December 1941

by Craig Shirley

  The British scored some heavy air wins over Libya, due to the new American plane, the Tomahawk fighter, obtained under Lend-Lease.41 Also under Lend-Lease—and because of the wheat surplus in America—a large shipment was headed for Russia that Moscow had purchased using American credit.42

  But the relentless German counteroffensive on Moscow was scoring results, in spite of the claims from the Soviet-controlled state media. “Moscow appeared tonight to be in her direst peril . . . the Russian capital had become the target for 1,500,000 advancing troops, 8,000 tanks and 1,000 guns.”43 The Nazi panzer groups were a mere forty miles from the Soviet capital; the huddled residents of the besieged city could hear the Germans’ heavy guns in the near distance. For the Russians, all appeared lost—until temperatures plummeted and the historical military asset that some refer to as “General Winter” emerged from his slumber. The “iron willpower” of the German Supermen, ill-protected in lightweight uniforms, was about to face the supreme test.

  The day before, navy secretary Frank Knox released a report he’d prepared for FDR that stated America’s fleet was “superior to any” in the world and that it had recently been “placed on a war footing with full personnel manning the ships of three fleets,” including the Pacific fleet in Hawaii. “I am proud to report that the American people may feel fully confident in their Navy.” It is, he said, “without superior. On any comparable basis, the United States Navy is second to none.” Knox concluded, “In the Pacific, the strategic importance . . . with development of the islands guarding the approach to the Navy’s defense in the Hawaiian area with the resultant safety of the Pacific Coast, are obvious.”44

  It was good PR, but there were problems, particularly with enlistments. Because of the ongoing recruiting difficulties of the navy, it was announced that physical standards would be reduced and young men heretofore disqualified for “varicocele, hydrocele, hernia, nasal deformity, seasonal hay fever not accompanied by asthma, and undernourishment,” would now be admitted. The navy had already lowered the standards for bad teeth.45 A December 2 memo from Knox spelled out the problem. In one month, the net gain for navy personnel from October to November of 1941 had gone up by only 6,921 men, from 280,184 to 287,105. His report to FDR was signed, “Very Respectfully.”46

  Badly needed by the navy were men with radio experience, and a public plea was issued. “Men experienced either as amateurs or professionals in operation and maintenance of radio equipment are urgently needed by the navy and will be given ratings upon enlistment as radiomen, second class.” The navy had an immediate opening for one thousand enlistees, as long as they were high school graduates or “actively engaged in radio repair or service work . . .”47

  The army, too, was having difficulty meeting its announced goal of 2 million men in uniform and a “new class of 21-year-old youths will be called up for possible military service at least by July 1 of next year.” The army was experiencing a “shortage of man-power . . . many local [draft] boards throughout the country are rapidly drawing to the end of their lists of potential Class 1-A registrants.” Class II-A and Class II-B men might be reclassified as 1-A. In Washington, over four thousand healthy young men were classified as II-A or II-B.48

  Captain Dickinson S. Pepper of Walter Reed Hospital berated young doctors who, while in medical school, received deferments and were then “shirking” their duty. “I cannot believe that the medical student of today appreciates the crisis that confronts our Nation,” he said.49

  The nation’s women were not shirking. In full-page ads, Revlon Nail Enamel and the Beauty Salons of America featured actress Joan Crawford doing her bit for the war effort. “Morale is a woman’s business. The way you look affects so many people around you. . . . To them, a woman’s beauty stands for courage, serenity, a gallant heart . . . all the things that men need so desperately these days. So the time spent in your favorite beauty salon every week isn’t selfish or frivolous. It’s part of your job of morale.”50

  At 3:42 a.m., the Condor, on patrol outside the entrance to Pearl Harbor, spotted an unidentified and unauthorized midget submarine. Later that morning at 6:45 a.m. the Ward fired on and hit yet another mysterious midget submarine. The young captain with the perfectly nautical name of William Outerbridge ordered his number three deck gun to fire on the unknown submarine. Outerbridge reported, “We have attacked, fired upon, and dropped depth charges on sub operating in our defensive zone.”51 A report was made to naval authorities at Pearl, but no action was taken.

  Scout planes from the Enterprise, some two hundred miles out and heading back to Pearl after making her delivery, spotted Japanese bombers and escort planes over the Pacific at 6:15 a.m., heading southeast. Radio confusion between a scout plane and the “Big E” prevented it from taking any action.52 Adm. Bill Halsey and his aircraft carrier had been due back at Pearl Harbor the morning of December 7, but a storm had waylaid them, and they would now not arrive until the afternoon.

  At St. Agnes Episcopal Church in Washington, sitting in a pew alone and deep in prayer was Viscount Halifax, the British ambassador to the United States. As “Father DuBois reached that part of the service where he prayed ‘for guidance for all Christian rulers,’ Viscount Halifax was visibly and deeply moved.”53

  In the predawn of December 7, the first wave of planes from six aircraft carriers had become airborne and headed for the island of Oahu. Their code several days before if diplomacy failed was “Climb Mt. Niitaka.”

  At Opana Point Radar Station, set on the highest point on the island of Oahu, two young army privates, Joseph L. Lockard and George Elliot, noticed what looked to be a huge grouping of planes headed for the island. A call was placed around 7:00 a.m. to Lt. Kermit Tyler, who was the morning duty officer, informing him of “many planes.” Tyler, thinking the two were seeing a squadron of American B-17s due in that morning, told them to forget about it. They turned off the radar and went to breakfast. An earlier radar “blip” had also been ignored.54

  A private pilot was up for a quiet and leisurely flight over Honolulu early that morning. Ray Buduick, a lawyer, expected to have the airspace all to himself and his seventeen-year-old son, Martin.55 Shortly after takeoff, he realized that his expectations were wrong. All of a sudden, the skies over the island were filled with hundreds of airplanes. “A private plane owner reported he was given a salute of machine-gun bullets by the Japanese planes. His craft was damaged but he managed to land.”56

  A female flight instructor, Cornelia Fort, in her early 20s, was also aloft, giving a lesson, when she was overwhelmed with hundreds of planes bearing a red flaming ball.

  A squadron of Japanese fighter planes, being faster than the bombers, arrived at Oahu at 7:30 and orbited the island for twenty-five minutes while they waited for the slower planes to catch up.57

  On a beach in Santa Monica, a group of sun worshipers was out early playing volleyball when one of them heard something over the radio and tried to catch the attention of the others who were disinterested at the moment in anything other than the outcome of their morning match.58

  The first wave of 183 planes, including dive bombers and torpedo planes on approach to Oahu, continued unmolested and basically undetected. They’d been transported in secret since November 26, at 0900, having departed their home waters of Tankan Bay. The six carriers, Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku, and Zuikaku could deploy hundreds of war planes. They were under the orders of the fleet commander, Isoroku Yamamoto, and the command of Chuichi Nagumo. The massive fleet halted in mid-ocean to refuel on December 3. The standing order was radio silence and, if not recalled by Tokyo, to attack.

  As they flew over the island, on their approach from the north, over the sugarcane and pineapple fields, they saw no puffs of antiaircraft black smoke in the sky, no airplanes rising to meet their challenge. Realizing they had succeeded in their audacious sneak attack on the American fleet, the code indicating their achievement was transmitted: “Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!”59

  “Tora!
Tora! Tora!”

  Along the Waikiki beach, some early morning fishermen were out. “Downtown nothing stirred save an occasional bus.” Then came the Japanese planes. “They whined over Waikiki, over the candy pink bulk of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.”60

  A commercial liner just making port from San Francisco slipped into the harbor at Honolulu. Thinking themselves lucky to be witnessing naval war games, what with the planes diving overhead and all the puffs of black and white smoke, “[s]cores of delighted passengers crowding the deck remarked that it was mighty fine of the United States Navy, timing it so nicely with [their] arrival.”61

  Initial reports out of Hawaii were light. The first bulletin went out over the local airwaves, garbled, not from a military source or official government spokesman, but from a broadcast personality, Webley Edwards, who hosted the popular radio show Hawaii Calls on CBS, which was heard all over the mainland.62

  “Attention. This is no exercise. The Japanese are attacking Pearl Harbor. All Army, Navy and Marine personnel are to report to duty.”63 Shortly thereafter, a government-ordered blackout was secured on Hawaii, but long-distance phone calls, telegrams, or messages from ham radio operators continued.64 The phone lines eventually became jammed as the navy was frantically using them.

  But this didn’t stop anybody from hearing about the attack all across the mainland. It went out over the airwaves, repeatedly, with regular programming interrupted, on every radio station in America. News spread by word of mouth, from neighbor to neighbor, parents to kids. The words Pearl Harbor were questioningly and angrily on everybody’s lips. In the living rooms of America, people huddled around Philco or General Electric radios, listening to war news that for the first time directly involved the American people. On the sidewalks, people huddled around car radios, listening to the flash bulletins.65

  The headlines of the morning newspapers of December 7, 1941, contained no news about the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor as they had gone to bed hours before the attack. Plus, there was a five-and-a-half-hour difference between the East Coast and Hawaii. But by that afternoon, hurriedly rushed “Extra!” editions of newspapers were printed in large-point type by the droves, nationwide.

  At the meaningless football game at Griffith Stadium in Washington between the Redskins and the Philadelphia Eagles, twenty-seven thousand attendees—including many military personnel and journalists—“were the last to know anything about the world-stirring events.”66 Throughout the game there was no announcement whatsoever through the loudspeakers, although radio broadcasters in the booths continually were breaking into their accounts of the game with war bulletins. Listening on the radio, fans heard, “Japs bombed Pearl Harbor—Japs make direct hit, killing hundreds.” People in the bleachers heard none of this. The famed sports reporter Shirley Povich of the Washington Post recalled that a colleague had received a private message from his newspaper. “The Japanese have kicked off. War now!”67

  In the interval after the first half, it became evident to the football fans that something extraordinary was in progress. Throughout the intermission and the second half there were constant calls over the public address system for various newspapermen, believed to be at the game, to get in touch with their offices immediately and for high-ranking army and navy officers to call their departments. “Important persons were being paged, too many important persons to make it a coincidence.” In the first half, the chief of the Bureau of Ordnance with the navy was paged. So, too, was a high official with the Philippine government. Of the flock of cameramen there to cover the game, by the second half only one lone photographer stood vigil, the others sent to the Japanese embassy and others now to more interesting and important locations.68

  As the rumor of war spread, the seats emptied. One enterprising wife sent her husband, who was attending the game, a telegram. “Deliver to Section P, Top Row, Seat 27, opposite 25-yard line, East side, Griffith Stadium: War with Japan Get to office.” The Redskins ownership later said using the PA to announce the war news was against its management’s policy.69

  It was reported initially that the Japanese had struck at 7:35 Hawaiian time, 1:05 (EST).70 According to A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the time was 7:55 a.m., local time.71 Because Hawaii had gone into a news broadcasting blackout, it is likely that there were many in the scattered Hawaiian Islands who did not know about the attack until nearly everybody in the world knew about it.

  In all, some 353 Japanese fighters and bombers descended on Oahu, more than 3,500 miles from their homeland.72 “An NBC broadcast said Japanese planes—estimated as high as 150 in the opening assault—struck at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor.”73 Initial reports said the planes appeared over the harbor out of the south coming over Diamond Head. Civilian locations were also bombed and strafed. One of the first to die in the attack may have been a ten-year-old Portuguese girl.74

  A reporter for the International News Service, Richard Haller, filed this report:

  Japanese warplanes brought sudden death and undisclosed destruction to the beautiful Hawaiian Islands in their sudden raid this morning. A flotilla of planes bearing the Rising Sun of Japan on their wingtips appeared out of the south while most of the city was sleeping. The planes dove immediately to the attack on Pearl Harbor and Hickam field, the giant air base lying nearby. . . . Three battleships were struck as they lay at anchor in the naval base. One . . . was reportedly set afire. Another . . . we hear has been sunk along with another warship. There was no confirmation of the sinkings by officers of the Fourteenth naval district. . . . I wasn’t able to confirm reports that Japanese paratroopers had landed. But the report spread through Honolulu like wild fire. There were rumors that a number of prisoners were taken. From the rooftop of The Honolulu Advertiser building I saw a thick pall of smoke rising from the Pearl Harbor and Hickam field areas. Three separate fires were raging there. A staggering series of explosions came shortly after 10 o’clock when the attack was already two hours old. Army authorities later reported that a direct torpedo bomb hit had been made on the Hickam field barracks. The army said it was feared that 350 men had been killed. A few minutes later the Japanese planes, flying at an immense altitude returned over Honolulu. . . . Waikiki, the world famous resort beach, was also subjected to sudden attack as the raiders tried to silence the big guns of Fort DeRussy, guarding the entrance to Honolulu Harbor. . . . The raiders fantailed over the residential districts and dropped what appeared to be incendiary bombs over Pacific Heights and Dowsett highlands. Some fires were ignited.75

  Associated Press reporters in New York could clearly hear over the phone the bombing in the background, as an unidentified local NBC reporter standing on the roof of a building, microphone in hand, “radioed direct from the scene.” He noted that although two local broadcast stations had reported on the raid, local citizens did not heed the warning to take cover until the sound of bombs was heard.76 Some did not go home but instead to the hills over the harbor, to get a good look at the ensuing battle.77

  The reporter from the local NBC affiliate then said, “We have witnessed this morning the attack of Pearl Harbor and a severe bombing of Pearl Harbor by army planes, undoubtedly Japanese. The city of Honolulu has also been attacked and considerable damage done. This battle has been going on for nearly three hours. One of the bombs dropped within fifty feet of the KGU tower. . . . It is no joke; it is a real war,” he said, before his connection died.78

  A few minutes later he began broadcasting again. “We have no statement as to how much damage has been done, but it has been a very severe attack. The army and navy, it appears, now have the air and sea under control.” Then his line went dead, this time for good.79 John Daly of CBS also broadcast early reports from the scene for a time.80

  Right in the middle of the attack, a squadron of B-17s making a refueling stop on their way to the Philippines from San Francisco arrived as Japanese war planes buzzed around them. The squadron was commanded by Major Truman Landon, who remarked, “Hell of a way t
o fly into a war! Unarmed and out of fuel!”81 Radio station KGU in Hawaii had kept broadcasting all night so the B-17s could use their radio locators.

  The Japanese planes did likewise.

  FDR and the War Department were hampered by misinformation coming out of the Pacific. Nearly all initial reports were sketchy, incomplete, and often woefully false. One news report said that the Oklahoma and the West Virginia battleships were engaged in sea action against the Japanese.82 Another said Japanese planes had glided in over Pearl Harbor so as to escape detection.83

  Wild speculation was one thing; the lack of full information and detail was another. One of the first “Extra” editions out was the Maryville Daily Forum based in Missouri. Over the top one-third of the broadsheet read in huge, old Western-style wanted-poster type face, “Japs Attack Manila84 with the subheads “Reports Stagger London”85 and “Far East Crisis Explodes!”86 Another said, “Little information is immediately available regarding the strength of the Japanese air attacks.”87

  An Associated Press wire story with the dateline of Honolulu carried the headline “Two Japanese Bombers Appear over Honolulu; Unverified Report Says a Foreign Warship Appears Off Pearl Harbor.” The excited reporter filed his story via the transpacific telephone cable as the battle was actually taking place. The story noted that no bombs had apparently been dropped on Honolulu and that civilians were being taken off the streets by military personnel. The initial report noted there were no casualties yet known.88

  Within minutes, the AP story made its way around the world, with reactions from Berlin, New York, and Washington. America’s great and loyal ally, Russia, was quiet on the attack. The Third Reich had no comment initially, and the story out of the nation’s capital announced that President Roosevelt had called for an “extraordinary meeting of the cabinet for 8:30 p.m. tonight and to have congressional leaders of both parties join the conference at 9 p.m.”89