Sunday in hell, p.72
Sunday in Hell, page 72
Lieutenant Frank A. Erickson, US Coast Guard, was in the landplane control tower when the six Enterprise planes were fired upon, as was Lieutenant Commander Young, commander of the Enterprise Air Group, who assumed control to bring the planes in. Two flood light trucks with lights on were stationed at the southwest end of the runway and green lights were placed at the northwest end to mark the corner of the runway. Erickson reported the following traffic passed between the tower and the planes:
TOWER: Turn on your running lights, make the approach from Barbers Point. Come in as low as possible.
PLANE: (Believed to be Blue 18, the lead aircraft): Am making one pass at the field.
TOWER: Do not make a pass at field. Turn on running lights and come in as low as possible.
BLUE 18: (To planes in formation): Close in, I am going to make one pass at the field. (The planes were then approximately over the dry dock channel).
TOWER: Do not make pass at field, come straight in. (At this time firing started apparently from surface vessels).
ONE OF THE PLANES: What the hell is wrong down there?
TOWER: Turn off your lights and beat it. (One plane got on the field during the firing). Later instructions were again given to approach low from Barbers Point with running lights on and come straight in. Only one other plane from this group managed to get in.
No one knows which gun or ship fired the first rounds, but when the firing began, it was deadly. For the time, 2101 hours, the Maryland’s Navigator, Lieutenant Commander Hugh W. Hadley, logged “Aircraft with running lights approached ship in bombing position and not in landing position for Ford Island. All ships opened fire…” At 2108, he recorded, “Commander Patrol Wing TWO ordered ‘Cease fire.’” Two minutes later, CincPac and Patrol Wing TWO ordered “Disregard cease fire.” The countermanded order introduced confusion into an already volatile circumstance. Astern of Maryland, Tennessee’s navigator, Lieutenant Commander Jasper T. Acuff recorded, “At 2104 commenced firing on planes crossing over ship. 2109 ceased firing…”45
When the six Enterprise aircraft approached Ford Island, the 251st Coast Artillery’s Battery G was in position at the submarine base, with Battery H on Ford Island. At 2003 hours seventy-five Marines armed with ten .30-caliber and eight .50-caliber machine guns reinforced Battery H. At 2054 came the moonrise, beginning to add more light - and shadows - to the night. According to the 251st War Diary, at 2115 both batteries, and undoubtedly the reinforcing Marines, opened fire.46
At 2049 the 25th Infantry Division, now deployed in its planned defensive sectors sent a FLASH message to all division units. “Unidentified plane flying low toward Pearl Harbor. Received from Wailupe.” Someone had reported sighting the inbound F4Fs. At 2103, with VF-6 aircraft passing near Hickam, another FLASH: “Enemy attacking Hickam Field.” At 2106: “Enemy planes attacking Pearl Harbor.” Then at 2112, another message to the Division: “No instructions regarding friendly planes rocking wings as means of identification. 5th Column tactics [sabotage tactics] suspected.” At 2116 another FLASH message: “Enemy planes flying toward Schofield toward Newark. (and how!)” Then, finally, at 2128, FLASH: “To all stations; those are our planes trying to land - pass along to all sectors - this report from Navy.”47
The message was too late. Jack Leaming, the Radioman-Gunner from Enterprise’s
VS-6 and had been on the nine-plane search for the Japanese strike force that afternoon, was on Ford Island for the night, in the unit’s hangar, and had just been assigned a cot next to an ensign when the night exploded into furious gunfire. He grabbed his flight gear and ran for 6-S-7, his airplane. He recalled, “Outside every available machine gun and AA battery around was firing at some incoming planes. I arrived outside in time to see a plane crash and explode north of Ford Island. Then, another trying to land was fired [caught on fire] over the dry dock area and the pilot bailed out.” The explosion north of Ford Island was Ensign Herbert H. Menges’ F4F slamming into a house in Pearl City, then into a nearby gully. The plane he saw “fired over the drydock area” was Ensign Eric Allen’s.
Reported in numerous ship’s deck logs, seen and heard from almost every area south of Oahu’s mountain ranges, and from Honolulu to the southern and southwestern shores of the island, perhaps if nothing else, the fierce reaction demonstrated that the enemy - if they chose to strike again - would probably have paid dearly - even though they wouldn’t be attacking with aircraft running lights blinking.
Four of the six airplanes from Fighting Squadron Six were shot down within five to eight minutes, resulting in the deaths of three pilots, and the injury of a fourth. A fifth pilot attempted to land at Ewa, but his engine quit, probably due to fuel starvation or engine damage, and he parachuted to safety. With running lights on, the flight had apparently taken spacing in two sections, with the lead aircraft pulling ahead to make the low pass during the descending approach to Ford Island - to give each section adequate spacing and lateral separation on landing roll out on the wide runway. Unfortunately, taking spacing for landing, with two sections of aircraft on a slow, final approach, had just the opposite effect in terms of safety. The still-angry, hair-trigger, hornets’ nest of gunners observing their approach, guns armed and ready, could concentrate fire on each section, and on each airplane one at a time when the formation scattered. But that wasn’t all. The storm of antiaircraft fire had other sad consequences.
Ironically, on board the USS Argonne, moored bow-toward-the-northeast across the main channel from Ford Island, there were two other casualties. At 2116, Seaman Second Class Pallas F. Brown who that morning narrowly escaped with his life from the capsizing Utah, was killed by a .50-caliber machine gun bullet fired from somewhere to the west. The stray round passed through the port side of Argonne at frame 70, struck another Utah survivor, Seaman First Class W.A. Price, in the left arm before mortally wounding Pallas Brown.48
The flight’s former second in command that night, wrote of his experiences years later when he was Captain Jim Daniels, United States Navy, retired, in Kailua, Hawaii:
I was to be second-in-command of a flight of six F4F-4 fighters from the USS Enterprise that were to escort 19 torpedo planes and six scout planes on our way to find the Japanese Fleet, which a report said had been located.
Unfortunately, the report was erroneous, as we later found out. However, we were launched and went out some 200 miles.
It was dark when we returned to the ship and my flight leader talked to the
Enterprise, and asked permission to land. The ship said “…go into Pearl Harbor,” and gave us coded direction.
We turned on the heading toward Pearl. Everything was blacked out except
burning ships, which we thought were burning cane fields. It was 8:30 Sunday night.
As we passed Diamond Head we turned toward Ford Island in a loose formation
and were given permission to land. Most of our gauges had been indicating we were running out of fuel for the last 20 minutes.
When we broke formation in preparation for landing, everything in Pearl Harbor
opened up on us with their antiaircraft batteries. The sky was ablaze with gun tracers……I called the Ford Island tower and told them I was coming in. I put my wheels down and headed right back over the harbor about 50 feet over the water.
I roared right past the foretop of the Nevada. They turned all their guns on me but
nothing connected.
Moments later I touched the runway. I overshot, [and landed long]. There were
two crash trucks in front of me at the end of the runway. I slammed on the brakes and spun around in a full circle on the green of the golf course just beyond the field.I taxied back up the field. A Marine gunner sprayed the plane with bullets. He just missed my head.
Of the six planes and pilots I was the only one to land intact: three others were killed.
After this frightening experience, I went to the BOQ to find a bed. I could see and hear the Arizona still burning. I wanted to call my wife who was staying east of Pearl City but assumed with all the damage around that there would be no telephone service. I picked up the phone anyway, and to my surprise got a dial tone. To my complete surprise I dialed my number and got through to my wife.
I was the luckiest man in the Navy on Dec. 7, 1941.49
Wheeler Field personnel, armed and waiting for the feared invasion, witnessed the spectacular display of firepower from Pearl Harbor and Hickam triggered by the approach of F4Fs from Enterprise. Thousands of tracer bullets and rounds of antiaircraft fire crisscrossed the sky, which to witnesses, appeared to light up like an orange sheet of flame.
The F4Fs came toward Ford Island on a long final approach, heading approximately 020 degrees. Men manning gun positions along the beach to the south and southwest of Hickam Field, and on Hickam, undoubtedly heard and sighted the inbound aircraft and may have opened fire first. Lieutenant (jg) Francis F. Hebel, the squadron commander, was leading the flight, flying Bureau Number 3906, attempting to land at Ford Island, when his plane was hit by friendly ground fire.
Lieutenant Hebel turned left approximately forty-five degrees, toward Wheeler Field, adjacent to Schofield Barracks, apparently hoping to land there. He flew along the Schofield perimeter, and two .50-caliber machine guns positioned north of the highway began chattering away. He appeared to be attempting a forced landing in a pineapple field, when his plane began to slowly roll over before it nosed down, skidded, cart-wheeled and broke in two.
Shortly afterward a second aircraft flying roughly the same route crashed further up the gully from the first. Ensign Herb Menges’ aircraft, Bureau Number 3935, had been hit by friendly ground fire while attempting to land at Ford Island. Like his flight leader, he turned left apparently hoping to land at Wheeler Field. He was killed in Pearl City when his plane crashed into a house and came to rest in the gully almost on its back, its canopy smashed, the pilot hanging suspended through the opening.
Wheeler field men saw the airplanes crash, uncertain if they had brought them down, and were the first to arrive at both crash sites. The first aircraft they reached was in the gully. They stopped abruptly upon seeing the insignia on the fuselage, which identified the plane as U.S. Navy. Several men eased the pilot from the aircraft and laid him down.
Others raced on toward the airplane in the pineapple field, which they quickly realized was U.S. Navy also. They carried both pilots to the highway, and waited for the ambulance called to take them to the Schofield Hospital. Both pilots were believed to be dead on arrival at the hospital, but one wasn’t. Lieutenant Hebel was apparently one of the last two patients operated on by Dr. Leonard Heaton in the surgeon’s Schofield Barracks Hospital operating room late that night. Dr. Heaton remarked in his diary for 7 December, “Got very little sleep that night. We had two bad cases in - one a…flyer shot down over Schofield by our own guns - he died shortly after leaving the table…”50
One of the two .50-caliber gunners was certain he had shot down at least one of the planes. He had been depressed all day after seeing some close friends killed in the barracks during the attack that morning. All day long he wanted to kill Japanese so badly that when the chance came he took advantage of it. When he learned that the plane he believed he had shot down was American, he fell apart.51
Ensign David Flynn, was flying Bureau Number 3909 attempting to land at Ford Island when his plane was hit by friendly ground fire. He turned left toward the southwest and the Mooring Mast Field at Ewa, intending to land there. His engine quit four miles from the field, and he successfully parachuted to safety. He was found ten days later in Tripler Army Hospital, with a broken leg.
Ensign Gayle Hermann, flying Bureau Number 3982, dead-sticked his airplane [landed his plane with a dead engine] onto the Ford Island golf course, just beyond the far end of the runway, after the aircraft took a 5-inch shell through the engine. Fortunately, the shell didn’t explode on contact, but passed through the engine - or he would probably have been killed. The airplane was badly damaged but he “walked away from it” uninjured.
Ensign Eric Allen was flying Bureau Number 3938, attempting to land at Ford Island, when his plane was hit and soon caught fire. He turned right, apparently crossing over the damaged and sunk battleships on the east side of the island, and was above the main channel when the aircraft exploded and he bailed out. He was hit by a .50-caliber machine gun bullet. The harbor auxiliary, Vireo (AM-52), was alongside the California doing salvage work when Ensign Allen fell astern the Vireo, whose crew picked him up and identified him as an Enterprise aviator. The ship immediately sent a message to assure harbor control that the planes in the air were Enterprise planes. Ensign Allen was transferred to the California, and then to the Naval Hospital, where he died.52
Later that evening, Jack Leaming came across a small group of women, and two or three of them were crying. He learned they were the widows of the three pilots who had been killed.53
Two More Small Victories: Another Midget Submarine and The First Prisoner of War
On board the Maryland and other ships in the harbor, at 0035 hours the morning of 8 December information was received that friendly patrol planes would take off in the Pearl Harbor Channel between 0100 and 0200 and that Army and Navy aircraft would take off one hour before dawn. “Army designated 0600 as friendly dawn.” In spite of the messages traffic, heightened tension and hair triggers kept guns banging away at reported “enemy aircraft” repeatedly until finally, at 0558, the commander of Patrol Squadron 14 messaged, “All U.S. Planes in air.”54
At 6:00 a.m., 8 December - 4:00 a.m. in Hawaii - the Southern Pacific train carrying the Philippines-bound 161st Regiment from Ft. Lewis, Washington, pulled into San Francisco. The four soldiers who in September 1944 began writing the regimental history, recalled,
…Up and down the line of cars, heads stuck out of windows, necks craned to see the sights, to wave back at beautiful girls in housecoats and pajamas. With our necks still craned, we rolled under the Oakland Bay Bridge with its big pylons and towering steel gray supports. It wasn’t long before our gripes made us wish we’d never heard of San Francisco.
…Heavy weapons companies and Service Company had already arrived in San Francisco and were quartered on Angel Island. We waited on board the train as the nation listened to President Roosevelt’s speech…55
He began his address at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time, 9:30 a.m. in San Francisco, 7:30 in Hawaii. All over the United States, Hawaii, and many other parts of the world people gathered around radios and listened.
He began speaking at 12:30 p.m. Washington time, and his speech lasted eight minutes. It took Congress thirty-three minutes to act on his request for a declaration of war on Japan. The Senate voted 88 to 0, the House 388 to 1. Representative Jeannette Rankin from Montana, was the lone dissenting vote, and earned the distinction of being the only member of Congress to vote against entry into both world wars.56 The president's speech was measured, yet powerful:
Mr. Vice President, and Mr. Speaker, and Members of the Senate and House of
Representatives: Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
The United States was at peace with that Nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its Government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American Island of Oahu, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack.
It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time the Japanese Government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.
The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.
Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya. Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong. Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam. Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands. Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island. And this morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island.Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our Nation.
As Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense.
But always will our whole Nation remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.
Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger. With confidence in our armed forces- with the unbounding determination of our people- we will gain the inevitable triumph- so help us God.
