Pearl Harbor Day
December 7th, 1941
A Date Which Will Live In Infamy
A Timeline of the attack on Pearl Harbor
*There were many more key events but due to space constraints we are only highlighting as many as we can.
3:42 am – USS Condor, a minesweeper, spots a periscope while on patrol two miles outside of the entrance to Pearl Harbor. A message is sent to the destroyer Ward.
| 6:00 am – The first wave of 183 Japanese planes takes off and heads toward Pearl Harbor. 6:45 am – The U.S. destroyer Ward fires on and sinks the submarine that had been spotted 3 hours earlier by the USS Condor. A message is sent to the 14th Naval Headquarters at Pearl Harbor Naval Station notifying them of the attack. 7:02 am – Two privates at the Army's Opana Mobile Radar Station spot 50 or more aircraft on their radar. They report the sighting but it is assumed that the planes are an expected flight of B-17s en route from California. |  Japanese photo |
7:15 am – The second wave of 167 planes takes off from the Japanese carriers and heads toward Pearl Harbor.
7:33 am – U.S. code breakers finally crack the Japanese diplomatic codes telling Japanese negotiators to break off talks between the U.S. and Japan. Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall and President Franklin D. Roosevelt are notified. Concerned, General Marshall sends a message to the Commander of Army Forces in Hawaii, Lieutenant General Walter Short, but he does not receive the message until 3 pm.
7:40 am – Commander Mitsuo Fuchida order the attack via telegraph with the messages “Tora, tora, tora,” (Tiger, tiger, tiger) and “Attack, surprise achieved.”
7:33 am – U.S. code breakers finally crack the Japanese diplomatic codes telling Japanese negotiators to break off talks between the U.S. and Japan. Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall and President Franklin D. Roosevelt are notified. Concerned, General Marshall sends a message to the Commander of Army Forces in Hawaii, Lieutenant General Walter Short, but he does not receive the message until 3 pm.
7:40 am – Commander Mitsuo Fuchida order the attack via telegraph with the messages “Tora, tora, tora,” (Tiger, tiger, tiger) and “Attack, surprise achieved.”
 Original communication | 7:55 am - The first wave of Japanese planes attack, targeting airfields and battleships. 7:55 am – On Ford Island Commander Logan Ramsey spots a low flying plane, he then sees something black fall out of the plane and realizes it's a bomb. He orders an uncoded message sent to every ship in the base. "AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR X THIS IS NO DRILL" 8:00 am – 12 B-17s on their way to the Philippines unwittingly arrive during the attack. They are unarmed and most manage to land intact. |
8:10 am – An armor piercing bomb is dropped by a Japanese high altitude bomber hits the forward deck of the USS Arizona causing over 1 million pounds of gunpowder to explode. The ship sinks within 9 minutes killing 1,177 men.
8:17 am – While heading for the open sea the US destroyer Helm see a Japanese submarine caught on the reef and sink it. One of the Japanese crewmen survives and becomes the first WWII prisoner of war held by the US.
8:17 am – While heading for the open sea the US destroyer Helm see a Japanese submarine caught on the reef and sink it. One of the Japanese crewmen survives and becomes the first WWII prisoner of war held by the US.
| 8:39 am – The destroyer Monaghan sights, attacks, and sinks a Japanese midget submarine. 8:40 am – Hickam Field, a U.S. Air Force installation, is hit. Nearly half of the planes at the field are seriously damaged or destroyed. 8:50 am – The USS Nevada becomes the only US battleship to get underway as it attempts to head out to sea with its anti-aircraft guns firing. The second wave of Japanese planes target the Nevada hoping to bottle up the narrow channel. To prevent it the Nevada intentionally grounds itself off Hospital Point. |  Hickam Field |
8:54 am - The second wave of Japanese planes attacks, targeting the Navy yard dry dock.
9:30 am – The USS Shaw explodes in dry dock and pieces of the ship rain down half a mile away.
9:30 am – The USS Shaw explodes in dry dock and pieces of the ship rain down half a mile away.
 USS Shaw | 10:00 am – The attack ends and Japanese planes rendezvous to head back to their carriers. 10:30 am – The wounded are cared for in hospitals, in converted barracks, converted dining halls, and schools were turned into temporary hospitals, some patients are laid out on lawns. Nurses use lipstick to mark the foreheads of the most severely wounded with an 'M' to indicate they have been given morphine. The final death toll is 2,390. 1:00 pm – The Japanese force heads for home. |
The following day, December 8th, War is declared upon Japan.
On September 2nd, 1945 the USS West Virginia, which was attacked at Pearl Harbor, will be present in Tokyo Bay when Japan signs the surrender document.
The following websites were consulted in putting this timeline together:
www.britannica.com, www.pearlharboroahu.com, www.omaha.com, www.historyplace.com.
Any errors in the information contained in this timeline are mine.
To the best of my knowledge all photos are in the Public Domain.
www.britannica.com, www.pearlharboroahu.com, www.omaha.com, www.historyplace.com.
Any errors in the information contained in this timeline are mine.
To the best of my knowledge all photos are in the Public Domain.
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