Pearl Harbour

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"On the morning of December 7, 1941, aircraft and midget submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy began a surprise attack on the U.S. under the command of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.
At 6:09 a.m. on December 7, the six Japanese carriers launched a first wave of 183 planes composed mainly of dive bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters.
The Japanese hit American ships and military installations at 7:55 a.m. The first wave attacked military airfields of Ford Island.
At 8:30 a.m. a second wave of 180 Japanese planes, mostly torpedo bombers, attacked the fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor.
The battleship USS Arizona was hit with an armor piercing bomb which penetrated the forward ammunition compartment, blowing the ship apart and sinking it within seconds.
Overall, nine ships of the U.S. fleet were sunk and twenty-one ships were severely damaged.
Three of the twenty-one would be irreparable. The overall death toll reached 2,350, including 68 civilians, and 1,178 injured.
Of the military personnel lost at Pearl Harbor, 1,177 were from the Arizona."

You can't come to Hawaii and not visit Pearl Harbour, so today we visited the USS Arizona.

The final resting place for many of the ship's 1,177 crewmen who lost their lives on December 7, 1941.

The 184-foot-long Memorial structure spanning the mid-portion of the sunken battleship consists of three main sections: the entry and assembly rooms; a central area designed for ceremonies and general observation; and the shrine room, where the names of those killed on the Arizona are engraved on the marble wall.

We also paid a visit to the Hawaiian Army Museum on Waikiki Beach.

We'll let our pictures tell the story..........................

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Photos

Battleship Missouri
It was on board the deck of the Missouri (also known as the "Mighty MO") that General Douglas MacArthur and Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, along with other U.S. and allied officers, accepted the unconditional surrender of the Japanese at the end of World War II.

The marble wall,
engraved with the names of all those that lost their lives on the USS Arizona.

A moving moment..
A visit to the Arizona Memorial is a solemn and sobering experience, even for those of us who were not alive when the attack occurred. You are literally standing over a grave site where 1177 men lost their lives.

Oil still leaking...
After 67 years...

Model of USS Arizona...
The Arizona was equipped with four gun turrets each with three 14-inch guns capable of firing a 1400 pound projectile nearly 20 miles. Although she was built for naval war, she never had the opportunity to engage the enemy at sea.

IMS Akagi...
The Imperial Majesty Ship Akagi, was the flagship of Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, commander of the Japanese Hawaii Operation that struck Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

The Thunder fish...
Japanese Imperial Navy Type 91 torpedoes were normally dropped from 100 meters, diving to nearly that depth before leveling off and running to the target. The relatively shallow 40-foot depth of Pearl Harbor necessitated modifications to the torpedo design and attack strategy. Outfitted with wooden, breakaway fins, and dropped from 10 meters above the water by 40 Nakajima Type 97 attack planes, the aerial torpedo proved devastatingly effective. This torpedo was found accidentally in the early 1990's by a dredging company in the channel off Ford Island.

The Remembrance Circle,
an integral part of the visitor experience at the USS Arizona Memorial, commemorates the sacrifice of all those lost on December 7, 1941, including civilians

The bell from USS Arizona...
One of the two original ship's bells hangs in the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center lobby. The other bell resides at the University of Arizona Student Union Memorial Center and is tolled seven times each month at 12:07 pm in memory of the ship's sinking on December 7, 1941.

USS Bowfin submarine..
Bowfin is in Pearl Harbor, berthed at USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park. The park, located next to the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center, incorporates a museum, outdoor exhibits, and a waterfront memorial to the 52 U.S. submarines lost during World War II.

Hawaii Army Museum
Battery Randolp in Waikiki Beach.

A japanese tank,
outside the museum.

Battery Randolp
was built in 1911 as a key part of the "Ring of Steel" which encircled the island of O'ahu to defend against attack by sea. Its solid concrete walls could withstand a direct hit from a 2000-pound artillery shell. Its primary mission was the defense of Pearl Harbor and Honolulu from attacking battleships.

The guns.
The first test firing of Battery Randolph's guns took place in November, 1914. The Army took pains to warn Waikiki residents, but no one was fully prepared for the effects of the shock wave that rocked the neighborhood. Little actual damage was done, though dishes rattled and some windows cracked blocks away.