PEARL HARBOUR

1941

WHEN?

On Sunday December 7th 1941, Japan had a surprise attack against the US forces in Pearl Harbour, Hawaii.

THE ATTACK

• The Japanese commander, Admiral Nagumo hoped to find the biggest and the highest number of ships in port, because he was attacking on a Sunday. Luckily however, the aircraft carriers and one of the battle ships were not in port.

WHEN IT HAPPENED!

• At 6.00am in the morning the first attack happened on Pearl Harbour and the air fields in Hickam, Kaneohe and Ewa. There were 183 fighters and torpedo bombers. In the next hour, the second set of 180 planes came.

ONE OF THE SOLDIERS

Joseph A Pesek was a 23 years old soldier who survived the Pearl Harbour attack.

He describes what happens to him during the attack:

HIS DESCRIPTION

“I got up and started to run again and almost made the edge of the runway when three more planes came at me. They were so low that I could see the ground kicking up where their machine-gun bullets

were hitting. I hit the ground again covering my head with my hands.

It seemed as though a thousand things passed through my mind mostly of home and my family. I could not believe it when those three planes passed right over without hitting me.”

THE LOSSES

• When it was over the US losses were 2,403 killed in action and 1,178 wounded in action.

The Arizona

• The worst loss was the battle ship Arizona. She was hit with an armour covered bomb which penetrated through and the ship blew apart and sank in seconds. 1177 people drowned. The ship still lies on the ocean floor today.

The Ship Losses

• Overall nine ships sunk and twenty one ships were damaged.

THE RESULT

• After this attack America decided to join the war against Japan and Germany

PHOTOS

• The following photos of the attack on Pearl Harbour were found in an old Brownie camera that had been kept in a foot locker. The camera had been owned by a sailor serving on one of the ships.