Early on Sunday, 7 December 1941, Japanese carrier-borne aircraft
launched a surprise attack against the US Pacific Fleet based at Pearl
Harbor. It was a date that President Roosevelt declared "will live in
infamy".
During the strike, Japanese planes attacked the seven US battleships
lined up in Battleship Row - and the flag battleship USS Pennsylvania,
in drydock for overhaul. The battleship USS Arizona exploded from a
bomb hit at the forward magazine killing 1,177 officers and men. On USS
Oklahoma, 429 men were killed - many trapped inside as the great
battleship capsized after aerial torpedo strikes. USS West Virginia,
meanwhile, was hit by at least seven torpedoes and several bombs, and
engulfed in flames; she settled onto the bottom on an even keel. USS
California was hit by a pair of torpedoes and a bomb, flooding slowly,
she too settled on the bottom. The other four battleships present were
more lightly damaged, with the crippled Nevada, the only battleship to
get underway during the attack, being successfully beached.
By the time the assault was over, eight battleships, three light
cruisers, three destroyers, a training ship and other smaller vessels
had been sunk or damaged. Hundreds of US aircraft had been damaged or
destroyed, while 2,403 Americans had been killed.
Within a week of the Japanese attack, a great salvage organization had
been formed. Very quickly the lightly damaged battleships
Pennsylvania, Maryland and Tennessee had been repaired in naval
yards and put back into service to protect the west coast of the USA.
Of the eight battleships attacked, all but Arizona were raised,
temporarily patched-up and sent back to naval yards on the west coast of
America for final repair and modernization. Main battery guns and
ordnance were recovered from the wrecked Arizona, which would then be
left to rest on the bottom of the harbor for eternity - as a memorial to
the events of that fateful December day. USS Nevada was lifted off the
bottom in February 1942, California in March 1942 and West Virginia
in June 1942. The capsized Oklahoma, while eventually parbuckled and
raised, was found to be too badly damaged to be fully rebuilt.
Six of the eight battleships would thus return to service, with improved
protection against bombs and torpedoes and being fitted with the latest
anti-aircraft and gunnery systems. They would re-enter to the war to
wreak a terrible revenge - making their presence felt during the
reconquest of the Aleutian Islands and the Philippines, and the great
battles of Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Nevada would go on
Atlantic convoy duty before bombarding German positions off Utah beach
as the D-Day Normandy landings began. This is the story of those six.