The Hawaiian Islands are located in the North Pacific Ocean, about 3,800 kilometers east from the west coast of the United States, about 6,000 kilometers west from Japan, and about 7,000 kilometers from the Philippines. They have a very important strategic position and are known as the "heart of the Pacific". The main island of the Hawaiian Islands is Oahu Island. Pearl Harbor is located at the lowest point between the Kolao Mountains and the Whitenai Mountains in the southern part of Oahu. It is named after the oysters with pearls. It is a natural harbor. The entire bay is shaped like chicken feet extending inland and is only connected to the Pacific Ocean through a narrow waterway that is 330 meters wide. The water area of ​​the port area is about 25 square kilometers, with an average water depth of 12 meters. The Waipio Peninsula in the harbor

The Pearl City Peninsula and Ford Island divide Pearl Harbor into four small harbors, which can be parked at the same time 500 ships of various ships at the same time. The United States began base construction in 1909 and successively built large shipyards, dry docks, docks, oil depots and other facilities. In 1919 and 1922, submarine bases and aviation bases were established. Since 1933, in order to curb Japan's expansion, the United States has further increased its construction and made it the United States' main naval base and important logistics base in the Pacific Ocean. Since May 1940, the US Pacific Fleet has been stationed in Pearl Harbor, and Pearl Harbor has become a thorn in the eyes of the Japanese army advancing south.

After the US Pacific Fleet was permanently stationed in Pearl Harbor, it began to strengthen the defense in the Hawaii region. The US Army established the Hawaii Security Command in February 1941, with Lieutenant General Walt Short as commander, unified command of the 24th and 25th Infantry Divisions, coastal artillery, Army Aviation and other troops in the Hawaii region, totaling about 10,000 people.

The commander of the Pacific Fleet is Admiral Kimmel. The ships with Pearl Harbor as their home port include more than 100 ships including 3 aircraft carriers, 9 battleships, 20 cruisers, 69 destroyers and 27 submarines.

In the early morning of December 12, the warships anchored at Pearl Harbor included 8 battleships, 8 cruisers, 29 destroyers and 5 submarines, plus other ships and auxiliary ships, a total of 94 ships.

At that time, about 30 US ships were active at sea, divided into four formations: Lieutenant General Halsey commanded the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier, 3 cruisers and 9 destroyers, departed from Pearl Harbor on November 28 to transport fighter jets to Wake Island, and was on the way back to Pearl Harbor. It was originally planned to return to Pearl Harbor on the evening of December 6, but for various reasons, when the Japanese attacked, it was still about 370 kilometers west of Oahu Island, and escaped: the USS Lexington aircraft carrier, 3 cruisers and 3 destroyers, 1

On February 5, he set out from Pearl Harbor to transport fighter jets to Midway. At this time, he was about 1,300 kilometers west of Oahu: the heavy cruiser "Indianapolis" and five minesweepers were conducting exercises near Johnston Island: the heavy cruiser "Minneapolis" and four minesweepers have finished the exercises. He is on his way back, only 46 kilometers away from Oahu. In addition, the aircraft carrier "Saratoga" and the battleship "Colorado" that belong to the Pacific Fleet are renovating on the United States.

The US military's aviation force in the Hawaii region consists of three parts, with a total of about 350 aircraft. Among them, the Army Aviation Force, which is commonly known as the Hawaiian Air Force, is commanded by Major General Ferreid Martin, and is under the jurisdiction of the 18th Bomber Wing and the 14th Destroyer Wing. With Shikem Airport and Wheeler Airport as the main bases, there are 32 B-18 bombers, 12 B-17 bombers, 12 A-20 bombers, 99 P-40 fighters, 39 P-36 fighters, and 14 P-26 fighters.

The Navy Aviation Corps mainly uses Kanuhei and Ford Island Airports as bases, with a total of 71 Pby "Katalinna" water anti-submarine patrol aircraft and 14 Os2U "Fishdog" carrier-based observation aircraft.

The Marine Corps Aviation is based on Iva Airport, with a total of 11 F4F Wildcat fighters, 24 SBD Fearless Torpedoes and 8 SB2U torpedoes.

In April 1941, the US Army and Navy in Hawaii reached an air defense agreement after consultation, with long-distance air alert being undertaken by the Navy and close-distance air defense being undertaken by the Army.

Lieutenant General Short believed that the damage to the aircraft by the Japanese and Japanese Americans in Hawaii would make the plane most likely to suffer losses, so he ordered the aircraft to be arranged densely on the taxi curve between the runway and the apron to facilitate safety and alert measures. However, once an air strike is encountered, as long as a bomb explodes, it will quickly affect all aircraft!

At 4:00 a.m. on December 12, 1942, the assault formation successfully arrived at the planned opening waters about 420 kilometers north of Pearl Harbor after a twelve-day voyage of about 6,600 kilometers. The pilots were awakened and each tied a thousand-needle belt that symbolized good fortune. They left a suicide note with hair or nails, and then had breakfast, listened to the final brief introduction in the war room, waiting for the attack order.

At 5:30, the two cruisers, Ligan and Chumo, respectively, ejected and took off a Type Zero water reconnaissance aircraft to conduct pre-war reconnaissance on Pearl Harbor.

At 6 o'clock, the first attack wave aircraft began to take off. At this time, the weather in the takeoff waters was getting worse. The wind and waves were very strong, and the aircraft carrier was swinging more than ten degrees. Takeoff would be cancelled in normal sea conditions, but now the takeoff was only delayed for twenty minutes. All the unduly duty officers and soldiers on the aircraft carrier squeezed on the flight deck, waving their hats and headscarves cheered and drove for the assault aircraft group! A total of 183 aircraft took off from 6 aircraft carriers, including 40 Type 97 torpedoes, 51 Type 99 dive bombers, 49 Type 97 horizontal bombers, and 43 Zero fighters. The torpedo aircraft each carried an 800 kilogram torpedo, and the dive bombers each carried a 250 kilogram explosion.

The bomb was broken, and each horizontal bomber carried an 800 kg delay fuse armor-piercing bomb. Fifteen minutes later, the fleet gathered over the fleet, formed a predetermined formation, and flew towards Pearl Harbor at an altitude of 3,000 meters. The air commander-in-chief and horizontal bomber leader Akagi Nagata Mizunosa, the torpedo aircraft leader was Major Shigeji Murata, the dive bomber leader was Major Kochi Takahashi, and the fighter leader was Major Shige Hiroshi Hiroya, and all aircraft were painted with three yellow identification belts on the vertical tails. During the flight, when Funata was listening to the broadcast of Honolulu for navigation, he unexpectedly received the Pearl Harbor weather forecast he urgently needed, which surprised him.

At 6:30, three US seaplanes were routinely patrolling and flying in the southern waters of Oahu. They found suspicious submarines. The pilot used a password to report to the base, which delayed the time.

At 6:37, the US Army's "Ward" escort destroyer discovered that it was following the "Big Mars" target towing ship to attempt to pass through the anti-submarine net. The officer on duty, Lieutenant William Gopner, immediately reported to the captain Captain William Otbridge, and Captain Otbridge ordered the firing at 6:40. At 6:45, the third gun "Ward" fired. The first shot failed and the second shot hit the command platform of the pocket submarine. This gun became the "first gun" in the Pacific War!

The Ward then drove at full speed to the submarine's submarine and dropped a series of deep-water bombs and sank it. This was the I-20 pocket submarine piloted by Japanese Lieutenant Hiroo and Sgt. Katayama Yoshio. The Ward reported to the Division Command after sinking the pocket submarine. At 6:53, the Ward issued a report for the second time. The officer on duty at the Division Command, Lieutenant Colonel Kaminsky, was careless and asked for verification. It was not until 7:40 that the Division Commander Major General Claude Brock received the report. He felt the situation was serious and ordered the additional destroyer Monaghan to support it. It was only ten minutes before the air strike began, which was too late.

At 7:02, a mobile radar station located on the Cape Kahku in the northern end of Oahu was found to be flying towards Pearl Harbor, about 160 kilometers away. Radar soldiers Joseph Locked and George Ellitt immediately reported to the intelligence center, but the officer on duty Lieutenant Kmitt Taylor believed that it was a plane flying from California, so he comforted the radar soldiers not to be nervous, so the two radar soldiers watched the Japanese planes fly closer and closer until the Japanese planes arrived at the air at 7:39.

At 7:35, a group of Japanese aircraft flew to Oahu Island. The panoramic view of Pearl Harbor was clearly visible, and the unique cage and three-legged masts of the US battleship were clearly visible.

At 7:40, the Japanese aircraft launched into an attack formation. In order to achieve the greatest success, the Japanese army formulated two attack plans. One was a surprise attack plan. When the US military was not on guard, it was first attacked by a torpedo plane and then attacked by a bomber. The other was a strong attack plan. When the US military was already prepared, it was first attacked by a bomber, suppressed and attracted air defense firepower, and then attacked by a torpedo plane. No matter which plan was used, it was necessary to seize the advantageous height to seize air supremacy. What kind of plan was adopted

It was decided by the air commander on the plane. It was stipulated that one signal flare was a surprise attack and the second signal flare was a strong attack. Seeing that the US military was unaware, Wanda decided to adopt a surprise attack plan. He fired a signal flare. Because the fighter was covered by clouds and did not see the signal, Wanda fired another signal flare at the fighter. This time the fighter saw it, and immediately climbed up to seize the favorable height, but it mistakenly made the long aircraft of the dive bomber think it was a second signal flare. He adopted a strong attack plan and accelerated to fly to the airport.

At 7:49, Yuantian ordered all attacks! The backseat correspondent immediately sent an attack order: 公! 公! 公!

At 7:53, Wanda saw that the US military was unprepared and knew that the attack would be successful. Before the battle could begin, he was impatient to send the victory code: Tora! Tora! Tora! Tora! means "Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!" Surprisingly, the radio waves emitted by the on-board radio station of the Type 97 aircraft, which was not very powerful, traveled across the Pacific Ocean and was received by the "Yamato" battleship thousands of miles away.

At 7:55, the dive bomber first dived and dropped bombs from a height of 4,000 meters toward Hikem Airport, Wheeler Airport, and Ford Island Airport. For a moment, shrapnel flew across the airport, and fires soared into the sky, and thick smoke rose. The torpedo plane had just flew to the shipyard at this time and saw the thick smoke coming from the airport. The leader, Grandma Murata, was shocked. He thought that the surprise attack plan should be the torpedo plane to attack first. Why did the bomber start first? In order not to be blocked by the smoke, he immediately led the torpedo fleet to accelerate the shortcut along the western valley and launched an attack at 7:57. The 40 torpedo planes were divided into two batches, one batch of 16 attacked warships anchored on the west side of Ford Island, and the other batch of 24 focused on the battleships on the east side of Ford Island.

At 7:58, Major General William Fron, commander of the US Mining Fleet, first saw a plane dropping bombs. At first, he thought it was an accident in which the pilot accidentally touched the bomb button. After a closer look, the bright red sunrise aircraft badge on the plane was in sight. So he realized that it was a Japanese air strike and immediately ordered warships in the port to leave to avoid it. Almost at the same time, Lieutenant Colonel Logan Remse rushed into the Ford Island Command, ordered the control Tara to sound the air strike alarm, and announced in spoken radio: "Pearl Harbor was air strike! This is not an exercise!" Then, General Kimmel, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, ordered that all the troops of the Pacific Fleet be notified by radio.

At the same time, the sporadic counterattack of the US military also began, and some anti-aircraft artillery on the US ships opened fire. Only 4 of the 33 anti-aircraft artillery companies on the island opened fire, and most of the anti-aircraft artillery shells were still in the ammunition depot, so there was no time to put them into combat. The US military in Pearl Harbor had almost no organized resistance.

At 8:05, Yuantian led horizontal bombers to enter the bombing route from the south through the west side of Oahu Island. Five aircraft were formed into a column formation with a single aircraft spacing of 200 meters, and at a height of 3,000 meters, bombing the battleships on the east side of Ford Island and the Iva Airport where the anti-aircraft fire is relatively concentrated.

When the fighter jets that served as cover did not take off the US plane, they divided into 6 formations to strafuse the six airports. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian to vote for recommendations, monthly tickets, and your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile phone users please read it.)
Chapter completed!