Sifting through the Ashes
As the Kido Butai headed home, all of Pearl Harbor lay in
ruins. In addition to the 1,177 lives lost aboard the Arizona, the overturned
Oklahoma eventually claimed 429 lives, with as many as half those perishing in
the days following the attack. The torpedo attacks that rocked the West
Virginia only managed to cost 106 sailors’ lives while the California lost 105.
The Pennsylvania, which had been moored across the Harbor, seemed lucky by
these standards, suffering only two dozen casualties. Many of the other ships
in the fleet suffered some sort of loss, mostly from Japanese fighter attacks
while nearby barracks on Ford Island suffered direct bomb hits.
.
Even the crews of Scouting Squadron Six, which had flown in
from the U.S.S. Enterprise after hearing of the attacks, were outnumbered and outmatched
by the Kido Butai. While most scored kills on Japanese planes, all of the six two-man
crews were lost. That night, another three planes, from USS Enterprise’s Fighting
Squadron Six, were shot out of the sky, gunned down by anti-aircraft fire while
on their approach to Hickam Field.
.
The death toll at Pearl was over 2,000. However, the
greatest misery lay in the surrounding hospitals, which were flooded with
wounded Sailors, Soldiers, and Marines. In the following weeks, the citizens of
Oahu would be called upon to donate their time, their service, and even their
blood as hospitals were filled to capacity. Buildings in the surrounding area,
from barracks to plane hangars to local schools were turned into hospital wards
where victims from the attack could be treated. Meanwhile, the smoke and fires
over at Pearl continued to burn, a constant reminder that the war had finally come
to America.
No comments:
Post a Comment