PEARL HARBOR -- DECEMBER 7TH, 1941

You may not be old enough to remember .... the radio news flashes .... the newsreels .... of Pearl Harbor, Dec 7, 1941....

CBS News Flash, John Daly – Dec 7, 1941, 2:30pm EST
CBS News – The World Today – Dec 7, 1941, 2:31pm EST
FDR Address To Congress, Dec 8 – Part 1
FDR Address To Congress, Dec 8 – Part 2
Full Text of Speach Before Congress

Damn, you would think the world, our nation and our leaders would learn..... I don't think that in our lifetimes there has been a 1 year period without some sort of war ...  

I am once again reminded of Rudyard Kipling's statement after WW1
"If any question why we died, Tell them, Because our fathers lied." 

SPECTACULAR PHOTOS OF THE RAID ON PEARL HARBOR

On Sunday, December 7th, 1941 the Japanese launched a surprise attack against the U.S. Forces stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

By planning his attack on a Sunday, the Japanese commander Admiral Nagumo, hoped to catch the entire fleet in port. As luck would have it, the Aircraft Carriers and one of the Battleships were not in port. (The USS Enterprise was returning from Wake Island, where it had just delivered some aircraft. The USS Lexington was ferrying aircraft to Midway, and the USS Saratoga and USS Colorado were undergoing repairs in the United States.)

In spite of the latest intelligence reports about the missing aircraft carriers (his most important targets), Admiral Nagumo decided to continue the attack with his force of six carriers and 423 aircraft. At a range of 230 miles north of Oahu, he launched the first wave of a two-wave attack. Beginning at 0600 hours his first wave consisted of 183 fighters and torpedo bombers which struck at the fleet in Pearl Harbor and the airfields in Hickam, Kaneohe and Ewa. The second strike, launched at 0715 hours, consisted of 167 aircraft, which again struck at the same targets.

At 0753 hours the first wave consisting of 40 Nakajima B5N2 "Kate" torpedo bombers, 51 Aichi D3A1 "Val" dive bombers, 50 high altitude bombers and 43 Zeros struck airfields and Pearl Harbor. Within the next hour, the second wave arrived and continued the attack. When it was over, the U.S. losses were:

Casualties
 USA: 218 KIA, 364 WIA.
USN: 2,008 KIA, 710 WIA.
USMC: 109 KIA, 69 WIA.
CIVILIANS: 68 KIA, 35 WIA.
TOTAL: 2,403 KIA, 1,178 WIA.

PEARL HARBOR KIA CASUALTY LISTING - REMEMBER THEM!

Battleships
 
USS Arizona (BB-39) - total loss when a bomb hit her magazine.
USS Oklahoma (BB-37) - Total loss, capsized and sunk in the harbor
USS California (BB-44) - Sunk at her berth. Later raised and repaired.
USS West Virginia (BB-48) - Sunk at her berth. Later raised and repaired.
USS Nevada - (BB-36) Beached to prevent sinking. Later repaired.
USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) - Light damage.
USS Maryland (BB-46)! - Light damage.
USS Tennessee (BB-43) Light damage.
USS Utah (AG-16) - (former battleship used as a target) - Sunk.
Cruisers
 
USS New Orleans (CA-32) - Light Damage.
USS San Francisco (CA38) - Light Damage.
USS Detroit (CL-8) - Light Damage.
USS Raleigh (CL-7) - Heavily damaged but repaired.
USS Helena (CL-50) - Light Damage.
USS Honolulu (CL-48) - Light Damage..
Destroyers
 
USS Downes (DD-375) - Destroyed. Parts salvaged.
USS Cassin - (DD-372) Destroyed. Parts salvaged.
USS Shaw (DD-373) - Very heavy damage.
USS Helm (DD-388) - Light Damage..
Minelayer
 
USS Ogala (CM-4) - Sunk but later raised and repaired.
Seaplane Tender
 
USS Curtiss (AV-4 ) - Severely damaged but later repaired.
Repair Ship
 
USS Vestal (AR-4) - Severely damaged but later repaired..
Harbor Tug
 
USS Sotoyomo (YT-9) - Sunk but later raised and repaired..
Aircraft
 
188 Aircraft destroyed (96 USN and 92 U.S. Army Air Corps.).
 
Japanese Losses
Total Japanese aircraft losses were light, only 29 planes, nine of them in the first wave. The second attack wave, arriving over targets that were alert and intensely motivated, faced much heavier anti-aircraft fire and lost twenty of its number. Several of the downed planes fell in or near Pearl Harbor or the other targets and were recovered for technical examination, as was one "Zero" fighter that crash landed on a remote island in the Hawaiian group. These provided U.S. intelligence with its first close-up look at the new enemy's latest aerial equipment.


For a comprehensive study of the causes and events leading to the Pearl Harbor Raid and the source of these pictures visit this link ~~

NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER – PEARL HARBOR RAID

years later and the world, our nation and our leaders still have not learned that war has no winners, a terrible waste of young men and resources.

It’s interesting to note that our founders warned against maintaining standing armies at all, both because of the taxes required to do so and the threats to liberty posed by a permanent military.

Consider the words of James Madison, often considered the father of the Constitution:

“A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home…”

Madison continues:

“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few..... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”

When will mankind learn that it is as impossible for peace to come by waging war as it is impossible for love to come by hating? The only fruit of war is war and any seeming peace is but a TRUCE OF FEAR BETWEEN WARS.


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