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Volume 2: My Country Chapter 632. "Sneak Attack on Pearl Harbor"

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    The Hawaiian Islands are located in the North Pacific, about 3,800 kilometers from the west coast of the United States to the east, 6,000 kilometers from Japan to the west, and 7,000 kilometers from the Philippines. They have a very important strategic position and are known as the "Heart of the Pacific."  The main island of the Hawaiian Islands is Oahu. Pearl Harbor is located at the lowest point between the Kolau Mountains and the Whitenai Mountains in the southern part of Oahu. It is named after the oysters that are rich in pearls. It is a natural harbor and the entire bay stretches out.  Inland, Chicken Feet is only connected to the Pacific Ocean through a 330-meter-wide narrow waterway.  The water area of ??the port area is about 25 square kilometers, with an average water depth of 12 meters. The Waipio Peninsula, Pearl City Peninsula and Ford Island in the harbor divide Pearl Harbor into four small harbors, which can berth 500 ships of various types at the same time.  The United States began base construction in 1909, and successively built large-scale, well-equipped shipyards, dry docks, docks, oil depots and other facilities. In 1919 and 1922, it successively established submarine bases and aviation bases.  Since 1933, in order to curb Japan's expansion, the United States has further increased its construction, making it the main naval base and important logistics base of the United States in the Pacific.  Since May 1940, the U.S. Pacific Fleet has been stationed at Pearl Harbor, and Pearl Harbor has become a thorn in the side of the Japanese army's southward advance.

    After the U.S. Pacific Fleet was stationed at Pearl Harbor, it began to strengthen the defense of Hawaii.  The U.S. Army established the Hawaii Garrison Command in February 1941, headed by Walt.  Army Lieutenant General Short served as commander and unified command of the 24th and 25th Infantry Divisions, Coast Artillery, Army Aviation and other units in the Hawaii area, totaling approximately 10,000 people.

    The commander of the Pacific Fleet is Admiral Kimmel. The ships with Pearl Harbor as its home port include more than 100 ships, including 3 aircraft carriers, 9 battleships, 20 cruisers, 69 destroyers and 27 submarines.

    In the early morning of December 12, the warships anchored in Pearl Harbor included 8 battleships, 8 cruisers, 29 destroyers and 5 submarines, plus other ships and auxiliary ships, a total of 94 ships.

    There were about 30 US warships operating at sea at that time, divided into four formations: Lieutenant General Halsey commanded the aircraft carrier "Enterprise", 3 cruisers and 9 destroyers. They set off from Pearl Harbor on November 28 and headed for Wake Island.  Transporting fighter jets, en route back to Pearl Harbor.  It was originally planned to return to Pearl Harbor on the evening of December 6. Due to various reasons, it was still about 370 kilometers west of Oahu when the Japanese attacked. They escaped: "Lexington" aircraft carrier, 3  A cruiser and three destroyers set out from Pearl Harbor on December 5 to transport fighter jets to Midway Island. At this time, in the waters about 1,300 kilometers west of Oahu: the heavy cruiser "Indianapolis" and five minesweeper ships were  Exercises near Johnston Island: The heavy cruiser USS Minneapolis and four minesweeper ships have concluded their exercises.  We are on our way back, only 46 kilometers away from Oahu.  In addition, warships such as the aircraft carrier "Saratoga" and the battleship "Colorado" belonging to the Pacific Fleet are being renovated in the United States.

    The U.S. military¡¯s aviation force in Hawaii consists of three parts, with a total of about 350 aircraft.  Among them, the Army Air Corps, commonly known as the Hawaiian Air Force, was led by Fred.  Commanded by Army Major General Martin, it has jurisdiction over the 18th Bomb Wing and the 14th Destroyer Wing.  With Hickam Airport and Wheeler Airport as the main bases respectively, there are a total of 32 B-18 bombers, 12 B-17 bombers, 12 A-20 bombers, 99 P-40 fighters, 39 P-36 fighters,  14 P-26 fighter jets.

    The naval aviation force is mainly based at Canihei and Ford Island airports, with a total of 71 PBY "Catalina" water anti-submarine patrol aircraft and 14 os2u "Fish Dog" carrier-based observation aircraft.

    The Marine Corps Aviation Corps is based at Iva Airport and has a total of 11 F4F "Wildcat" fighters, 24 SBD "Dreadnought" torpedo aircraft and 8 SB2U torpedo aircraft.

    In April 1941, the U.S. Army and Navy in Hawaii reached an air defense agreement after consultations, and the long-distance air surveillance was undertaken by the Navy.  Close air defense is the responsibility of the Army.

    Lieutenant General Short believed that the destruction of aircraft by Japanese and Japanese Americans in Hawaii would make the aircraft most likely to be damaged, so he ordered the aircraft to be densely arranged on the taxiing curve between the runway and the apron to facilitate the take-off of aircraft.  Safety alert measures, but once attacked by an air attack, as long as one bomb explodes, all aircraft will be quickly affected!

    At four o'clock in the morning on December 12, 1942, the assault formation successfully arrived at the scheduled deployment area about 420 kilometers north of Pearl Harbor after a twelve-day voyage of about 6,600 kilometers.  The pilots were awakened and each tied on the Thousand Needle Belt, which symbolized good fortune.  Leave a suicide note with hair or fingernails attached, then have breakfast, receive final briefings in the war room, and await orders to attack.

    At 5:30, the two cruisers "Tone" and "Chikuma" each ejected a Zero water reconnaissance aircraft to conduct pre-war reconnaissance of Pearl Harbor.

    At six o'clock, the first attack wave of aircraft began to take off.  At this time, the weather in the take-off area was deteriorating.  The wind and waves were very strong, and the aircraft carrier swayed more than ten degrees. Normally, the takeoff would be canceled in such sea conditions, but now the takeoff was only delayed by twenty minutes.  All off-duty officers and soldiers on the aircraft carrier crowded on the flight deck, waving their hats and turbans."Shout for the assault fleet to march!"  A total of 183 aircraft took off from 6 aircraft carriers.  Including 40 Type 97 torpedo planes, 51 Type 99 dive bombers, 49 Type 97 level bombers, and 43 Zero fighters.  The torpedo planes each carry an 800kg torpedo, the dive bombers each carry a 250kg explosive bomb, and the level bombers each carry an 800kg time-delay fuze armor-piercing bomb.  Fifteen minutes later, the fleet assembled over the fleet, formed a predetermined formation, and flew towards Pearl Harbor at an altitude of 3,000 meters.  The air commander and level bomber leader of the "Akagi" is Lieutenant Commander Mitsuo Nagafuchida, the torpedo fighter leader is Major Shigeharu Murata, the dive bomber leader is Major Kazuichi Takahashi of the "Shokaku", the fighter leader is Major Shigeru Itani, all  There are three yellow identification strips painted on the vertical tail of the aircraft.  During the flight, while listening to a radio broadcast from Honolulu for navigation purposes, Fuchida was pleasantly surprised when he unexpectedly received the Pearl Harbor weather forecast he desperately needed.

    At 6:30, three U.S. military seaplanes discovered a suspicious submarine while conducting routine patrol flights in the waters south of Oahu. The pilots used a code to report to the base, which delayed the time.

    At 6:37, the U.S. destroyer escort USS Ward discovered the mini-submarine that was following the tow target ship "Big Mars" in an attempt to pass through the anti-submarine net.  William, the officer on duty.  Lieutenant Gopna immediately reported to Captain William.  Captain Outerbridge, Captain Outerbridge gave the order to fire at 6:40. At 6:45, the Ward's No. 3 gun fired. The first shot missed, but the second hit.  The command podium of a pocket submarine, this shot became the "first shot" in the Pacific War!

    The "Ward" then sailed at full speed toward the submarine's dive site and dropped a string of depth charges, sinking it.  ¡ª¡ªThis is the I-20 pocket submarine driven by Second Lieutenant Hiroo Akira and Sergeant Katayama Yoshio of the Japanese Army.  After the "Ward" sank the mini-submarine, it reported to the divisional headquarters.  Six fifty-three minutes.  The "Ward" sent a report for the second time.  Lieutenant Colonel Kaminski, the officer on duty at the divisional headquarters, casually asked for verification.  Until 7:40, Division Commander Claude.  Rear Admiral Bullock had just received the report. He felt that the situation was serious and ordered to send additional destroyer "Monahan" to support.  It was only ten minutes before the air raid began and it was too late.

    ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 7:02.  The mobile radar station located on Kahaku Point at the northern tip of Oahu discovered that a large number of aircraft were flying towards Pearl Harbor, a distance of about 160 kilometers.  Radarman Joseph.  Lockard and George.  Elliott immediately reported to the intelligence center, but the officer on duty, Kermit.  Lieutenant Taylor thought it was a plane coming from California and comforted the radar soldiers not to be nervous. So the two radar soldiers watched the Japanese plane flying closer and closer until the Japanese plane was in the air at 7:39.

    At 7:35, the Japanese military planes flew over Oahu.  With a panoramic view of Pearl Harbor, the unique cage and tripod masts of the US battleships are clearly visible.

    At 7:40, the Japanese aircraft deployed into an attack formation.  In order to achieve maximum results, the Japanese army formulated two attack plans. One was the surprise attack plan, which was used when the U.S. military was not on alert. It would be attacked first by torpedo planes and then by bombers.  The second is a strong attack plan.  It is used when the US military is prepared. The bombers will first attack to suppress and attract anti-aircraft firepower, and then the torpedo planes will attack.  Regardless of the plan, fighter jets must seize a favorable altitude to seize air superiority.  Which plan to adopt is decided by the air commander on an ad hoc basis.  It is stipulated that the first signal flare is a surprise attack, and the second signal flare is a forced attack.  Seeing that the U.S. military was unprepared, Fuchida decided to adopt a surprise attack plan.  A signal flare was fired, but because the fighter jet was obscured by clouds and could not see the signal, Fuchida fired another flare at the fighter jet.  This time the fighter jet saw it and immediately climbed up to seize a favorable altitude. However, the lead dive bomber mistakenly thought it was a second flare, adopted a storm attack plan, and accelerated towards the airport.

    At 7:49, Fuchida ordered an all-out attack!  The back seat communicator immediately sent the attack order: sudden!  sudden!  sudden!

    At 7:53, Fuchida saw that the U.S. military was unprepared and knew that the attack would be successful. He impatiently ordered the victory code to be sent out before the battle started: Torah!  Torah!  Torah!  Meaning "Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!" Surprisingly, the radio waves emitted by the Type 97 aircraft's low-power airborne radio actually traveled across the vast Pacific Ocean and were received by the battleship "Yamato" thousands of miles away.  arrive.

    At 7:55 a.m., the dive bombers first conducted high-angle dive bombings at Hickam Airport, Wheeler Airport, and Ford Island Airport from an altitude of 4,000 meters. For a while, shrapnel flew across the airport, with flames rising into the sky and thick smoke rising.  The torpedo planes had just arrived at the shipyard when they saw thick smoke rising from the airport. The captain, Major Murata, was shocked. He thought that the torpedo planes should attack first in the surprise attack plan. Why did the bombers attack first?  In order not to obscure the target in the thick smoke, he immediately led the torpedo fleet to speed up and take a shortcut along the western valley and launched the attack at 7:57.  The 40 torpedo planes were divided into two groups, one group of 16 to attack the anchored warships on the west side of Ford Island, and the other group of 24 to carry out focused attacks on the battleships on the east side of Ford Island.At 7:58, William, commander of the U.S. mine-laying fleet.  Major General Furlong was the first to see a plane dive and drop bombs. At first he thought it was an accident where the pilot mistakenly pressed the bomb button. Then he took a closer look and saw the bright red rising sun emblem on the plane. He then realized it was a Japanese air raid.  , immediately ordered the warships in the harbor to leave the harbor to avoid it.  Almost at the same time, Colonel Logan Remsey rushed into the Ford Island headquarters, ordered Tara to sound the air raid siren, and announced on the spoken radio: "Pearl Harbor has been attacked by an air attack! This is not a drill!" Subsequently, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet  Admiral Kimmel ordered that all units in the Pacific Fleet be notified by radio of the shocking news.

    At the same time, sporadic counterattacks by the US military also began, and anti-aircraft guns on some US ships opened fire.  Only 4 of the 33 anti-aircraft artillery companies of the island army opened fire. The shells of most anti-aircraft artillery companies were still in the ammunition depot, and there was no time to go into battle.  There was little organized resistance from the U.S. military at Pearl Harbor as a whole.

    At 8:05, Fuchida led the horizontal bombers to pass through the west side of Oahu and enter the bombing route from the south.  A group of five aircraft formed a column formation with a distance of 200 meters between individual aircraft. At an altitude of 3,000 meters, they bombed the battleships on the east side of Ford Island and the Iwa Airport where anti-aircraft artillery firepower was concentrated.

    Seeing that no U.S. planes were taking off, the fighter jets serving as cover divided into six formations and strafed six airports.  (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian to vote for recommendations and monthly votes. Your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile phone users, please read it.)
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