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Overview essay: attack on pearl harbor
Overview essay: attack on pearl harbor
Overview essay: attack on pearl harbor
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PEARL HARBOR
On December 7, 1941 while the Secretary of State was meeting with two
Japanese diplomats in Washington, DC, a surprise attack was being launched
on the United States by Japanese military forces at Pearl Harbor. This was
the beginning of WW II. The attack killed 2388 people and wounded
approximately 2000. Twenty one American ships and more than 300 planes
were damaged or destroyed. Only 29 aircraft out the 353 that were used in the
attack by the Japanese were lost.
On December 8 President Roosevelt addressed the Congress and called
December 7 "a date which will live in infamy". Congress then declared war on
Japan.
The following is a time line of events which took place on that memorable
Day, the beginning of WW II:
3:42 am - Personnel of the minesweeper Condor spot a periscope in the
water while patrolling off the entrance to Pearl Harbor. They send a message
to the destroyer Ward by blinking light.
6:10 am - The first wave of Japanese planes leave their aircraft carrier.
6:45 am - The destroyer Ward fires first shot at the sub, misses, fires second
shot and hits. The submarine appears to be slowly sinking so the captain of the
destroyer orders depth charges to be dropped. This was the first shot of WW II.
6:53 am - Message sent from destroyer Ward to Pearl Harbor Naval Station,
"We have attacked, fired upon and dropped depth charges upon a submarine
operating in a defensive sea area."
7:02 am - Oahu radar station operator sights 50 or more aircraft bearing down
on Oahu.
7:20 am - An Army lieutenant who is in training at Fort Schafer gets the
Opana radar station report which reads "the biggest sightings" the radar
operator had ever seen. He believes that the radar has picked up a flight
of U.S. bombers flying from California to Hawaii. Because of security reasons
He could not tell this to the radio operators so he just tells them not to worry
about it. The planes now are only 70 miles away.
7:33 am - President Roosevelt and General Marshall learn from a decoded
Japanese message that the two negotiators have been told to break off the
Long, hard days of recruit training began for the army. Every day he was up at 6am, doing physical training, learning battle tactics and how to use weapons, lunch, going out to the rifle range, dinner, and then night lessons until 10pm.
At 11:54 p.m., Hashimoto ordered 6 readied torpedoes at a depth of 4 meters and a speed of 48 knots. Next, Hashimoto had the torpedoes fired at the ship. At 12:02 p.m., the first explosion came and then the second. Red flames shot up lighting up the darkness. Smoke soon followed.
As he swung his fighter around, Tolman inadvertently passed his gun sight directly across the Soviet cargo ship Turkestan as it traversed towards its intended target. Designed to provide a record of the action, the gun camera mounted in the nose of Tolman’s F-105 caught an image of the Soviet ship, inside the Cam Pha Harbor sanctuary, directly centered in his sights (Patrick).
radio, it had been said that Hiroshima suffered of an attack by a few B-29. Many
From family to squad members, communication acts as the cornerstone for a military officer, assisting in the mental health of the individual as well as facilitating the conduction of successful operations by an intricate, yet responsive, organization. Military officers are often times imagined as infallible heroes, unwavering against and untouched by the realities of modern warfare. Yet, newly commissioned, 22 year old officers often faces the arduous responsibilities of leading a platoon or flight comprised of men and women generally the same age as themselves into combat, or managing millions of dollars worth
During the first air raid, Pan American’s facilities were destroyed, and ten civilian employees of the airline were killed. When the assault on the island was first launched, the Americans had twelve aircraft. By December 21, they were down to two planes and by the 22nd of December, none was left in the fleet.
“It was very apparent to everyone who had carefully followed the course of events that we would sooner or later have to meet the threat to civilization which these aggressor nations were presenting to the world…and that we would ultimately be left to face the onslaught alone…” are words from then Secretary of War Henry Stimson. America knew she was headed for war, her people though, not directly feeling the effects of the conflicts going on half a world away would not support the loss of American lives for a foreign war. The government knew about the planned attacks on Pearl Harbor, kept the information from the military leaders that needed it the most, and used the tragedy to rally the nation toward war.
Whether fortunately or unfortunately, the limits of innovation are often put to the test. In the case of a submarine launched to sea in 1938, the USS Squalus, bad luck proved disastrous. Within minutes of a test dive, twenty-six men drowned. Years later, Peter Maas compiled the known information about the tragedy into The Terrible Hours: The Greatest Submarine Rescue in History. Over the heartbreaking journey of hopelessness to hope, crisis to survival, and depths to ascension, Maas weaves the sad tale depicting the unknown dangers that technology possesses.
1941 December 7th was the day in which will live in infamy and also controversy. The Attack at Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack on the American fleet at the at the navy base in pearl harbor at Hawaii. Japanese attackers us hard and the planes came in waves, the first hit us at 7:53 and the second hit us at 8:55. Nothing but chaos was left. 2,403 dead, 188 planes. But was this attack really a surprise? Did we really know about it before hand? Or did we just really be bombarded with a Japanese surprise attack.
Lawson, Robert L., and Barrett Tillman. U.S. Navy Air Combat: 1939-1946. Osceola, WI: MBI Pub., 2000. Print.
Quint has destroyed the radio and pushed the ship until the motor explodes and the vessel begins to take on water. Hooper has escaped death by diving to the bottom of the ocean here and Quint has already been killed by the shark. Brody is facing one last effort to shoot the compressed air cylinder lodged in the sharks mouth or die trying.
Before the landings were to begin, the coastal German defenses had to be adequately prepped, and softened by a combination of a massive battering by United States ships, and bombing by the United States Air Force. Between the hours of 0300 and 0500 hours on the morning of June 6, over 1,000 aircraft dropped more than 5,000 tons of bombs on the German coastal defenses. As soon as the preliminary bombing was over, the American and British naval guns opened fire on the Normandy coastline (D' Este 112). A British naval officer described the incredible spectacle he witnessed that day: "Never has any coast suffered what a tortured strip of French coast suffered that morning; both the naval and air bombardments were unparalleled. Along the fifty-mile front the land was rocked by successive explosions as the shells of ships' guns tore holes in fortifications and tons of bombs rained on them from the skies. Through billowing smoke and falling debris defenders crouching in this scene of devastations would soon discern faintly hundreds of ships and assault craft ominously closing the shore.
Introduction – Pearl Harbor was vulnerable to attack because of the obstruction of defense and warning.
Weather conditions- Sometimes the bad weather conditions become the huge problem for the aircrafts as they are not able to operate in bad conditions by which they get losses.
It’s 4:30am on September 1st, 1939 and the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein awaits the order to open fire on the Polish garrison of the Westerplatte Fort, Danzig in what was to become the first military engagement of World War II. Meanwhile, sixty two German divisions supported by 1,300 fighter planes prepared for the invasion of Poland. Fifteen minutes later, the invasion would take place and spark the beginning of World War II. Two days later at 9am Great Britain would send an ultimatum to Germany, demanding that they pull from Poland or go to war with Great Britain. Four hours later the Ultimatum would expire and Great Britain would officially be at war with Germany on September 3rd, 1939.