—

Infamous Day:Marines at Pearl Harborby Robert I. Cressman and 1. Michael Wenger

n the afternoon of 6December 1941, TaiSing Loo, the colorfulPearl Harbor NavyYard photographer, ar-

ranged with Platoon SergeantCharles R. Christenot, the noncom-missioned-officer-in-charge of theMain Gate at the Navy Yard, to havehis Marines pose for a photographbetween 0830 and 0930 Sundaymorning, in front of the new concretemain gate. The photo was to be fora Christmas card.

As war clouds gathered over thePacific basin in late 1941, the Unit-ed States Pacific Fleet operated, as ithad since May 1940, from Pearl Har-bor. While the security of that fleetand for the island of Oahu lay in theArmy's hands, that of the Navy Yardand the Naval Air Stations at PearlHarbor and Kaneohe Bay lay in thehands of Marines. In addition, onboard the fleet's battleships, aircraftcarriers, and some of its cruisers, Ma-rines provided security, served as or-derlies for embarked flag officers andships' captains, and manned secon-dary antiaircraft and machine gunbatteries — seagoing duties familiar tothe Corps since its inception.

The Marine Barracks at Pearl Har-bor comprised a Barracks Detach-ment and two companies, A and B,the men living in a comfortablethree-story concrete barracks. Com-pany A manned the main gates at theSubmarine Base and Navy Yard, andother "distant outposts," providingyard security, while Company B en-forced traffic regulations and main-

National Archives Photo 80-G-279375Ford Island, seen on 10 October 1941from much the same angle as Japanesebomber pilots viewed it on 7 December.

1

tamed p.roper police and order underthe auspices of the Yard PoliceOfficer. In addition, Marines ran theNavy Yard Fire Department. Ele-ments of Marine defense battalionsmade Pearl Harbor their home, too,residing in the several 100-man tem-porary wooden barracks buildingsthat had been completed during 1940and 1941. Less commodious but noless important was the burgeoningairbase that Marines of Marine Air-craft Group (MAG) 2 (later 21) hadhewn and hammered out near Barb-ers Point — Ewa Mooring Mast Field,home for a Marine aircraft groupconsisting of fighting, scout-bombing, and utility squadrons.

On 27 November, having been pri-vy to intelligence informationgleaned from intercepted and trans-lated Japanese diplomatic messagetraffic, Admiral Harold R. Stark, theChief of Naval Operations, and Gen-eral George C. Marshall, the Army'sChief of Staff, sent a war warning totheir principal commanders onOahu, Admiral Husband E. Kimmel,the Commander in Chief, PacificFleet, and Lieutenant General WalterC. Short, the Commander of theHawaiian Department. Thus adjuredto take appropriate defensive meas-ures, and feeling that his more ex-posed advance bases neededstrengthening, Kimmel set in motiona plan that had been completed asearly as 10 November, to provideplanes for Midway and Wake. Thelatter was to receive fighters—12Grumman F4F-3 Wildcats of MarineFighter Squadron (VMF) 211—whileMidway was to get scout bombersfrom Marine Scout-Bomber Squad-ron (VMSB) 231. The following day,28 November 1941, the carrier Enter-prise (CV-6) departed Pearl in Task

4j$4'u.; !______ _____

Force 8 under Vice Admiral WilliamF. Halsey, Jr., Commander, Aircraft,Battle Force, embarking VMF-211 atsea. VMSB-231 was to embark inanother carrier, Lexington (CV 2), inTask Force 12 under Rear AdmiralJohn H. Newton, on 5 December.

At the outset, apparently no oneexcept the squadron commandersknew their respective destinations,but the men of VMF-211 andVMSB-231, meanwhile, apparentlyordered their affairs and made readyfor what was to appear as "advancedbase exercises:' Among those menseeing to his financial affairs at EwaMooring Mast Field on 3 December1941 was First Lieutenant Richard E.Fleming, USMCR, who wrote to hiswidowed mother: "This is the lasttime I'll be able to write for proba-bly some time. I'm sorry I can't give

you any details; it's that secret:'On the 5th, Task Force 12 sailed

from Pearl. Eighteen light grayVought SB2U-3 Vindicators fromVMSB-231, under 41-year old MajorClarence J. "Buddy" Chappell, thenmade the 1.7-hour flight from Ewaand landed on board Lexington,along with the "Lady Lex" air group.Planes recovered, the force set coursefor Midway. The Lexington depart-ed Pearl Harbor on the morning of5 December. That afternoon saw thearrival of Battleship Division Onefrom gunnery exercises in theHawaiian Operating Area, and thethree dreadnoughts, Arizona(BB-39), Nevada (BB36), and Okla-homa (BB 37), moored in their as-signed berths at the quays along FordIsland. The movements of the shipsin and out of Pearl Harbor had been

2

the object of much interest on thepart of the espionage system operat-ing out of the Japanese consulate inHonolulu throughout the year 1941,for the information its operativeswere providing went to support anambitious and bold operation thathad taken shape over several months.

Unbeknownst to Admiral Kimmel,a Japanese task force under the com-mand of Vice Admiral ChuichiNagumo, formed around six carriersand the most powerful force of itskind ever assembled by any navalpower, had set out from the remoteKurile Islands on 27 November. Itobserved radio silence and steamedvia the comparatively less travelednorthern Pacific.

Nagumos mission was to destroythe United States Pacific Fleet andthus ensure its being unable to threat-

Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, looking south, on 13 October 1941.Marine Barracks complex is located to the left of the tank farm

National Archives Photo 80-G-451123

visible just to left of center. Several temporary wooden bar-racks, completed in early 1941, ring the parade ground.

I-'

en the Japanese Southern Operationpoised to attack American, British,and Dutch possessions in the FarEast. All of the warning signs madeavailable to Admiral Kimmel andGeneral Short pointed toward hostil-ities occurring within the forseeablefuture, but not on Oahu. War,however, was about to burst uponthe Marines at Pearl Harbor "like athunderclap from a clear sky:'

Some 200 miles north of Oahu,Vice Admiral Nagumo's First AirFleet — formed around the aircraftcarriers Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu,Shokaku and Zuikaku — pressedsouthward in the pre-dawn hours of7 December 1941. At 0550, the darkgray ships swung to port, into thebrisk easterly wind, and commencedlaunching an initial strike of 184

planes 10 minutes later. A secondstrike would take off after an hour'sinterval. Once airborne, the 51 AichiD3A1 Type 99 dive bombers (Vals),89 Nakajima B5N2 attack planes(Kates) used in high-level bombingor torpedo bombing roles, and 43Mitsubishi A6M2 Type 00 fighters(Zeroes), led by Commander MitsuoFuchida, Akagi's air group com-mander, wheeled around, climbed to3,000 meters, and droned toward thesouth at 0616. The only other mili-tary planes aloft that morning wereDouglas SBD Dauntlesses from En-terprise, flying searches ahead of thecarrier as she returned from Wake Is-land, Army Boeing B-17 Flying For-tresses heading in from the mainland,and Navy Consolidated PBY Cata-linas on routine patrols out of thenaval air stations at Ford Island andKaneohe.

Jordan Collection, MCHCThe centrally located airship mooringmast at Ewa from which the field derivedits distinctive name, 13 February 1941.

That morning, 15 of the ships atPearl Harbor numbered Marinedetachments among their comple-ments: eight battleships, two heavycruisers, four light cruisers, and oneauxiliary. A 16th detachment, as-signed to the auxiliary (tar-get/gunnery training ship) Utah(AG-16), was ashore on temporaryduty at the 14th Naval District RifleRange at Puuloa Point.

At 0753, Lieutenant Frank Erick-son, USCG, the Naval Air Station(NAS) Ford Island duty officer,watched Privates First Class FrankDudovick and James D. Young, andPrivate Paul 0. Zeller, USMCR— theMarine color guard — march up andtake post for Colors. Satisfied that alllooked in order outside, Ericksonstepped back into the office to checkif the assistant officer-of-the-day wasready to play the recording forsounding Colors on the loudspeak-er. The sound of two heavy explo-sions, however, sent the Coast Guardpilot running to the door. He reachedit just in time to see a Kate fly past1010 Dock and release a torpedo.The markings on the plane —"whichlooked like balls of fire"— left no ques-tion as to its identity; the explosionof the torpedo as it struck the bat-tleship California (BB-44), moored

Aerial view of Ewa Mooring Mast Field, taken 2 December 1941, showing varioustypes of planes arrayed on the mat and living accommodations at middle and right.

Jordan Collection, MCHC

3

'iL —r-- __

I

'j: T*t,•C3a

rt -

Suddenly Hurled into War

near the administration building, leftno doubt as to its intent.

"The Marines didn't wait forcolors;' Erickson recalled later, "Theflag went right up but the tune wasgeneral quarters." As "all Hell" brokeloose around them, Dudovick,Young, and Zeller unflinchinglyhoisted the Stars and Stripes "withthe same smartness and precision"that had characterized their partici-pation in peacetime ceremonies. Atthe crew barracks on Ford Island,Corporal Clifton Webster and PrivateFirst Class Albert E. Yale headed forthe roof immediately after generalquarters sounded. In the direct lineof fire from strafing planes, they setup a machine gun. Across Oahu, asJapanese planes swept in over NASKaneohe Bay, the Marine detach-ment there — initially the only men

who had weapons — hurried to theirposts and began firing at the at-tackers.

Since the American aircraft carri-ers were at sea, the Japanese target-ed the battleships which lay mooredoff Ford Island. At one end of Bat-tleship Row lay Nevada. At 0802, thebattleship's .50-caliber machine gunsopened fire on the torpedo planesbearing down on them from thedirection of the Navy Yard; her gun-ners believed that they had shot onedown almost immediately. An ins-tant later, however, a torpedopenetrated her port side and ex-ploded.

Ahead of Nevada lay Arizona,with the repair ship Vestal (AR-4)alongside, preparing for a tenderavailability. Major Alan Shapley hadbeen relieved the previous day as

4

detachment commanding officer byCaptain John H. Earle, Jr., who hadcome over to Arizona from Tennes-see (BB-43). Awaiting transportationto the Naval Operating Base, SanDiego, and assignment to the 2d Ma-rine Division, Shapley was lingeringon board to play first base on the bat-tleship's baseball team in a gamescheduled with the. squad from thecarrier Enterprise (CV-6). After themorning meal, he started down to hiscabin to change.

Seated at breakfast, Sergeant JohnM. Baker heard the air raid alarm,followed closely by an explosion inthe distance and machine gun fire.Corporal Earl C. Nightingale, leav-ing the table, had paid no heed to thealarm at the outset, since he had noantiaircraft battle station, but ran tothe door on the port side that opened

While a Marine, foreground, looks skyward, the torpedoedbattleship California (BB 46) lists to port. In the left back-

National Archives Photo 80-G-32463

ground flies "Old Glory," raised by PFCs Frank Dudovickand James D. Young, and Pvt Paul 0. Zeller, USMCR.

out onto the quarterdeck at thesound of the distant explosion. Look-ing out, he saw what looked like abomb splash alongside Nevada. Ma-rines from the ship's color guard thenburst breathlessly into the messingcompartment, saying that they werebeing attacked.

As general quarters sounded, Bak-er and Nightingale, among theothers, headed for their battle sta-tions. Aft, congestion at the star-board ladder, that led throughcasemate no. 9, prompted SecondLieutenant Carleton E. Simensen,USMCR, the ship's junior Marineofficer, to force his way through.Both Baker and Nightingale noted,in passing, that the 5-inch/51 therewas already manned, and Bakerheard Corporal Burnis L. Bond, thegun captain, tell the crew to train itout. Nightingale noted that the menseemed "extremely calm and col-lected:'

As Lieutenant Simensen led theMarines up the ladder on the star-board side of the mainmast tripod,an 800-kilogram converted armor-piercing shell dropped by a Katefrom Kaga ricocheted off the side of

Turret IV. Penetrating the deck, it ex-ploded in the vicinity of the captain'spantry. Sergeant Baker was follow-ing Siménsen up the mainmast whenthe bomb exploded, shapnel cuttingdown the officer as he reached thefirst platform. He crumpled to thedeck. Nightingale, seeing him flat onhis back, bent over him to see whathe could do but Simensen, dying,motioned for his men to continue onup the ladder. Nightingale continuedup to Secondary Aft and reported toMajor Shapley that nothing could bedone for Simensen.

An instant later, a rising babble ofvoices in the secondary stationprompted Nightingale to call for si-lence. No sooner had the tense quietsettled in when, suddenly, a terribleexplosion shook the ship, as a second800-kilogram bomb — dropped by aKate from Hiryu — penetrated thedeck near Turret II and set off Ari-zona's forward magazines. An instantafter the terrible fireball mushroomedupward, Nightingale looked out andsaw a mass of flames forward of themainmast, and much in the traditionof Private William Anthony of theMaine reported that the ship was

5

afire.* 'We'd might as well go below;'Major Shapley said, looking around,"we're no good here:' Sergeant Bak-er started down the ladder. Nightin-gale, the last man out, followedShapley down the port side of themast, the railings hot to the touch asthey made their way below.

Baker had just reached the search-light platform when he heard some-one shout: "You can't use the ladder:'Private First Class Kenneth D. Good-man, hearing that and apparently as-suming (incorrectly, as it turned out)that the ladder down was indeed un-usable, instinctively leapt in desper-ation to the crown of Turret III.Miraculously, he made the jump withonly a slight ankle injury. Shapley,Nightingale, and Baker, however,among others, stayed on the ladderand reached the boat deck, only tofind it a mass of wreckage and fire,with the bodies of the slain lyingthick upon it. Badly charred menstaggered to the quarterdeck. Somereached it only to collapse and neverrise. Among them was CorporalBond, burned nearly black, who hadbeen ordering his crew to train outno. 9 5-inch/51 at the outset of thebattle; sadly, he would not survivehis wounds.

Shapley and Corporal Nightingalemade their way across the ship be-tween Turret III and Turret IV, whereShapley stopped to talk with Lieu-tenant Commander Samuel G. Fu-qua, Arizona's first lieutenant and,by that point, the ship's senior officeron board. Fuqua, who appeared "ex-ceptionally calm;' as he helped menover the side, listened as Shapley toldhim that it appeared that a bomb hadgone down the stack and triggeredthe explosion that doomed the ship.Since fighting the massive fires con-suming the ship was a hopeless task,

*Private Anthony, an instant after the explosionmortally damaged the battleship Maine in Havanaharbor on 15 February 1898, made his way to thecaptain's cabin, where he encountered that officerin the passageway outside. Drawing himself to at-tention, Anthony reported that the ship wassinking.

r

L —

r

L•

• Jr 1

:•• _:

''1

i•—•

Fuqua told the Marine that he hadordered Arizona abandoned. Fuqua,the first man Sergeant Baker encoun-tered on the quarterdeck, proved aninspiration. "His calmness gave mecourage;' Baker later declared, "andI looked around to see if I could help:'Fuqua, however, ordered him overthe side, too. Baker complied.

Shapley and Nightingale, mean-while, reached the mooring quayalongside which Arizona lay whenan explosion blew them into thewater. Nightingale started swimmingfor a pipeline 150 feet away but soonfound that his ebbing strength wouldnot permit him to reach it. Shapley,seeing the enlisted man's distress,swam over and grasped his shirtfront, and told him to hang onto hisshoulders. The strain of swimming

with Nightingale, however, provedtoo much for even the athleticShapley, who began to experiencedifficulties himself. Seeing his form-er detachment commander founder-ing, Nightingale loosened his grip onhis shoulders and told him to go therest of the way alone. Shapleystopped, however, and firmlygrabbed him by the shirt; he refusedto let go. "1 would have drowned;'Nightingale later recounted, "but forthe Major:' Sergeant Baker had seentheir travail, but, too far away tohelp, made it to Ford Island alone.

Several bombs, meanwhile, fellclose aboard Nevada, moored asternof Arizona, which had begun tohemorrhage fuel from rupturedtanks. Fire spread to the oil that laythick upon the water, threatening

Nevada. As the latter counterflood-ed to correct the list, her acting com-manding officer, LieutenantCommander Francis J. Thomas,USNR, decided that his ship had toget underway "to avoid furtherdanger due to proximity of Arizona."After receiving a signal from the yardtower to stand out of the harbor,Nevada singled up her lines at 0820.She began moving from her berth 20minutes later.

Oklahoma, Nevada's sister shipmoored inboard of Maryland inberth F-5, meanwhile manned air-defense stations at about 0757, to thesound of gunfire. After a juniorofficer passed the word over thegeneral announcing system that itwas not a drill — providing a suffix ofprofanity to underscore the fact — all

View from a Japanese plane taken around 0800 on 7 December1941. At lower left is Nevada (BB 36), with Arizona (BB 39)ahead of her, with the repair ship Vestal (AR 4) moored out-board; West Virginia (BB 48) (already beginning to list to port)

alongside Tennessee (BB 43); Oklahoma (BB 37) (which has al-ready taken at least one torpedo) with Maryland (BB 46)moored inboard; the fleet oiler Neosho (AO 23) and, far right,California (BB 44) , which, too, already has been torpedoed.

Naval Historical Center Photo NH 50931

6

to come up from below at the timeHarry was trying to close the hatch

• :' Backus never saw Gayer again.As the list increased and the oily,

wet decks made even standing up achore, Oklahoma's acting command-ing officer ordered her abandoned tosave as many lives as possible.Directed to leave over the starboardside, away from the direction of theroll, most of Oklahoma's menmanaged to get off, to be picked upby boats arriving to rescue survivors.

Sergeant Thomas E. Hailey, and Pri-vates First Class Marlin "S" Seale andJames H. Curran, Jr., swam to thenearby Maryland. Hailey and Sealeturned to the task of rescuing ship-mates, Seale remaining onMaryland's blister ledge throughoutthe attack, pulling men from thewater. Later, although inexperiencedwith that type of weapon, Haileyand Curran manned Maryland's an-tiaircraft guns. West Virginia rescuedPrivates George B. Bierman and Carl

Authors Collection

Col Alan Shapley, in a post-warphotograph taken while serving as anaide to Adm William F Halsey, Jr.

men not having an antiaircraftdefense station were ordered to laybelow the armored deck. Crews atthe 5-inch and 3-inch batteries,meanwhile, opened ready-use lock-ers. A heavy shock, followed by aloud explosion, came soon thereafteras a torpedo slammed home in thebattleship's port side. The "Okie"soon began listing to port.

Oil and water cascaded over thedecks, making them extremely slip-pery and silencing the ready-dutymachine gun on the forward super-structure. Two more torpedoes struckhome. The massive rent in the ship'sside rendered the desperate attemptsat damage control futile. As EnsignPaul H. Backus hurried from hisroom to his battle station on the sig-nal bridge, he passed his friend Se-cond Lieutenant Harry H. Gayer, Jr.,one of Oklahoma's Marine detach-ment junior officers, "on his knees,attempting to close a hatch on theport side, alongside the barbette [ofTurret I] . . . part of the trunk whichled from the main deck to the maga-zines . . . . There were men trying

7

TS.r

1

R. McPherson, who not only helpedrescue others from the water but alsohelped to fight that battleship's fires.

Sergeant Woodrow A. Polk, aSgt Thomas E. Hailey, 18 May 1942, onemonth after he had been awarded theNavy Cross for heroism he exhibited on7 December 1941 that followed the sink-ing of the battleship Oklahoma (BB37).

Naval Historical Center Photo NH 102556

bomb fragment in his left hip,sprained his right ankle in abandon-ing ship, while someone clamberedinto a launch over Sergeant Leo G.Wears and nearly drowned him inthe process. Gunnery Sergeant Nor-man L. Currier stepped from Okla-homa's red hull to a boat, dry-shod.Wears — as Hailey and Curran — soonfound a short-handed antiaircraftgun on Maryland's boat deck andhelped pass ammunition. PrivateFirst Class Arthur J. Bruktenis,whose column in the December 1941issue of The Leatherneck would bethe last to chronicle the peacetime ac-tivities of Oklahoma's Marines, dis-located his left shoulder in theabandonment, but survived.

A little over two weeks shy of his23d birthday, Corporal Willard D.Darling, an Oklahoma Marine whowas a native Oklahoman, had mean-while clambered on board a motorlaunch. As it headed shoreward,

8

Darling saw 51-year-old CommanderFred M. Rohow (Medical Corps), thecapsized battleship's senior medicalofficer, in a state of shock, strugglingin the oily water. Since RohowCpl Willard A. Darling, circa 1941, wasawarded the Navy Cross for heroism inthe aftermath of the Japanese air attackon the battleship Oklahoma (BB 37).

Naval Historical Center Photo NH 102557

Along Battleship Row, beneath a pall of smoke from the burn-ing Arizona (BB 39) lies Maryland (BB 46), her 5-inch/25antiaircraft battery bristling. Oklahoma (BB 37) lies "turned

National Archives Photo 80-G-32549turtle, "capsized, at right. This view shows the distance "Okie"survivors swam to the inboard battleship, where they man-ned antiaircraft batteries and rescued their shipmates.

a, — —6

TpI Ic

seemed to be drowning, Darling un-hesitatingly dove in and, along withShipfitter First Class William S. Tho-mas, kept him afloat until a secondlaunch picked them up. StrafingJapanese planes and shrapnel fromAmerican guns falling around themprompted the abandonment of thelaunch at a dredge pipeline, soDarling jumped in and directed thedoctor to follow him. Again, the Ma-rine rescued Rohow — who provedtoo exhausted to make it on hisown — and towed him to shore.

Maryland, meanwhile, inboard ofOklahoma, promptly manned herantiaircraft guns at the outset of theattack, her machine guns openingfire immediately. She took two bombhits, but suffered only minordamage. Her Marine detachmentsuffered no casualties.

On board Tennessee (BB-43), Ma-rine Captain Chevey S. White, whohad just turned 28 the day before,was standing officer-of-the-deckwatch as that battleship lay mooredinboard of West Virginia (BB-48) inberth F-6. Since the commandingofficer and the executive officer wereboth ashore, command devolvedupon Lieutenant Commander JamesW. Adams, Jr., the ship's gunneryofficer. Summoned topside at thesound of the general alarm and hear-ing "all hands to general quarters"over the ship's general announcingsystem, Adams sprinted to the bridgeand spotted White en route. Over thedin of battle, Adams shouted for theMarine to "get the ship in conditionZed [ZI as quickly as possible:' Whitedid so. By the time Adams reachedhis battle station on the bridge,White was already at his own battlestation, directing the ship's antiair-craft guns. During the action (inwhich the ship took one bomb thatexploded on the center gun of Tur-ret II and another that penetrated thecrown of Turret III, the latter break-ing apart without exploding), Whiteremained at his unprotected station,coolly and courageously directing the

Marine Corps Historical Collection

Capt Chevey S. White was a veteran ofservice in China with the 4th Marines,where he had edited the Walla Walla, theregiment's news magazine. White hadbecome CO of Tennessee's (BB 43) Ma-rine Detachment on 3 August 1941. Ul-timately, he was killed by enemymortar fire on Guam on 22 July 1944.

battleship's antiaircraft battery. Ten-nessee claimed four enemy planesshot down.

West Virginia, outboard of Tennes-see, had been scheduled to sail forPuget Sound, due for overhaul, on17 November, but had been retainedin Hawaiian waters owing to thetense international situation. In herexposed moorings, she thus absorbedsix torpedoes, while a seventh blewher rudder free. Prompt counter-flooding, however, prevented herfrom turning turtle as Oklahoma haddone, and she sank, upright, along-side Tennessee.

On board California, moored sing-ly off the administration building atthe naval air station, junior officer ofthe deck on board had been SecondLieutenant Clifford B. Drake.Relieved by Ensign Herbert C. Jones,USNR, Drake went down to thewardroom for breakfast (Kadotafigs, followed by steak and eggs)where, around 0755, he heard air-plane engines and explosions asJapanese dive bombers attacked theair station. The general quarters

9

alarm then summoned the crew tobattle stations. Drake, forsaking hismeal, hurried to the foretop.

By 0803, the two ready machineguns forward of the bridge hadopened fire, followed shortly there-after by guns no. 2 and 4 of the an-tiaircraft battery. As the gunnersdepleted the ready-use ammunition,however, two torpedoes struck homein quick succession. California beganto settle as massive flooding oc-curred. Meanwhile, fumes from theruptured fuel tanks — she had beenfueled to 95 percent capacity theprevious day — drove out the men as-signed to the party attempting tobring up ammunition for the guns byhand. A call for men to bring up ad-ditional gas masks proved fruitless,as the volunteers, who included Pri-vate Arthur E. Senior, could notreach the compartment in which theywere stored.

California's losing power becauseof the torpedo damage soon relegat-ed Lieutenant Drake, in her foretop,to the role of ' . . a reporter of whatwas going on . . . a somewhat con-fused young lieutenant suddenlyhurled into war:' As California beganlisting after the torpedo hits, Drakebegan pondering his own ship's fate.Comparing his ship's list with that ofOklahoma's, he dismissed Califor-nia's rolling over, thinking, "who everheard of a battleship capsizing?" Ok-lahoma, however, did a few mo-ments later.

Meanwhile, at about 0810, inresponse to a call for a chain ofvolunteers to pass 5-inch/25 ammu-nition, Private Senior again steppedforward and soon clambered downto the C-L Division Compartment.There he saw Ensign Jones, Lieu-tenant Drake's relief earlier thatmorning, standing at the foot of theladder on the third deck, directingthe ammunition supply. For almost20 minutes, Senior and his shipmatestoiled under Jones' direction until abomb penetrated the main deck at

I-

about 0830 and exploded on the se-cond deck, plunging the compart-ment into darkness. As acrid smokefilled the compartment, Seniorreached for his gas mask, which hehad lain on a shell box behind him,and put it on. Hearing someone say:"Mr. Jones has been hit;' Seniorflashed his flashlight over on the en-sign's face and saw that "it was allbloody. His white coat also hadblood all over it." Senior and anotherman then carried Jones as far as theM Division compartment, but theensign would not let them carry himany further. "Leave me alone;' hegasped insistently, "I'm done for. Getout of here before the magazines gooff!" Soon thereafter, however, beforehe could get clear, Senior felt theshock of an explosion from down be-low and collapsed, unconscious.

Jones' gallantry — which earnedhim a posthumous Medal ofHonor— impressed Private HowardM. Haynes, who had been confinedbefore the attack, awaiting a badconduct discharge. After the battle,a contrite Haynes —"a mean charac-ter who had shown little or norespect for anything or anyone" be-

GySgt Charles E. Douglas, 24 February1941, later awarded the Navy Cross forheroism on board Nevada at Pearl Har-bor. He had seen service in Nicaraguaand in the Legation Guard at Peking, aswell as at sea in battleships Pennsylva-nia (BB 38) and New York (BB 34).

Naval Historical Center Photo NH 102552

fore 7 December — approached Lieu-tenant Drake and said that he[Haynes] was alive because of the ac-tions that Ensign Jones had taken."God;' he said, "give me a chance toprove I'm worth it." His actions thatmorning in the crucible of warearned Haynes a recommendationfor retention in the service. Most ofCalifornia's Marines, like Haynes,survived the battle. Private FirstClass Earl D. Wallen and PrivatesRoy E. Lee, Jr. and Shelby C. Shook,however, did not. Nor did the badlyburned Private First Class John A.Blount, Jr., who succumbed to hiswounds on 9 December.

Nevada's attempt to clear the har-bor, meanwhile, inspired those whowitnessed it. Her magnificent effortprompted a stepped-up effort byJapanese dive bomber pilots to sinkher. One 250-kilogram bomb hit herboat deck just aft of a ventilatortrunk and 12 feet to the starboardside of the centerline, about halfwaybetween the stack and the end of theboat deck, setting off laid-out 5-inchready-use ammunition. Sprayingfragments decimated the gun crews.The explosion wrecked the galleyand blew open the starboard door ofthe compartment, venting into case-mate no. 9 and starting a fire thatswept through the casemate, wreck-ing the gun. Although he had beenseriously wounded by the blast thathad hurt both of his legs and strippedmuch of his uniform from his body,Corporal Joe R. Driskell disregard-ed his own condition and insistedthat he man another gun. He refusedmedical treatment, assisting otherwounded men instead, and thenhelped battle the flames. He did notquit until those fires were out.

Another 250-kilogram bomb hitNevada's bridge, penetrating downinto casemate no. 6 and starting afire. The blast had also severed thewater pipes providing circulatingwater to the water-cooled machineguns on the foremast — guns in thecharge of Gunnery Sergeant Charles

10

E. Douglas. Intense flames envelopedthe forward superstructure, endan-gering Douglas and his men, andprompting orders for them to aban-don their station. They steadfastlyremained at their posts, however,keeping the .50-caliber Brownings fir-ing amidst the swirling black smokeuntil the end of the action.

Unlike the battleships the enemyhad caught moored on BattleshipRow, Pennsylvania (BB-38), the fleetflagship, lay on keel blocks, sharingDry Dock No. 1 at the Navy Yardwith Cassin (DD-372) and Downes(DD-375) — two destroyers side-by-side ahead of her. Three of Pennsyl-vania's four propeller shafts had beenremoved and she was receiving allsteam, power, and water from theyard. Although her being in drydockhad excused her from taking part inantiaircraft drills, her crew swiftlymanned her machine guns after thefirst bombs exploded among the PBYflying boats parked on the south endof Ford Island. "Air defense stations"then sounded, followed by "general

Cpl Joe R. Driskell, circa 1941, laterawarded the Navy Cross for heroism onboard Nevada at Pearl Harbor. Driskellhad been in the Civilian ConservationCorps in Wyoming before he had enlist-ed in the Corps. When general quarterssounded on board Nevada (BB 36) on 7December, he took up his battle stationas gun captain of no. 9 5-inch/51 gun,in casemate no. 9, on the starboard side.

Naval Historical Center Photo NH 102554

'U'

Close-up of the forwardsupei5tructure of Neva-da (BB 36) taken a fewdays after the Japanese

mack as the battleship lay!eached off Waipio Point. In- upper portion of this view

can be seen the forwardmachine gun position with its

four .50-caliber water-cooledBrownings — the ones manned

by Gunnery Sergeant Douglasand his men during the battlen 7 December. Note the exten-

sive fire damageto the superstruc-

below. In the lowerportion of the picture

--ri be seen one of theship's 5-inch/51s, ofthe type manned byCorporal Driskell at

the start ofthe action.

quarters." Men knocked the locks offready-use ammunition stowage andPennsylvania opened fire about0802.

The fleet flagship and the two des-troyers nestled in the drydock aheadof her led a charmed life until divebombers from Soryu and Hiryu tar-geted the drydock area between 0830and 0915.* One bomb penetratedPennsylvania's boat deck, just to therear of 5-inch/25 gun no. 7, anddetonated in casemate no. 9. OfPennsylvania's Marine detachment,two men (Privates Patrick P. Tobinand George H. Wade, Jr.) died out-right, 13 fell wounded, and six werelisted as missing. Three of thewounded — Corporal Morris E. Na-tions and Jesse C. Vincent, Jr,. andPrivate First Class Floyd D.Stewart— died later the same day.

As the onslaught descended uponthe battleships and the air station,Marine detachments hurried to theirbattle stations on board other shipselsewhere at Pearl. In the Navy Yardlay Argonne (AG-31), the flagship ofthe Base Force, the heavy cruisersNezi, Orleans (CA-32) and San Fran-cisco (CA-38), and the light cruisersHonolulu (CL-48), St. Louis (CL-49)

*For what became of the two destroyers, and theMarines decorated for bravery in the battle to tryto save them, see page 28-29.

ieutenant Colonel DanielRussel Fox, USMC, as theDivision Marine Officer on the

staff of Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd,Commander, Battleship DivisionOne, was the most senior Marineofficer to die on board Arizona onthe morning of 7 December 1941. Foxhad enlisted in the Marine Corps in1916. For heroism in France on 4 Oc-tober 1918, when he was a memberof the 17th Company, Fifth Marines,he was awarded the Navy Cross. Healso was decorated with the Army'sDistinguished Service Cross and theFrench Croix de Guerre. Fox wascommissioned in 1921 and laterserved in Nicaragua as well as China.

and Helena (CL-50). To the northeastof Ford Island lay the light cruiserPhoenix (CL-43).

Although Utah was torpedoed andsunk at her berth early in the attack,her 14 Marines, on temporary dutyat the 14th Naval District RifleRange, found useful employmentcombatting the enemy. The FleetMachine Gun School lay on Oahu'ssouth coast, west of the Pearl Har-bor entrance channel, at Fort Weaver.The men stationed there, includingseveral Marines on temporary dutyfrom the carrier Enterprise and thebattleships California and Pennsyl-vania, sprang to action at the firstsounds of war. Working with themen from the Rifle Range, all handsset up and mounted guns, and brokeout and belted ammunition between0755 and 0810. All those present atthe range were issued pistols or riflesfrom the facility's armory.

Soon after the raid began, PlatoonSergeant Harold G. Edwards setabout securing the camp against anyincursion the Japanese might attemptfrom the landward side, and also su-pervised the emplacement ofmachine guns along the beach. Lieu-tenant (j.g.) Roy R. Nelson, theofficer in charge of the Rifle Range,remembered the many occasionswhen Captain Frank M. Reinecke,

12

commanding officer of Utah's Marinedetachment and the senior instruc-tor at the Fleet Machine Gun School(and, as his Naval Academy class-mates remembered, quite a conver-sationalist), had maintained that theschool's weapons would be a greatasset if anybody ever attackedHawaii. By 0810, Reinecke's gunnersstood ready to prove the point andsoon engaged the enemy —most like-ly torpedo planes clearing Pearl Har-bor or high-level bombers ap-proaching from the south. NearbyArmy units, perhaps alerted by theMarines' fire, opened up soon there-after. Unfortunately, the eager gun-ners succeeded in downing one oftwo SBDs from Enterprise that wereattempting to reach Hickam Field.An Army crash boat, fortunately,rescued the pilot and his woundedpassenger soon thereafter.

On board Argonne, meanwhile,alongside 1010 Dock, her Marinesmanned her starboard 3-inch/23 bat-tery and her machine guns. Com-mander Fred W. Connor, the ship'scommanding officer, later creditedCorporal Alfred Schlag with shoot-ing down one Japanese plane as itheaded for Battleship Row.

When the attack began, Helena laymoored alongside 1010 Dock, thevenerable minelayer Oglala (CM-3)outboard. A signalman, standingwatch on the light cruiser's signalbridge at 0757 identified the planesover Ford Island as Japanese, and theship went to general quarters. Beforeshe could fire a shot in her owndefense, however, one 800-kilogramtorpedo barrelled into her starboardside about a minute after the gener-al alarm had begun summoning hermen to their battle stations. The ex-plosion vented up from the forwardengine room through the hatch andpassageways, catching many of thecrew running to their stations, andstarted fires on the third deck. Pla-toon Sergeant Robert W. Teague, Pri-vates First Class Paul E Huebner, Jr.

I

c: C

-

I

and George E. Johnson, and PrivateLester A. Morris were all severelyburned. Johnson later died.

To the southeast, New Orleans layacross the pier from her sister shipSan Francisco. The former went togeneral quarters soon after enemyplanes had been sighted dive-bombing Ford Island around 0757.At 0805, as several low-flying torpe-do planes roared by, bound for Bat-tleship Row, Marine sentries on thefantail opened fire with rifles and.45s. New Orleans' men, meanwhile,so swiftly manned the 1.1-inch/75quads, and .50-caliber machine guns,under the direction of Captain Wi!-ham R. Collins, the commandingofficer of the ship's Marine detach-ment, that the ship actually managedto shoot at torpedo planes passing

her stern. San Francisco, however,under major overhaul with neitheroperative armament nor majorcaliber ammunition on board, wasthus restricted to having her men firesmall arms at whatever Japaneseplanes came within range. Some ofher crew, though, hurried over toNew Orleans, which was near-missedby one bomb, and helped man her5-inchers.

St. Louis, outboard of Honolulu,went to general quarters at 0757 andopened fire with her 1.1 quadruplemounted antiaircraft and .50-calibermachine gun batteries, and after get-ting her 5-inch mounts in commis-sion by 0830— although withoutpower in train — she hauled in herlines at 0847 and got underway at0931. With all 5-inchers in full corn-

13

mission by 0947, she proceeded tosea, passing the channel entrancebuoys abeam around 1000.Honolulu, damaged by a near missfrom a bomb, remained moored ather berth throughout the action.

Phoenix, moored by herself inberth C-6 in Pearl Harbor, to thenortheast of Ford Island, noted theattacking planes at 0755 and went togeneral quarters. Her machine gunbattery opened fire at 0810 on the at-tacking planes as they came withinrange; her antiaircraft battery fiveminutes later. Ultimately, after twofalse starts (where she had gotten un-derway and left her berth only to seesortie signals cancelled each time)Phoenix cleared the harbor later thatday and put to sea.

For at least one Marine, though,

Beneath a leaden sky on 8 December 1941, Marines at NASKaneohe Bay fire a volley over the common grave of 15 of-

National Archives Photo 8O-G-32554ficers and men killed during the Japanese raid the previousday. Note sandbagged position atop the sandy rise at right.

___________________________- 1.t

-

the day's adventure was not overwhen the Japanese planes departed.Search flights took off from Ford Is-land, pilots taking up utility aircraftwith scratch crews, to look for theenemy carriers which had launchedthe raid. Mustered at the naval airstation on Ford Island, Oklahoma'sSergeant Hailey, still clad in his oil-soaked underwear, volunteered to goup in a plane that was leaving on asearch mission at around 1130. Heremained aloft in the plane, armedwith a rifle, for some five hours.

After the attacking planes had re-tired, the grim business of cleaningup and getting on with the war hadto be undertaken. Muster had to betaken to determine who was missing,who was wounded, who lay dead.Men sought out their friends andshipmates. First Lieutenant CorneliusC. Smith, Jr., from the Marine Bar-racks at the Navy Yard, searched invain among the maimed and dyingat the Naval Hospital later that day,for his friend Harry Gayer from Ok-lahoma. Death respected no rank.The most senior Marine to die thatday was Lieutenant Colonel DanielR. Fox, the decorated World War Ihero and the division Marine officeron the staff of the Commander, Bat-tleship Division One, Rear AdmiralIsaac C. Kidd, who, along with Lieu-tenant Colonel Fox, had been killedin Arizona. The tragedy of PearlHarbor struck some families withmore force than others: numberedamong Arizona's lost were PrivateGordon E. Shive, of the battleship'sMarine detachment, and his brother,Radioman Third Class Malcolm H.Shive, a member of the ship'scompany.

Over the next few days, Marinesfrom the sunken ships received reas-signment to other vessels — Nevada'sMarines deployed ashore to set updefensive positions in the fields ad-jacent to the grounded and listingbattleship — and the dead, those whocould be found, were interred withappropriate ceremony. Eventually,

the deeds of Marines in the battleshipdetachments were recognized by ap-propriate commendations and ad-vancements in ratings. Chief amongthem, Gunnery Sergeant Douglas,Sergeant Hailey, and CorporalsDriskell and Darling were eachawarded the Navy Cross. For his"meritorious conduct at the peril ofhis own life;' Major Shapley wascommended and awarded the SilverStar. Lieutenant Simensen wasawarded a posthumous Bronze Star,while Tennesseds commanding officercommended Captain White for theway in which he had directed thatbattleship's antiaircraft guns thatmorning.

Titanic salvage efforts raised someof the sunken battleships — Califor-nia, West Virginia, and Nevada—and they, like the surviving Marines,went on to play a part in the ultimatedefeat of the enemy who had begunthe war with such swift and terriblesuddenness.

At 0740, when Fuchida's fliers hadclosed to within a few miles of Ka-huku Point, the 43 Zeroes split awayfrom the rest of the formation,swinging out north and west ofWheeler Field, the headquarters ofthe Hawaiian Air Force's 18th Pursuit

Wing. Passing further to the south,at about 0745 the Soryu and Hiryudivisions executed a hard diving turnto port and headed north, towardWheeler. Eleven Zeroes fromShokaku and Zuikaku simultaneous-ly left the formation and flew east,crossing over Oahu north of PearlHarbor to attack NAS Kaneohe Bay.Eighteen from Akagi and Kaga head-ed toward what the Japanese calledBabasu Pointo Hikojo (Barbers PointAirdrome) — Ewa Mooring MastField.

Sweeping over the Waianae Range,Lieutenant Commander ShigeruItaya led Akagi's nine Zeroes, whileLieutenant Yoshio Shiga headedanother division of nine from Kaga.After the initial attack, Itaya and Shi-ga were to be followed by divisionsfrom Soryu, under Lieutenant MasajiSuganami, and Hiryu, under Lieu-tenant Kiyokuma Okajima, whichwere, at that moment, involved in at-tacking Wheeler to the north.

In the officers' mess at Ewa, theofficer-of-the-day, Captain LeonardW. Ashwell of VMJ-252, noticed twoformations of aircraft at 0755. Thefirst looked like 18 "torpedo planes"flying at 1,000 feet toward Pearl Har-bor from Barbers Point, but the se-cond, to the northwest, comprisedabout 21 planes, just coming over the

Ewa Mooring Mast Field, later a Japanese target, is seen hazily through the wind-shield of a Battleship Row-bound Kate shortly before 0800 on 7 December 1941.

Author's Collection

14