013 - A Plane Named Zeke

Mitsubishi A6M Fighter Plane

In the quick thirty minutes from the end of the first wave to the beginning of the second, the American soldiers and sailors left in the fight wondered what would come next. Some took to cleaning up the messes left behind: the flaming oil slicks and burning wreckage on Battleship Row, the bombed our plane hangars, or simply their best buddies, who were floating lifeless in Pearl Harbor or even those trapped underwater, their hammers and wrenches pounding on the inner walls of battleships, crying out for help.

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It would not be long enough to do much. Before rescuers could fish the bodies out of the water or use welding torches to cut escape hatches into the half-sunken ships, the high-pitched whine of fighter planes returned and the silver flashes of Japanese fighter planes reappeared in the sky.

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The second wave did not include a single torpedo plane. The Japanese had not figured they would strike such an enormous blow to the American battle fleet. Instead, there were only high-level bombers, dive-bombers, and fighter: the A6M “Zeros”.

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The mission for the second wave was simple: protect the Kido Butai. While bombers attacked the airfields and plane hangars, the fighter planes – the Zeros – would dive towards the planes on the ground and open fire, “strafing” the airfield with their machine guns. If and when any American planes got into the air, the Zeroes would then engage any enemy planes and shoot them out of the sky.

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Only a dozen American fighter planes managed to get airborne and not one managed more than a single victory. Meanwhile, two of those planes were also lost. At the end of the morning, only twenty-nine Japanese planes and four midget subs were lost. Now, the Japanese would return west, leaving Pearl Harbor in ruins.

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