Remember PEARL

[scrat]

i know its not the day. but a freind sent me an email. So i dont get credit for it but thought i would share the email. here it is in its entire.
Furthermore do we have any or know of any Pearl Veterans. When i was in grade school. My 6th grade teacher. Mr Blanchard was a pearl harbor vet. Every year he would go to pearl to reunite with other pear harbor vets. i wonder how many of them are left.

Thought you might find these photos very interesting;
what quality from 1941.

Pearl Harbor photos found in an old Brownie stored in a foot locker.



THESE PHOTOS ARE FROM A SAILOR WHO WAS ON THE USS QUAPAW ATF-11O.







I THINK THEY'RE SPECTACULAR!

PEARL HARBOR

December 7th, 1941​

 

[scrat]

 

[scrat]

Pearl Harbor



On Sunday, December 7th, 1941 the Japanese launched a surprise attack against the U.S. Forces stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. By planning his attack on a Sunday, the Japanese commander Admiral Nagumo, hoped to catch the entire fleet in port. As luck would have it, the Aircraft Carriers and one of the Battleships were not in port. (The USS Enterprise was returning from Wake Island, where it had just delivered some aircraft. The USS Lexington was ferrying aircraft to Midway, and the USS Saratoga and USS Colorado were undergoing repairs in the United States.)


In spite of the latest intelligence reports about the missing aircraft carriers (his most important targets), Admiral Nagumo decided to continue the attack with his force of six carriers and 423 aircraft. At a range of 230 miles north of Oahu, he launched the first wave of a two-wave attack. Beginning at 0600 hours his first wa ve consisted of 183 fighters and torpedo bombers which struck at the fleet in Pearl Harbor and the airfields in Hickam, Kaneohe and Ewa. The second strike, launched at 0715 hours, consisted of 1 67 aircraft, which again struck at the same targets.


At 0753 hours the first wave consisting of 40 Nakajima B5N2 'Kate' torpedo bombers, 51 Aichi D3A1 'Val' dive bombers, 50 high altitude bombers and 43 Zeros struck airfields and Pearl Harbor. Within the next hour, the second wave arrived and continued the attack.

When it was over, the U.S. losses were:

Casualties

USA: 218 KIA, 364 WIA.
USN: 2,008 KIA, 710 WIA.
USMC: 109 KIA, 69 WIA.
Civilians: 68 KIA, 35 WIA.

TOTAL: 2,403 KIA, 1,178 WIA.

-------------------------------------------------
Battleships

USS Arizona (BB-39) - total loss when a bomb hit her magazine.
USS Oklahoma (BB-37) - Total loss when she capsized and sunk in the harbor.
USS California (BB-44) - Sunk at her berth. Later raised and repaired.
USS West Virginia (BB-48) - Sunk at her berth. Later raised and repaired.
USS Nevada - (BB-36) Beached to prevent sinking. Later repaired.
USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) - Light damage.
USS Maryland (BB-46) - Light damage.
USS Tennessee (BB-43) Light damage.
USS Utah (AG-16) - (former battleship used as a target) - Sunk.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------
Cruisers
USS New Orleans (CA-32) - Light Damage.
USS San Francisco (CA38) - Light Damage.
USS Detroit (CL-8) - Light Damage.
USS Raleigh (CL-7) - Heavily damaged but repaired.
USS Helena (CL-50) - Light Damage.
USS Honolulu (CL-48) - Light Damage.

-------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------
Destroyers

USS Downes (DD-375) - Destroyed. Parts salvaged.
USS Cassin - (DD-37 2) Destroyed. Parts salvaged.
USS Shaw (DD-373) - Very heavy damage.
USS Helm (DD-388) - Light Damage.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------
Minelayer< /U>
USS Ogala (CM-4) - Sunk but later raised and repaired.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----
Seaplane Tender

USS Curtiss (AV-4) - Severely damaged but later repaired.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------
Repair Ship

USS Vestal (AR-4) - Severely damaged but later repaired.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------
Harbor Tug

USS Sotoyomo (YT-9) - Sunk but later raised and repaired.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------
Aircraft

188 Aircraft destroyed (92 USN and 92 U.S. Army Air Corps.) ;​

 

[Tommygunn]

These are some really excellent photos, Scrat. There's no wrong time to remember the men who lost their lives there.
In 1987 I visited Oahu and the Arizona Memorial. That was a somber experience that will stay with me until the day I die.

Thank you for posting these photos.

 

[REPOMAN]

May GOD Bless

God Bless The Men And Women Of The Military And God Bless The U.S.A.

 

[CWL]

As a kid, I knew someone who was a sailor on the Tennessee during Pearl Harbor. He told a vivid account of witnessing the USS California being sunk. Pretty amazing and emotional time to be present at an even when you thought your life was goig to end in a horrifying way.

 

[Deanimator]

Throughout our history, this country has been blessed with arrogant, stupid enemies.

Yamamoto told the Japanese they'd lose. I don't know what the generals and admirals told Hitler, but he wouldn't have listened if it contradicted him anyway.

 

[George C Morrison]

Memorable photographs.
Thank you,scrat, for sharing them and helping us remember the sacrifices made by so many lives.

 

[Kaeto]

"I fear we have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a great resolve."-- Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

"When this war is over the only place the japanese language will be spoken is in hell." -- Admiral 'Bull' Halsey after having seen the devastation at Pearl Harbor.


For myself I'm thankful it didn't come to what Bull wanted.

 

[Cosmoline]

If you know a Pearl vet or have the fortune to be related to one, NOW is the time to ask questions and get the stories for the future. Remember that was 1941 and involved our prewar military. It was a very small force mostly from an older generation than those recruited in the subsequent years. The vast majority who were serving at Pearl have passed away by now. They will be the first to leave us just as they were the first to experience the war.

Throughout our history, this country has been blessed with arrogant, stupid enemies.

Amen to that. Hitler was even idiotic enough to declare war on the US immediately after Pearl Harbor, thus resolving FDR's very serious problem of how to declare on Germany when it was Japan that attacked. If Hitler had remained neutral it almost certainly would have delayed our declaration against Germany and kept us from focusing most of our resources on the European theater. Instead we would have concentrated on Japan--resolving that issue sooner but at potentially horrific costs in Europe and North Africa. As it was we were able to put the majority of our resources into the European theater. A lot of vets from the Pacific resented this, but as an enemy Japan was much easier to isolate and pin down than Germany. Moreover a delay at the outset could have led to a year's delay in invading France. Assuming all had gone against Hitler on the ostfront, that would have resulted in the fall of Berlin and the capture of most of Western Europe by Stalin before we even had a boot on the ground.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Anyone wonder who this great sailor was who had the ability to be in the battle with a super high tech Brownie camera, then be on various docks, at Hickam Field, and fly around in airplanes after the battle and take pics of the damage? Oh wait, I am getting ahead of myself because the images posted here are culled. Let me start over.

Anyone else notice how the photographs from "A" Brownie camera tend to all look a bit different? How about the ones with the numbers written on them in white (#77 is printed backwards, BTW). When did the technology come in to handwrite numbers on undeveloped film inside of Brownie cameras? How about the lens sunshade on some (darkened corners) and not on the rest? Just what Brownie cameras had lens sunshades? Why is the resolution different on different images? Just how the hell do you get a superimposed watch image on a photograph shot with a Brownie camera? Moreover, why were the aerial images from the email left out. Oh yeah, it isn't likely a given sailor was going to be in the battle, there in the aftermath, and flying around as well. Why wasn't he fighting and helping with the recovery. Why wasn't he at his duty station on Quapaw after the battle? Y'all do realize that the Quapaw was a tug that would have been EXTREMELY busy right after the the event, right? With all those sailors in the water needing to be rescued, disabled ships needing to be moved etc. The Quapaw should have been on duty 24/7 and its crew not sight seeing the damage area. It wasn't like a tug would have enough spare crew to send one around sightseeing. FYI the Quapaw was commissioned in 1944!!!!!

GIMME A BREAK!!!

Of course Scrat isn't going to take credit for it. It was sent to him by a "friend" who in tern got it from another, and somewhere down the line somebody will claim to know the sailor who had the footlocker with the camera. The "friend" isn't named because he isn't a real individual person. He is many people and the photographs were NOT lost to time and not (not all anyways) taken with a loan Brownie camera.

Hell yeah they are great photographs, some of which were taken by professionals. They weren't found in a Brownie camera in a footlocker. They are archived photographs, two of which I have seen in books. Just because it is a war holiday of sorts doesn't mean everyone loses their common sense.

When you get these emails of remarkable finds or remarkable facts that are from unrealistic places with no known verifiable provenance, think twice.

Had such photos been recovered, Kodak would have been all over the press release, noting their contribution to history, the quality of their camera gear to withstand the march of time, and so on. Instead, we learn of such an amazing find via an email then posted on a forum. Sheesh.


http://www.snopes.com/photos/military/pearlharbor.asp

 

[Cosmoline]

The description isn't particularly important anyway. These aren't "fake" photos--they're real photos of the real attack.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

...and mostly of the aftermath too - no kidding. That is why they are published in books already.

The description "may not be important" as you claim, and yet people seem to have the need to remakeup a reason for the history.

Yes, Pearl Harbor was an amazingly horrible event for the US where more than 3500 people lost their lives. Why we need to make up a reason to bring up the topic is beyond me, but people seem to have this need and to perpetuate the myth of the Brownie camera...as if we need an excuse to remember Pearl Harbor.

 

[Brandon]

My Grandfather's brother was there, he has since passed. He was navy and helped pull people out and carry them inland for help.

My Grandfather's other brother served under Patton and marched all the way to germany.

My Grandad was in the navy and rode the troop carriers from ship to shore and back again during the D day invasion.

My other Grandad was in the army air force as a mechanic. He rebuilt engines and kept B 17s in the air. All his pictures are in a pratt and whitney bearing box. His stories of how the planes came back with nothing but holes, brass and blood in the floorboards are horrifying.

 

[misANTHrope]

They're amazing and sobering photos, regardless of whether they were taken by a single sailor or 35 journalists or Axis spies or whatever.

For those that haven't read it, "Day of Infamy" by Walter Lord is an absolutely outstanding account of that day. It's the kind of book that will keep you up all night reading.

 

[rdoggsilva]

My dad was on the USS California on 07-Dec 1941. His first cousin died on the USS Oklahoma, a other one died on the USS Shaw. So Pearl Harbor is very real for my family.

 

[nbkky71]

Yup... that story has been making the rounds via email for a number of years.

I lived in Pearl Harbor as a kid and I can still remember seeing the remnants of the attack back in the 70's. There were still machine gun hits on the buildings at Hickam AFB, patched bomb craters on the taxiways and bullet holes in the hangars.

We had a close friend of the family who was a Pearl Harbor survivor as well. Doug May, who passed away in 1998, lived the rest of his life in Honolulu but never set foot back on the base again.

 

[Sans Authoritas]

Remember the Maine!

-Sans Authoritas

 

[catfish101]

I am going this fall. One place I will visit.

 

[RP88]

my grandfather was a Pearl Harbor survivor, and part of the Norfolk Pearl Harbor Survivors chapter. He died when I was five, so I never got a chance to ask him about it. Doesnt matter, because he wouldnt have told me; the two things that he never talked about were how he acquired venison to feed my mom, uncle, and grandmother, and about December 7th in any way.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

Not a Pearl survivor, but my uncle was a bomber pilot in WW2. He's still alive. I believe he's 92 or 93 now, and has various health problems. He's always had a bad knee, as a reminder of the time he and his plane returned to the ground separately.

 

[sailortoo]

Double Naught Spy - in reference only to the writing on undeveloped film on a Brownie. My father's camera, which was not a Brownie, but a "Bellows" type, was able to scribe information on undeveloped film (small, narrow cover to open on the back). As he died in early January, 1941, that was well before (nearly a full year, and I do not know how long he had owned that camera) before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Just to show that the capability was there long before that time. Admittedly, not a Brownie, but not a problem. And yes, those photos are mostly VERY professional in quality, especially for that time period.
sailortoo

 

[thegoodfight]

I wonder how Obama would handle something like this...

 

[SMLE]

The story behind the pics is fake...

but the pics themselves are the real deal taken by various photogs at different locations.

The Battleship in this picture is the USS Pennsylvania BB38. I had the honor of having an member of her crew in my taxi back when I did that for a living. He was a gun crewman on one of the midships 3" AA guns. They had a problem with hang fires and miss fires. But they couldn't take the time to let them cook off, IF they were going to. So this fellow had the job of grabbing these 3" AA rounds and running them to the fantail and tossing them into the harbor.

FWIW:The two Destroyers are the USS Cassin and the USS Downs.

 

[bogie]

I grew up in a town whose National Guard unit was in the Philippines on December 7th...