Japanese dive bombers strafed the ships’ decks with machine gun fire, while Japanese fighters dropped high-explosive bombs on the aircraft sitting on the ground. Japanese torpedo bombers, flying just 50 feet above the water, launched torpedoes at the docked American warships. Four hundred airplanes were stationed nearby. There were also 2 heavy cruisers, 29 destroyers, and 5 submarines. Moored in the harbor were more than 70 warships, including 8 of the fleet’s 9 battleships. In fact, they were Japanese aircraft that had been launched from six aircraft carriers 200 miles north of Hawaii.Īt 7:55 A.M., the first Japanese bombs fell on Pearl Harbor, the main base of the U.S. The two privates operating the radar contacted the Army’s General Information Center, but the duty officer there told them to remain calm the planes were probably American B-17s flying in from California. At 7:02 A.M., December 7, 1941, an Army mobile radar unit set up on Oahu Island in Hawaii picked up the tell-tale blips of approaching aircraft.
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