UNDER ATTACK

In addition to Pearl Harbor, Japanese aircraft struck several other American installations on 7 December 1941

Although the most recognised and remembered Japanese target on 7 December 1941 was the US Pacific

Fleet at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese wreaked havoc at several other installations as well.

Facilities and personnel of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Army came under fire on that dreadful morning as the Japanese hit Hickam Field, Wheeler

Field, Bellows Field, Ewa Marine Corps Air Station, and the naval air stations at Kaneohe and Ford Island in the center of Pearl Harbor. The Japanese also struck American installations in the Philippines, Wake Island and Midway Atoll, and the British in Malaya during the hours following the Pearl Harbor operation.

Bombers and fighters from the Japanese aircraft carriers screamed down on vulnerable targets across Oahu. American aircraft had been parked wingtip to wingtip to guard against potential sabotage rather than dispersed in protective concrete or earthen revetments, and they made easy targets. Hickam Field and Ford Island came under attack just before 8am.

As the first bombs fell on Ford

Island Naval Air Station, Lieutenant Commander Logan Ramsey, the operations officer of Patrol Wing Two, ordered the radio room to send the plain language message: “Air Raid Pearl Harbor. This Is No Drill.” One hangar took five bomb hits, and others were damaged. At Hickam Field, 35 men were killed while they were eating breakfast when a Japanese bomb smashed the mess hall. More than 20 others were killed as they readied bombers for training flights, and a large barracks was utterly destroyed. At Wheeler

Field, where most of the island’s fighter strength was stationed, Japanese dive bombers and fighters destroyed most of the 140 aircraft parked in neat rows.

36 Consolidated PBY Catalina seaplanes at Kaneohe were shredded by a dozen Japanese fighters in an attack that lasted only eight minutes. Just three planes at Kaneohe escaped damage from the two attack waves.

Bellows Field was strafed by a single Japanese fighter at about 08:30, following a warning by one enlisted man that Kaneohe had been “blown to hell!” 29 of the 48 planes stationed at Ewa Marine Corps Air Station were destroyed by a flight of 21 fighters that strafed completely unchallenged for more than 20 minutes.

Before the dreadful day was done, 165 American aircraft had been destroyed, with only a few of them after getting into the air.