Attack on Pearl Harbor

7 December 1941, Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii

Japanese victory

Six Japanese carriers under Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo crossed the North Pacific in radio silence and, on a Sunday morning, launched 353 aircraft from 230 miles north of Oahu. An hour before they arrived the old destroyer Ward sank a midget submarine off the harbour mouth, but her report was not acted on. Two waves of torpedo bombers, dive bombers and high-level bombers caught the Pacific Fleet's battleships moored in pairs along Battleship Row. A bomb set off Arizona's forward magazines and killed 1,177 of her crew. Oklahoma capsized, West Virginia and California sank at their moorings, and Nevada, the only battleship to get under way, was beached to keep her from blocking the channel. In all 2,403 Americans were killed and 188 aircraft destroyed, for 29 Japanese aircraft and five midget submarines. But the American carriers were at sea, and the fuel tanks, repair yards and submarine base were barely touched. All but Arizona, Oklahoma and the old target ship Utah were repaired, and most of them fought again. The attack brought the United States into the war.