tied to the Vestal forward of the Nevada  1,500  1 torpedo hit, 0805 hours; 8 bomb hits, 0810 hours; half sunk

Pennsylvania Battleship 38  1915  21.0 knots  Dry dock; behind the destroyers Cassin and Downes  1,301  2 bomb hits, 0900-0910 hours

Nevada Battleship 36  1914  21.0 knots  Battleship Row; tied to the Vestal, which was forward of the Nevada  1,500  1 torpedo hit; 6 bomb hits; beached on Hospital Point

Utah
Battleship 31  1911  20.0 knots  West side of Ford Island  1,001  2 torpedo hits; capsized to port

Helena
Light Cruiser 50  1938  32.5 knots  Ten Ten Pier; inboard of the Oglala  1,700  1 torpedo hit

Cassin
Destroyer 372  1933  36.5 knots  Dry dock; next to the Downes  172  1 bomb hit, 0906 hours

Downes Destroyer 375  1933  36.5 knots  Dry dock; next to the Cassin  172  2 bomb hits, 0906 hours

Shaw
Destroyer 373  1935  36.5 knots  Floating dry dock; west of the Pennsylvania and Ten Ten Pier  172  3 bomb hits, 0902 hours; badly damaged

Oglala
Minelayer 4  1917  20.0 knots  Ten Ten Pier; across from Battleship Row outboard of the Helena  300  1 torpedo hit, 0930 hours; capsized to port

Argonne
Flagship 31  1921  15.5 knots  Naval Yard dock; southeast of Battleship Row  85  No damage

Vestal
Repair Ship 4  1909  16.0 knots  Battleship Row; tied to the Arizona  466  2 bomb hits; beached on Aiea Sands, 0945 hours

Akagi  Red Castle  1927  31 knots   2,000

Kaga  Increased Joy  1920  28.5 knots  27 Zeros, 27 Vals, 27 Kates  2,016

Shokaku  Happy Crane  1939  34.5 knots  18 Zeros, 27 Vals, 27 Kates  1,660

Zuikaku  Lucky Crane  1939  34.5 knots  18 Zeros, 27 Vals, 27 Kates  1,600

Hiryu  Flying Dragon  1939  34.5 knots  24 Zeros, 18 Vals, 18 Kates  1,100

Soryu  Green Dragon  1937  34.5 knots  27 Zeros,18 Vals, 18 Kates  1,100

Aichi 3A2,
Val Type 99  281 mph
(450 kph)  874 miles (1407 km)  (1) 250-kg (551-lb) bomb under fusilage
(1) 60-kg (132-lb) bomb under each wing  Two back to back  Carrier-borne, single-engine dive bomber

Mitsubishi A6M2 Zeke or Zero
Model 11  340 mph
(544 kph)  1,160 miles
(1867 km)  (1) 60-kg (132-lb) bomb under each wing  One  Carrier-borne fighter

Nakajima B5N2
Kate Type 97,
Model 12  225 mph
(360 kph)  683 miles
(1093 km)  (1) 18-in (28-cm) torpedo
or (1) 500-kg (1100-lb) bomb  Two to three  Single-engine torpedo bomber

Akagi, 1st Attack Unit  15 Kates  800-kg (1760-lb) armor-piercing bomb  U.S.S. Maryland, U.S.S. Tennessee, or U.S.S. West Virginia

Kaga, 2nd Attack Unit  14 Kates  800-kg (1760-lb) armor-piercing bomb  U.S.S. Arizona/U.S.S. Vestal, U.S.S. Tennessee, or U.S.S. West Virginia

Soryu, 3rd Attack Unit  10 Kates  800-kg (1760-lb) armor-piercing bomb  U.S.S. Nevada, U.S.S. Tennessee, or U.S.S. West Virginia

Hiryu, 4th Attack Unit  10 Kates  800-kg (1760-lb) armor-piercing bomb  U.S.S. Arizona, U.S.S. California

Akagi, 1st Torpedo Attack Unit  12 Kates  Mk 91 aerial torpedo  U.S.S. West Virginia, U.S.S. Oklahoma, or U.S.S. California

Kaga, 2nd Torpedo Attack Unit  12 Kates  Mk 91 aerial torpedo  U.S.S. West Virginia, U.S.S. Oklahoma, or U.S.S. Nevada

Soryu, 3rd Torpedo Attack Unit  8 Kates  Mk 91 aerial torpedo  U.S.S. Utah, U.S.S. Helena, U.S.S. California, or U.S.S. Raleigh

Hiryu, 4th Torpedo Attack Unit  8 Kates  Mk 91 aerial torpedo  U.S.S. West Virginia, U.S.S. Oklahoma, or U.S.S. Helena

Shokaku, 15th Attack Unit  26 Vals  250-kg (550-lb) general-purpose dive-bomb  Hickam Field

Zuikaku, 16th Attack Unit  25 Vals  250-kg (550-lb) general-purpose dive-bomb  Wheeler Field
 

Akagi, 1st Fighter Combat Unit  9 Zeros  20-mm (.79-in) cannon  Hickam Field, Ewa Air Control, and grounded aircraft at Ford Island

Kaga, 2nd Fighter Combat Unit  9 Zeros  20-mm (.79-in) cannon  Hickam Field, Ford Island Air Control, and grounded aircraft at Ford Island

Soryu, 3rd Fighter Combat Unit  8 Zeros  20-mm (.79-in) cannon  Wheeler Field, Ewa Air Control, and grounded aircraft at Barbers Point

Hiryu, 4th Fighter Combat Unit  6 Zeros  20-mm (.79-in) cannon  Wheeler Field, Ewa Air Control, and grounded aircraft at Barbers Point

Shokaku, 5th Fighter Combat Unit  6 Zeros  20-mm (.79-in) cannon  Naval Air Station Kaneohe, Bellows Field Air Control, and grounded aircraft at Kaneohe

Zuikaku, 6th Fighter Combat Unit  5 Zeros  20-mm (.79-in) cannon  Air control and grounded aircraft at Kaneohe

Shokaku, 5th Attack Unit  27 Kates  (1) 250-kg (551-lb) general-purpose bomb and (6) 60-kg (132-lb) regular bombs bomb under fusilage
 Kaneohe Naval Air Station

Zuikaku, 6th Attack Unit  27 Kates  (1) 250-kg (551-lb) general-purpose bomb and (6) 60-kg (132-lb) regular bombs  Hickam Field

Akagi, 13th Attack Unit  18 Vals  250-kg (551-lb) general purpose dive-bomb  Ford Island NW, U.S.S. Neosho, U.S.S. Shaw, and U.S.S. Nevada

Zuikaku, 14th Attack Unit  17 Vals  250-kg (551-lb) general purpose dive-bomb  Navy Yard, U.S.S. California, and U.S.S. Maryland

Soryu, 11th Attack Unit  17 Vals  250-kg (551-lb) general purpose dive-bomb  Navy Yard, U.S.S. California, and U.S.S. Raleigh

Kaga, 12th Attack Unit  26 Vals  250-kg (551-lb) general purpose dive-bomb  U.S.S. Nevada, U.S.S. Maryland, and U.S.S. West Virginia

Pearl Harbor Attacked

Akagi, 1st Fighter Combat Unit  9 Zeros  20-mm (.79-in) cannon  Hickam Field

Kaga, 2nd Fighter Combat Unit  9 Zeros  20-mm (.79-in) cannon  Pearl Harbor

Soryu, 3rd Fighter Combat Unit  9 Zeros  20-mm (.79-in) cannon  NAS Kaneohe

Air Raid Pearl Harbor This Is No Drill !!!
 

© 2001 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.

 


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