Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto-responsible for planning the Attack on Pearl Harbor
Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo-While commanding Japan's carrier striking force, he executed the 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor
The Pearl Harbor naval base was recognized by both the Japanese and the United States Navies as a potential target for hostile carrier air power. The U.S. Navy had even explored the issue during some of its interwar "Fleet Problems". However, its distance from Japan and shallow harbor, the certainty that Japan's navy would have many other pressing needs for its aircraft carriers in the event of war, and a belief that intelligence would provide warning persuaded senior U.S. officers that the prospect of an attack on Pearl Harbor could be safely discounted.
During the interwar period, the Japanese had reached similar conclusions. However, their pressing need for secure flanks during the planned offensive into Southeast Asia and the East Indies spurred the dynamic commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto to revisit the issue. His staff found that the assault was feasible, given the greater capabilities of newer aircraft types, modifications to aerial torpedoes, a high level of communications security and a reasonable level of good luck. Japan's feelings of desperation helped Yamamoto persuade the Naval high command and Government to undertake the venture should war become inevitable, as appeared increasingly likely during October and November 1941.
All six of Japan's first-line aircraft carriers, Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku and Zuikaku, were assigned to the mission. With over 420 embarked planes, these ships constituted by far the most powerful carrier task force ever assembled. Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, an experienced, cautious officer, would command the operation. His Pearl Harbor Striking Force also included fast battleships, cruisers and destroyers, with tankers to fuel the ships during their passage across the Pacific. An Advance Expeditionary Force of large submarines, five of them carrying midget submarines, was sent to scout around Hawaii, dispatch the midgets into Pearl Harbor to attack ships there, and torpedo American warships that
might escape to sea.
Japanese planes attacked in two waves. The first wave, arriving just before 8AM, began its assault with dive-bombing and straffing against Navy and Army airfields to ensure that there would be a minimum of opposition from U.S. fighter planes, and to reduce the risk of a counterattack by American bombers and patrol planes. Almost simultaneously, torpedo planes roared in low over Pearl Harbor, launching their weapons against warships moored on both sides of Ford Island and at the Navy Yard's 1010 Dock. Shortly after 8AM, high-flying horizontal bombers paraded in formation over "Battleship Row", dropping their heavy armor-piercing bombs on the ships below. Having achieved great results, the first wave departed the scene about a half hour after it appeared.
The second Japanese wave hit about fifteen minutes after the first had departed, and delivered dive bombing, horizontal bombing and fighter machine gun attacks over the next hour. It did more damage to airfields, struck targets in and around the Navy Yard, and pummeled USS Nevada, the only U.S. battleship to get underway. At about 0945 on the morning of 7 December 1941, their assigned missions successfully completed, the last Japanese planes left the area to return to their carriers.
Total Japanese aircraft losses were light, only 29 planes, nine of them in the first wave. The second attack wave, arriving over targets that were alert and intensely motivated, faced much heavier anti-aircraft fire and lost twenty of its number. Several of the downed planes fell in or near Pearl Harbor or the other targets and were recovered for technical examination, as was one "Zero" fighter that crash landed on a remote island in the Hawaiian group. These provided U.S. intelligence with its first close-up look at the
new enemy's latest aerial equipment.
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto-responsible for planning the Attack on Pearl Harbor
Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo-While commanding Japan's carrier striking force, he executed the 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor
The Pearl Harbor naval base was recognized by both the Japanese and the United States Navies as a potential target for hostile carrier air power. The U.S. Navy had even explored the issue during some of its interwar "Fleet Problems". However, its distance from Japan and shallow harbor, the certainty that Japan's navy would have many other pressing needs for its aircraft carriers in the event of war, and a belief that intelligence would provide warning persuaded senior U.S. officers that the prospect of an attack on Pearl Harbor could be safely discounted.
During the interwar period, the Japanese had reached similar conclusions. However, their pressing need for secure flanks during the planned offensive into Southeast Asia and the East Indies spurred the dynamic commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto to revisit the issue. His staff found that the assault was feasible, given the greater capabilities of newer aircraft types, modifications to aerial torpedoes, a high level of communications security and a reasonable level of good luck. Japan's feelings of desperation helped Yamamoto persuade the Naval high command and Government to undertake the venture should war become inevitable, as appeared increasingly likely during October and November 1941.
All six of Japan's first-line aircraft carriers, Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku and Zuikaku, were assigned to the mission. With over 420 embarked planes, these ships constituted by far the most powerful carrier task force ever assembled. Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, an experienced, cautious officer, would command the operation. His Pearl Harbor Striking Force also included fast battleships, cruisers and destroyers, with tankers to fuel the ships during their passage across the Pacific. An Advance Expeditionary Force of large submarines, five of them carrying midget submarines, was sent to scout around Hawaii, dispatch the midgets into Pearl Harbor to attack ships there, and torpedo American warships that might escape to sea.
Japanese planes attacked in two waves. The first wave, arriving just before 8AM, began its assault with dive-bombing and straffing against Navy and Army airfields to ensure that there would be a minimum of opposition from U.S. fighter planes, and to reduce the risk of a counterattack by American bombers and patrol planes. Almost simultaneously, torpedo planes roared in low over Pearl Harbor, launching their weapons against warships moored on both sides of Ford Island and at the Navy Yard's 1010 Dock. Shortly after 8AM, high-flying horizontal bombers paraded in formation over "Battleship Row", dropping their heavy armor-piercing bombs on the ships below. Having achieved great results, the first wave departed the scene about a half hour after it appeared.
The second Japanese wave hit about fifteen minutes after the first had departed, and delivered dive bombing, horizontal bombing and fighter machine gun attacks over the next hour. It did more damage to airfields, struck targets in and around the Navy Yard, and pummeled USS Nevada, the only U.S. battleship to get underway. At about 0945 on the morning of 7 December 1941, their assigned missions successfully completed, the last Japanese planes left the area to return to their carriers.
Total Japanese aircraft losses were light, only 29 planes, nine of them in the first wave. The second attack wave, arriving over targets that were alert and intensely motivated, faced much heavier anti-aircraft fire and lost twenty of its number. Several of the downed planes fell in or near Pearl Harbor or the other targets and were recovered for technical examination, as was one "Zero" fighter that crash landed on a remote island in the Hawaiian group. These provided U.S. intelligence with its first close-up look at the new enemy's latest aerial equipment.
