009 - Battleship Row

Moments of Truth

Like dragonflies in flight, torpedo planes from Strike Force One swooped down and skimmed the surface of Pearl Harbor. Meanwhile, the sailors aboard the USS Nevada watched while standing at attention for the hoisting of the colors aboard their own ship. The first squadron of torpedo planes buzzed by, just sixty feet above the water’s surface.

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Torpedoes dropped from their bellies, but the sailors thought nothing of it. TBD Devastators from the American fleet routinely dropped dummy bombs into the bay during practice runs. However, these bombs cut through the water as they headed towards Battleship Row. It wasn’t until the first bombs exploded that all the American sailors knew this was no drill.

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Battleship Row, with moorings for two rows of five battleships, held seven battleships at dock on that Sunday morning. The Pennsylvania was in dry dock for repairs while the Light Cruiser Helena took her place. The Minelaying ship Oglala floated next to Helena.

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The Nakajima B5N “Kates” lined up perpendicular to the battleships and let loose their Type 97 torpedoes. The first to be hit was the West Virginia, who took seven torpedoes in less than two minutes. The Oklahoma, which sat beside the West Virginia’s left, took three torpedoes in those first minutes of the attack. Only a single torpedo struck the Oglala, which cut through its thin shell and struck the Light Cruiser Helena on the other side. The Light Cruiser Raleigh also sustained a single torpedo blast.

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The next torpedo bomber run shot into the gap a few minutes later. Two torpedoes swam through the water and struck the sinking Oklahoma. Two more struck the Utah. While firefighting crews went to work, high-level bombers opened their bomb bay doors 10,000 feet overhead. Moments later, the USS Vestal, a repair ship, was hit by a bomb. Next, an armor-piercing bomb broke through the two decks of the USS Arizona and exploded in her munitions store. A mighty gunpowder blast shot 500 feet into the air, tossing the destroyer into the air. Within nine minutes, the Arizona sank, taking 1177 sailors to their deaths. Fuel and oil spilled into the harbor as smoke billowed into the air. Still, the day was far from over.

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