28 November 2021

"Battleship Row" after Pearl Harbor Attack

Image size: 2048 x 1645 pixel. 720 KB
Date: Sunday, 7 December 1941
Place: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, United States of America
Photographer: Unknown

"Battleship Row" on December 7, 1941, after the Japanese attack. USS Arizona (BB-39) is in the center of this view, burning furiously. To the left of her are USS Tennessee (BB-43) and the sunken USS West Virginia (BB-48). Men on the stern of USS Tennessee are playing fire hoses on the water to force burning oil away from their ship. She was hit by two bombs, which damaged two of her four gun turrets, and was scorched by burning oil from the sunken USS Arizona. In late December, after temporary repairs, Tennessee steamed to the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Washington, for an overhaul. West Viriginia was hit by two bombs and at least seven torpedoes, which blew huge holes in her port side. Skillful damage control saved her from capsizing, but she quickly sank to the harbor bottom. More than a hundred of her crew were lost. Salvaged and given temporary repairs at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, in April 1943 West Virginia steamed to the West Coast for final repair and modernization at the Puget Sound Navy Yard. The battleship emerged from the shipyard in July 1944 completely changed in appearance, with a wider hull, and massively improved anti-aircraft gun battery. Both battleships served as gunnery platforms for invasions throughout the war. Arizona's wreck was never raised and remains as a memorial to this day.



Source :
https://worldwar2database.com/gallery/wwii1367

14 November 2021

Radiogram "Air Raid, Pearl Harbor, This Is Not Drill"


Image size: 2048 x 1649 pixel. 529 KB
Date: Sunday, 7 December 1941
Place: Squantum Point, Massachusetts, United States of America
Photographer: Unknown

Radiogram sent to Squantum Naval Air Station at Squantum Point, Quincy Massachusetts. The telegram is usually credited to Rear Admiral Patrick N. L. Bellinger (October 8, 1885 – May 30, 1962) Commanding Officer of Patrol Wing Two. However, the message may have been sent in his name by Lieutenant Commander Logan "Beauty" C. Ramsey Sr. In 1945, Ramsey reported to the Joint Congressional Committee on the investigation of the Pearl Harbor: "I saw, together with the staff duty officer, a single plane making a dive on Ford Island. The single plane appeared at the time to both the staff duty officer and myself in the light of a young aviator 'flathatting' (flying low in a reckless manner) and we both tried to get his number to make a report of the violation of flight rules. He completed his dive, pulled up and away. We were commenting together on the fact that it was going to be difficult to find out who the pilot was, when the delayed action bomb which he had dropped, and which we had not seen drop, detonated, and I told the staff duty officer, "Never mind; it's a Jap." I dashed across the hall into the radio room, ordered a broadcast in plain English on all frequencies, "Air Raid, Pearl Harbor. This is no drill." The detonation of the bomb dropped by that first plane was my first positive knowledge of an enemy attack." Additional reports came in from the Navy Yard and Kaneohe; some reports were discounted until the Japanese planes overhead and the smoke from the burning ships were visible for miles. Some variations of the telegram use "NOT" instead of "NO" indicating they may have been received from another source, or their was a morse code error.



Source :
National Archives and Records Ad 06339 (Other Identifier)
https://worldwar2database.com/gallery/wwii1408