The Attack on Pearl Harbor (Part 2)
December 7, 1941

At 6:00 a.m. on December 7 the Japanese fleet was 230 miles north of Oahu. Six carriers turned into the wind and launched the first wave -- 183 planes. At the launching, two Zero fighters dropped from the mission: One crashed into the sea on takeoff, another developed engine trouble and was left on board the carrier. At 6:20 Commander Fuchida led the first wave of planes toward Pearl Harbor.

A Japanese Navy Type 97 Carrier Attack Plane ("Kate") takes off from a carrier as the second wave attack is launched. The ship's crewmen are cheering "Banzai" This ship is either Zuikaku or Shokaku. U.S. Naval Historical Center photo NH50603.

As soon as the first wave departed, the carrier crews readied the second wave. At 7:05 the carriers again swung eastward into the wind and began launching 167 aircraft. As before, the first lift-offs were the Nakajima B5 N2 "Kates," which served as torpedo bombers on the first wave, and as horizontal bombers on the first and second waves. The Kates were followed by the Aichi D3A1 "Vals" (dive bombers) and Mitsubishi A6M2 Reisen Zero fighters. Only one dive bomber from the Hiryu developed engine trouble and failed to make the trip, leaving 350 planes in the air.

Meanwhile on Oahu, two warnings of the impending attack occurred. In the waters just outside the entrance to Pearl Harbor, the destroyer Ward at 6:30 a.m. fired on, depth-charged and sank a submarine within the defensive sea area. Bureaucratic delays and the need for confirmation caused an hour to go by before the report was forwarded to Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

The crew of the 4-inch gun of the destroyer USS Ward. When a Japanese "midget submarine" was sighted just off the entrance to Pearl Harbor, this gun crew put a shell through the sub's conning tower, sinking it. Confirmation of their "kill" took more than sixty years, however, until the submarine was discovered in 2002 by submersibles from the Hawai‘i Undersea Research Laboratory in about 1,300 feet of water, south of Oahu. U.S. Naval Historical Center photo NH97446.

The second warning occurred at 7:02 a.m., nearly half an hour after the Ward fired the first shot of America's Pacific War. Two Army radar operators at the Opana station above Kahuku Point on Oahu's north shore picked up a large formation of planes on their radar screens. After checking and rechecking equipment, they notified the watch officer at Fort Shafter. No action was taken because the officer believed the planes to be a flight of B-17s flying in from California.

Flying through thick cloud cover, Commander Fuchida thought for a moment he had overflown Oahu, but a sudden parting of the clouds revealed the island's north shore. The signal was given to assume attack formation. As Fuchida looked toward Pearl Harbor and the surrounding airfields, he was relieved to see that the attack was a surprise, and the earlier report of Kido Butai's scout plane "Enemy fleet in port!" was accurate. To Fuchida's disappointment, the prime targets of the attack -- the aircraft carriers -- were absent. Changing their plan, the torpedo planes concentrated on the battleships lined up along Battleship Row and the east side of Ford Island.

With assignments memorized by constant training, the first wave of planes attacked at 7:55 a.m. At about the same time, fighters and dive bombers hit the airfields at Kaneohe, Hickam, Ewa, Bellows and Wheeler. Within two hours, most American air power in Hawaii was destroyed.

At Pearl Harbor, as morning colors were readied and sailors and civilians ate breakfast, the Japanese planes struck. In 15 minutes the main battle line of the Pacific fleet was neutralized. The battleships California, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Nevada and Arizona were sunk, as was the old battleship Utah,  then being used as a target and antiaircraft training vessel. The battleships Maryland, Tennessee and Pennsylvania were damaged. Initially, the American response to the attack was sporadic, but within five minutes American vessels began to fire back in earnest against the attackers. "Air Raid Pearl Harbor, this is no drill!" was relayed to the fleet.

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