Browning Machine Gun Drill On Board Ship

M arines man a water-cooled, .50-caliberBrowning M2 machine gun during a drillon board the gunnery training ship Wyom-

ing (AG 17) in late 1941. The M2 Browning weighed(without water) 100 pounds, 8 ounces, and measuredfive feet, six inches in length. It fired between 550 and700 rounds per minute to a maximum horizontal rangeof 7,400 yards. The two hoses carry coolant water tothe gun barrel. The gun could be fired without the

prescribed two and a half gallons of cooling water — asGunnery Sergeant Douglas's men did on board Neva-da (BB 36) on 7 December 1941—but accuracydiminished as the barrel heated and the pattern ofshots became more widely dispersed. Experiencewould reveal that a large number of .50-caliber hitswere necessary to disable a plane, and that only asmall number of hits could be attained by any singleship-mounted gun against a dive bomber.

15

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hills from the direction of Nanaku-ii, also at an altitude of about 1,000feet. Ashwell, intrigued by the sight,stepped outside for a better look. Thesecond formation, of single-seatfighters (the two divisions from Aka-gi and Kaga), flew just to the northof Ewa and wheeled to the right.Then, flying in a "string" formation,they commenced firing. Recognizingthe planes as Japanese, Ashwell burstback into the mess, shouting: 'AirRaid . . . Air Raid! Pass the word!"He then sprinted for the guard house,to have "call to arms" sounded.

That Sunday morning, TechnicalSergeant Henry H. Anglin, thenoncommissioned-officer-in-chargeof the photographic section at Ewa,had driven from his Pearl City homewith his three-year-old son, Hank, totake the boy's picture at the station.The senior Anglin had just posi-tioned the lad in front of the cameraand was about to take the photo —the picture was to be a gift to theboy's grandparents — when theyheard the "mingled noise of airplanesand machine guns." Roaring down towithin 25 feet of the ground, Itaya'sgroup most likely carried out onlyone pass at their targets before mov-ing on to Hickam, the headquartersof the Hawaiian Air Force's 18thBombardment Wing.

Thinking that Army pilots wereshowing off, Sergeant Anglin steppedoutside the photographic section tentand, along with some other enlistedmen, watched planes bearingJapanese markings strafing the edgeof the field. Then, the planes beganroaring down toward the field itselfand the bullets from their cowl andwing-mounted guns began kickingup puffs of dirt. "Look, live ammu-nition;' somebody said or thought,"Somebody'lI go to prison for this:'

Shiga's pilots, like Itaya's, concen-trated on the tactical aircraft lined upneatly on Ewa's northwest apronwith short bursts of 7.7- and20-millimeter machine gun fire. Shi-ga's pilots, unlike Itaya's, however,

Prange

LCdr Shigeru Itaya, commander of Aka-gi's first-wave fighters, which carried outthe initial strafing attacks at Ewa Field.

reversed course over the treetops andrepeated their blistering attacks fromthe opposite direction. Withinminutes, most of MAG-2rs planes satablaze and exploding, black smokecorkscrewing into the sky. The ene-my spared none of the planes: thegray SBD-ls and -2s of VMSB-232and the seven spare SB2U-3s left be-hind by VMSB-231 when they em-barked in Lexington just two daysbefore. VMF-211's remaining F4F-3s,left behind when the squadrondeployed to Wake well over a weekbefore, likewise began exploding inflame and smoke.

At his home on Ewa Beach, three

miles southeast of the air station,Captain Richard C. Mangrum,VMSB-232's flight officer, sat read-ing the Sunday comics. Often resi-dents of that area had heard gunneryexercises, but on a Sunday morning?The chatter of gunfire and the dullthump of explosions, however, drewMangrum's attention away from thecartoons. As he looked out his frontdoor, planes with red ball markingson the wings and fuselage roared byat very low altitude, bound for PearlHarbor. Up the valley in the direc-tion of Wheeler Field, smoke wasboiling skyward, as it was from Ewa.As he set out for Ewa on an old coun-try road, wives and children of Ma-rines who lived in the Ewa Beachneighborhood began gathering at theMangrums' house.

Elsewhere in the Ewa Beach com-munity, Mrs. Charles S. Barker, Jr.,wife of Master Technical SergeantBarker, the chief clerk in MAG-21'soperations office, heard the noise andasked: "What's all the shooting?" Bar-ker, clad only in beach shorts, lookedout his front door, saw and heard aplane fly by at low altitude, and thensaw splashes along the shoreline fromstrafing planes marked with redhinomaru. Running out to turn offthe water hose in his front yard, andseeing a small explosion nearby(probably an antiaircraft shell fromthe direction of Pearl), Barker had

A Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero, flown by P02 Masao Taniguchi in the 7 December at-tack on Ewa Mooring Mast Field, takes off from the carrier Akagi, circa spring 1942.

Author's Collection

16

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seen enough. He left his wife andbaby with his neighbors, and set outfor Ewa.

The strafers who singled out carsmoving along the roads that led toEwa proved no respecter of persons.MAG-21's commanding officer, Lieu-tenant Colonel Claude A. "Sheriff"Larkin, en route from Honolulu, wasabout a mile from Ewa in his 1930Plymouth when a Zero shot at him.He momentarily abandoned the carfor the relative sanctuary of a near-by ditch, not even bothering to turnoff the engine, and then, as thestrafer roared out of sight, sprintedback to the vehicle, jumped back in,

TSgt Henry H. Anglin, the non-commissioned officer in charge of Ewa'sPhotography Section, stands before the mooring mast field's dispensary on 8December 1941, solemnly displaying the slug that wounded him on the 7th.

Jordan Collection, MCHC

and sped on. He reached his desti-nation at 0805—just in time to bemachine gunned again by one of Ad-miral Nagumo's fighters. Soon there-after, Larkin's good fortune atremaining unwounded amidst the at-tack ran out, as he suffered severalpenetrating wounds, the most pain-ful of which included one on the topof the middle finger of his left handand another on the front of his low-er left leg just above the top of hisshoe. Refusing immediate medical at-tention, though, Larkin continued todirect the defense of Ewa Field.

Pilots and ground crewmen alikerushed out onto the mat to try to savetheir planes from certain destruction.At least a few pilots intended to getairborne, but could not because mostof their aircraft were either afire orriddled beyond any hope of immedi-ate use.

17

Captain Milo C. Haines ofVMF-211 sought safety behind atractor, he and the machine's drivertaking shelter on the side opposite tothe strafers. Another Zero came infrom another angle, however, andstrafed them from that direction.Spraying bullets clipped off Haines'necktie just beneath his chin. Then,as a momentarily relieved Haines puthis right hand at the back of his heada bullet lacerated his right little fingerand a part of his scalp.

In the midst of the confusion, anexcited three-year-old Hank Anglininnocently took advantage of hisfather's distraction with the battleand wandered toward the mat. All ofthe noise seemed like a lot of fun.Sergeant Anglin ran after his son, gothim to the ground, and, shieldinghim with his own body, crawledsome 35 yards, little puffs of dirtcoming near them at times. As theyclambered inside the radio trailer toget out of harm's way, a bullet madea hole above the door. Moving backto the photo tent, the elder Anglinput his son under a wooden bench.As he set about gathering his cameragear to take pictures of the action, a

Prange

Lt Yoshio Shiga, commander of Kaga'snine Zeroes which strafed Ewa soon af-ter Itaya, was assigned the task of reduc-ing the "Barbers Point Airdrome."

I 'aa

Cr4.

bullet went through his left arm.Deprived of the use of that arm fora time, Anglin returned to the benchunder which his son still crouchedobediently, to see little Hank pointto a spent bullet on the floor and hearhim warn: "Don't touch that, daddy,it's hot:'

Private First Class James W. Mann,the driver assigned to Ewa's 1938 Ford

Col Claude A. "Sheriff" Larkin, Com-manding Officer, Marine Aircraft Group21, photographed circa early 1942.

Larkin Collection, MCHC

ambulance, had been refueling thevehicle when the attack began. WhenLieutenant Thomas L. Allman, Med-ical Corps, USN, the group medicalofficer, saw the first planes break intoflames, he ordered Mann to take theambulance to the flight line. Accom-panied by Pharmacist's Mate 2dClass Orin D. Smith, a corpsmanfrom sick bay, they sped off. TheJapanese planes seemed to be attract-ed to the bright red crosses on theambulance, however, and halted itsprogress near the mooring mast.Realizing that they were under at-tack, Mann floored the brake pedaland the Ford screeched to a halt.Rather than leave the vehicle for asafer area, Mann and Smith crawledunderneath it so that they could theycould continue their mission asquickly as possible. The strafing,however, continued unabated. Iron-ically, the first casualty Mann had tocollect was the man lying prone be-side him. Orin Smith felt a searingpain as one of the Japanese7.7-millimeter rounds found its markin the fleshy part of his left calf. See-ing that the corpsman had been hurt,Mann assisted him out from under

18

the vehicle and up into the cab.Despite continued strafing that shotout four tires, Mann pressed dogged-ly ahead and delivered the wound-ed Smith to sick bay.

After seeing that the corpsman'sbleeding was stopped and the pain-ful wound was cleaned and dressed,Private First Class Mann sprinted tohis own tent. Grabbing his rifle, hethen returned to the battered am-bulance and, shot-out tires flopping,drove toward Ewa's garage. There,Master Technical Sergeant LawrenceR. Darner directed his men to replacethe damaged tires with those from amobile water purifier. Meanwhile,Smith resumed his duties as a mem-ber of the dressing station crew.

Also watching the smoke begin-ning to billow skyward was SergeantDuane W. Shaw, USMCR, the driverof the station fire truck. Normally,during off-duty hours, the truck satparked a quarter-mile from the land-ing area. Shaw, figuring that it washis job to put out the fires, climbedinto the fire engine and set off. Un-fortunately, like Private First ClassMann's ambulance, Sergeant Shaw'sbright red engine moving across the

One of the seven Vought SB2U-3s destroyed on the field atEwa. All of VMSB-231's spares (the squadron was embarked

Larkin Collection, MCHCin Lexington, en route to Midway, at the time) were thus des-troyed. In the background is one of VMSB-232's SBDs.

1.

embattled camp soon attracted straf-ing Zeroes. Unfazed by the enemyfire that perforated his vehicle inseveral places, he drove doggedlytoward the flight line until anotherZero shot out his tires. Only thenpausing to make a hasty estimate ofthe situation, he reasoned that withthe fire truck at least temporarily outof service he would have to do some-thing else. Jumping down from thecab, he soon got himself a rifle andsome ammunition. Then, he set outfor the flight line. If he could not putout fires, he could at least do somefiring of his own at the men whocaused them.

With the parking area cloaked inblack smoke, Japanese fighter pilotsshifted their efforts to the planeseither out for repairs in the rear areasor to the utility planes parked north

of the intersection of the main run-ways. Inside ten minutes' time,machine gun fire likewise trans-formed many of those planes intoflaming wreckage.

Firing only small arms and riflesin the opening stages, the Marinesfought back against Kaga's fightersas best they could, with almost reck-less heroism. Lieutenant Shigaremembered one particular Leather-neck who, oblivious to the machinegun fire striking the ground aroundhim and kicking up dirt, stood trans-fixed, emptying his sidearm at Shi-gas Zero as it roared past. Years later,Shiga would describe that lone, def i-ant, and unknown Marine as thebravest American he had ever met.

A tragic drama, however, soon un-folded amidst the Japanese attack.One Marine, Sergeant William E.

Lutschan, Jr., USMCR, a truckdriver,had been "under suspicion" of espi-onage and he was ordered placed un-der arrest. In the exchange of gunfirethat followed his resisting beingtaken into custody, though, he wasshot dead. With that one exception,the Marines at Ewa Field had foughtback to a man.

As if A kagi's and Kaga's fightershad not sown enough destruction onEwa, one division of Zeroes fromSoryu and one from Hiryu arrivedon the scene, fresh from laying wasteto many of the planes at WheelerField. This second group of fighter pi-lots went about their work with thesame deadly precision exhibited atWheeler only minutes before. Theraid caught Master Technical Ser-geant Darner's crew in the middle ofchanging the tires on the station's

Ewa's 1938 Ford ambulance, seen after the Japanese raid, its Red Cross status violated, took over 50 hits from strafing planes.Larkin Collection, MCHC

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ambulance. Private First Class Mann,who by that point had managed toobtain some ammunition for his ri-fle, dropped down with the rest ofthe Marines at the garage and firedat the attacking fighters as theystreaked by.

Lieutenant Kiyokuma Okajima ledhis six fighters down through the roll-ing smoke, executing strafing attacksuntil ground fire holed the forwardfuel tank of his wingman, PettyOfficer 1st Class Kazuo Muranaka.When Okajima discovered thedamage to Muranaka's plane, hedecided that his men had pressedtheir luck far enough, and began toassemble his unit and shepherd themtoward the rendezvous area some 10miles west of Kaena Point. The retir-ing Japanese in all likelihood thenspotted incoming planes from Enter-prise (CV-6), that had been launchedat 0618 to scout 150 miles ahead ofthe ship in nine two-plane sections.Their planned flight path to Pearlwas to take many of them over EwaMooring Mast Field, where somewould encounter Japanese aircraft.

Meanwhile, back at Ewa, afterwhat must have seemed an eternity,the Zeroes of the first wave at lastwheeled away toward their rendez-vous point. Having made a shamblesof the Marine air base, Japanese pi-lots claimed the destruction of 60 air-craft on the ground: Akagi's airmenaccounted for 11, Kaga's 15, Soryu's12, and Hiryu's 22. Their figures werenot too far off the mark, for 47 air-craft of all types had been parked atthe field at the beginning of the ons-laught, 33 of which had been fullyoperational.

Although the Japanese hadwreaked havoc upon MAG-2rs com-plement of planes, the group's casual-ties seemed miraculously light.Apparently, the enemy fighter pilotsin the first wave maintained a fairlyhigh degree of discipline, eschewingattacks on people and concentratingtheir attacks on machines. Many ofEwa's Marines, however, had parked

their cars near the center of the sta-tion. By the time the Japanese depart-ed, the parking lot resembled a junkyard of mangled automobiles of var-ious makes and models.

Overcoming the initial shock ofthe first strafing attack, Ewa's Ma-rines took stock of their situation. Assoon as the last of Itaya's and Shiga'sZeroes had departed, Marines wentout and manned stations with riflesand .30-caliber machine guns takenfrom damaged aircraft and from thesquadron ordnance rooms. TechnicalSergeant William C. Turnage, an ar-morer, supervised the setting up ofthe free machine guns. Technical Ser-geant Anglin, meanwhile, took hislittle boy to the guard house, wherea woman motorist agreed to driveHank home to his mother. As itwould turn out, that reunion was notto be accomplished until much laterthat day, "inasmuch as the distraughtmother had already left home to lookfor her son:'

Master Technical Sergeant Emil S.Peters, a veteran of action inNicaragua, had, during the first at-tack, reported to the central ordnancetent to lend a hand in manning a gun.By the time he arrived there,however, there were none left toman. Then he saw a Douglas SBD-2,one of two spares assigned toVMSB-232, parked behind the squa-dron's tents. Enlisting the aid of Pri-vate William C. Turner, VMSB-231'ssquadron clerk, Peters ran over to theex-Lexington machine that still boreher USN markings, 2-B-6, pulled theafter canopy forward, and clamberedin the after cockpit, stepping hard onthe foot pedal to unship the free.30-caliber Browning from its hous-ing in the after fuselage, and thenlocking it in place. Turner, having ob-tained a supply of belted ammuni-tion, took his place on the wing asPeters' assistant.

Elsewhere, nursing his painfullywounded finger and leg, LieutenantColonel Larkin ordered extra guardsposted on the perimeter of the field

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and on the various roads leading intothe base. Men not engaged in activedefense went to work fighting themany fires. Drivers parked whattrucks and automobiles had re-mained intact on the runways to pre-vent any possible landings byairborne troops. Although hardlytransforming Ewa into a fortress, theMarines ensured that they would beready for any future attack.

Undoubtedly, most of the men atEwa expected — correctly — that theJapanese would return. At about0835, enemy planes again made theirappearance in the sky over Ewa, butthis time, Marines stood or crouchedready and waiting for what provedto be Lieutenant Commander Taka-hashi's dive bombing unit fromShokaku, returning from its attackson the naval air station at Pearl Har-bor and the Army's Hickam Field,roaring in from just above thetreetops. Initially, their targets ap-peared to be the planes, but, seeingthat most had already been des-troyed, the enemy pilots turned tostrafing buildings and people in a"heavy and prolonged" assault.

Better prepared than they had beenwhen Lieutenant Commander Itaya'sZeroes had opened the battle, Ewa'sMarines met Takahashi's Vals withheavy fire from rifles, Thompsonsubmachine guns, .30-calibermachine guns, and even pistols. Inretaliation, after completing theirstrafing runs, the Japanese pilotspulled up in steep wing-overs, allow-ing their rear seat gunners to take ad-vantage of the favorable deflectionangle to spray the defenders with7.7-millimeter bullets. Marine ob-servers later recounted that Shoka-ku's planes also dropped lightbombs, perhaps of the 60-kilogramvariety, as they counted five smallcraters on the field after the attack.

In response to the second ons-laught, as they had in the first, allavailable Marines threw themselvesinto the desperate defense of theirbase. The additional strafing attacks

I.1

Sgt William G. Turnage enlisted in theCorps in 1931. Recommended for a let-ter of commendation for his "efficient ac-tion" at Ewa Field on 7 December, heultimately was awarded a Bronze Star.

Marine Corps Historical Collection

started numerous fires within thecamp area, adding new columns ofdense smoke to those still rising fromthe planes on the parking apron. Un-fortunately, the ground fire seemedfar more brave than accurate, becauseall of Shokaku's dive bombersrepeatedly zoomed skyward, seem-ingly unhurt. Even taking into ac-count possible damage sustainedduring attacks over Ford Island andHickam, only four of Takahashi'splanes sustained any damage overOahu before they retired. The depar-ture of Shokciku's Vals afforded Lieu-tenant Colonel Larkin theopportunity to reorganize the campdefenses. There was ammunition tobe distributed, wounded men to be

21

TSgt Emil S. Peters, seen here on 11 Oc-tober 1938, was a veteran of service inNicaragua and a little more than threeweeks shy of his 48th birthday whenJapanese bombers attacked Ewa Field.

Naval Historical Center Photo NH 102278

Lord Collection, USMCAt their barracks, near the foundation of a swimming pool ing their eyes peeled for attacking Japanese planes. Headgearunder construction, three Marines gingerly seek out good van- varies from Hawley helmet to garrison cap to none, but thetage points from which to fire, while two peerskyward, keep- weapon is the same for all—the Springfield 1903 rifle.

succored, and seemingly innumera-ble fires burning amongst the tents,buildings, and planes, to be extin-guished.

However, around 0930, yetanother flight of enemy planesappeared — about 15 Vals from Kagaand Hiryu. Although the pilots ofthose planes had expended their250-kilogram bombs on ships atPearl Harbor, they still apparently re-tained plenty of 7.7-millimeter am-munition, and seemed determined toexpend much of what remained uponEwa. As in the previous attacks byShokaku's Vals, the last group camein at very low altitude from just overthe tops of the trees surrounding thestation. Quite taken by the highmaneuverability of the nimble divebombers, which they were seeing atclose hand for the second time thatday, the Marines mistook them forfighter aircraft with fixed landinggear.

Around that time, LieutenantColonel Larkin saw an Americanplane and a Japanese one collide inmid-air a short distance away fromthe field. In all probability, Larkinsaw Enterprise's Ensign John H. L.Vogt's Dauntless collide with a Val.Vogt had become separated from hissection leader during the Pearl-bound flight in from the carrier, mayhave circled offshore, and then ar-rived over Ewa in time to encounterdive bombers from Kaga or Hiryu.Vogt and his passenger, RadiomanThird Class Sidney Pierce, bailed outof their SBD, but at too low an alti-tude, for both died in the trees whentheir 'chutes failed to deploy fully.Neither of the Japanese crewmen es-caped from their Val when it crashed.

Fortunately for the Marines,however, the last raid proved com-paratively "light and ineffectual;'something Lieutenant Colonel Larkinattributed to the heavy gunfirethrown skyward. The short respitebetween the second and third straf-ing attacks had allowed Ewa'sdefenders to bring all possible

weapons to bear against theJapanese. Technical Sergeant Tur-nage, after having gotten the base'smachine guns set up and ready foraction, took over one of the mountshimself and fired several bursts intothe belly of one Val that began trail-ing smoke and began to falter soonthereafter.

Turnage, however, was by no me-ans the only Marine using hisweapon to good effect. Master Tech-nical Sergeant Peters and PrivateTurner, from their improvised posi-tion in the lamed SBD, had let fly atwhatever Vals came within range oftheir gun. The two Marines shotdown what witnesses thought wereat least two of the attacking planesand discouraged strafing in that areaof the station. However, the Japanesesoon tired of the tenacious braveryof the grizzled veteran and the youngclerk, neither of whom flinched inthe face of repeated strafing. Twoparticular enemy pilots repeatedlypeppered the grounded Dauntlesswith 7.7-millimeter fire, ultimatelyscoring hits near the cockpit area andwounding both men. Turner toppledfrom the wing, mortally wounded.

Another Marine who distin-guished himself during the thirdstrafing attack was Sergeant Carlo A.Micheletto of Marine Utility Squa-dron (VMJ) 252. During the firstJapanese attack that morning,Micheletto proceeded at once toVMJ-252's parking area and went towork, helping in the attempts to ex-tinguish the fires that had broken outamongst the squadron's parked util-ity planes. He continued in thoselabors until the last strafing attackbegan. Putting aside his fire-fightingequipment and grabbing a rifle, hetook cover behind a small pile oflumber, and heedless of the heavymachine-gunning, continued to fireat the attacking planes until a burstof enemy fire struck him in the headand killed him instantly.

Eventually, in an almost predicta-ble way, the Japanese planes formed

22

up and flew off to the west, leavingthe once neatly manicured MooringMast Field smouldering. The Ma-rines had barely had time to catchtheir collective breath when, at 1000,almost as a capstone to the completechaos wreaked by the initial Japaneseattack, seven more planes arrived.

Their markings, however, were ofa more familiar variety—red-centered blue and white stars. Thenewcomers proved to be a group ofDauntlesses from Enterprise. For thebetter part of an hour, LieutenantWilmer E. Gallaher, executive officerof Scouting Squadron 6, had circledfitfully over the Pacific swells southof Oahu, waiting for the situationthere to settle down. At about 0945,when he had seen that the skiesseemed relatively clear of Japaneseplanes, Gallaher decided rather thanface friend'y fire over Pearl he wouldgo to Ewa instead. They had barelystopped on the strip, however, whena Marine ran out to Gallaher's planeand yelled, "For God's sake, get intothe air or they'll strafe you, too!"Other Enterprise pilots likewise sawground crews frantically motioningfor them to take off immediately. In-structed to "take off and stay in theair until [the] air raid was over;' theEnterprise pilots took off and head-ed for Pearl Harbor. Although allseven SBDs left Ewa, only three (Gal-laher's, his wingman, Ensign WilliamP. West's, and Ensign Cleo J. Dob-son's) would make it as far as FordIsland. A tremendous volume of an-tiaircraft fire over the harbor rose tomeet what was thought to be yetanother attack; seeing the receptionaccorded Gallaher, West, and Dob-son, the other four pilots—Lieutenant (jg) Hart D. Hilton andEnsigns Carlton T. Fogg, Edwin J.Kroeger, and Frederick T. Weber —wheeled around and headed back toEwa, landing around 1015 to find afar better reception that time around.Within a matter of minutes, the Ma-rines began rearming and refuelingHilton's, Kroeger's and Weber's SBDs.

Wheeler Field Control of the SBDs Colonel William E. Farthing,

Marine Corps Historical Collection

Sgt Carlo A. Micheletto had turned 26years old less than two months beforeJapanese planes strafed Ewa. He wasrecommended for a letter of cornmen-dation, but was awarded a Bronze Star.

The Marines discovered that Fogg'sDauntless, though, had taken a hitthat had holed a fuel tank, andwould require repairs.

Although it is unlikely that evenone of the Ewa Marines thought soat the time, even as they serviced theEnterprise SBDs which sat on thelanding mat, the Japanese raid onOahu was over. Vice Admiral Nagu-mo, already feeling that he hadpushed his luck far enough, waseager to get as far away from thewaters north of Oahu as soon as pos-sible. At least for the time being, theMarines at Ewa had nothing to fear.

Not privy to the musings of Nagu-mo and his staff, however, Lieu-tenant Colonel Larkin could onlywonder what the Marines would doshould the Japanese return. At 1025,he completed a glum assessment ofthe situation and forwarded it to Ad-miral Kimmel. While casualtiesamong the Marines had been light—two men had been killed and sever-al wounded — the Japanese had des-troyed "all bombing, fighting, andtransport planes" on the ground. Ewahad no radio communications, nopower, and only one small gas gener-ator in commission. He also in-formed the Commander-in-Chief,Pacific Fleet, that he would retain thefour Enterprise planes at Ewa untilfurther orders. Larkin also notified

being held at his field.At 1100, Wheeler called and

directed all available planes to ren-dezvous with a flight of B-17s overHickam. Lieutenant (jg) Hilton andthe two ensigns from Bombing Squa-dron 6, Kroeger and Weber, took offat 1115 and the Marines never heardfrom them again. Finding no Armyplanes over Hickam (two flights ofB-17s and Douglas A-20s had onlyjust departed) the three Navy pilotslanded at Ford Island. Ensign Fogg'sSBD represented the sole naval strikecapability at Ewa as the day ended.

"They caught us flat-footed;' Lar-kin unabashedly wrote Major Gener-al Ross E. Rowell of the events of 7December. Over the next fewmonths, Ewa would serve as the fo-cal point for Marine aviation activi-ties on Oahu as the service acquiredreplacement aircraft and beganrebuilding to carry out the missionof standing ready to deploy with thefleet wherever it was required.

Although the Japanese accordedthe battleships and air facilities pri-ority as targets for destruction on themorning of 7 December 1941, it wasnatural that the onslaught touchedthe Marine Barracks at Pearl HarborNavy Yard as well.

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Army Air Forces, commandingofficer of Hickam Field, thought thathe was witnessing some very realis-tic maneuvers shortly before 0800that morning. From his vantagepoint, virtually next door to theNavy Yard, Farthing watched whatproved to be six Japanese dive bomb-ers swooping down toward Ford Is-land. He thought that MAG-21'sSB2Us or SBDs were out for an ear-ly morning practice hop. "1 wonderwhat the Marines are doing to theNavy so early Sunday?"

Over at the Marine Barracks, theofficer of the guard, Second Lieu-tenant Arnold D. Swartz, after hav-ing inspected his sentries, had retiredto the officer-of-the-day's room toawait breakfast. Stepping out ontothe lanai (patio) at about 0755 to talkto the field music about morningcolors, he noticed several planes div-ing in the direction of the naval airstation. He thought initially that itseemed a bit early for practice bomb-ing, but then saw a flash and heardthe resulting explosion that immedi-ately dispelled any illusions he mighthave held that what he was seeingwas merely an exercise. Seeing aplane with "red balls" on the wingsroar by at low level convinced Swartzthat Japanese planes were attacking.

Over in the squadroom of Bar-

ajor Harold C. Robertshad earned a NavyCross as a corpsman as-

signed to Marines during WorldWar I, and a second award in 1928as a Marine officer in Nicaragua.As acting commanding officer ofthe 3d Defense Battalion at PearlHarbor on 7 December, he was averitable dynamo, organizing it tobattle the attacking Japanese. Hewas killed at Okinawa in June1945 while commanding the 22dMarines, but not before his perfor-mance of duty had merited himthe award of his third Navy Cross.

They're Kicking the HellOut of Pearl Harbor

jjii L'a-

racks B, First Lieutenant Harry F.Noyes, Jr., the range officer for Bat-tery E, 3-inch Antiaircraft Group, 3dDefense Battalion, heard the soundof a loud explosion coming from thedirection of the harbor at about0750. First assuming that blastingcrews were busy— there had been alot of construction recently — Noyescocked his ears. The new soundsseemed a bit different, "more higher-pitched, and louder." At that, hesprang from his bed, ran across theroom, and peered northward just intime to see a dirty column of waterrising from the harbor from anotherexplosion and a Japanese plane pull-ing out of its dive. The plane, bear-ing red hinomaru (rising sun insignia)under its wings, left no doubt as toits identity.

The explosions likewise awakenedLieutenant Colonel William J. Whal-ing and Major James "Jerry" Mon-aghan who, while Colonel Gilder D.Jackson, commanding officer of theMarine Barracks, was at sea in mdi-cina polls (CA-35) en route to John-ston Island for tests of Higginslanding boats, shared his quarters atPearl Harbor. Shortly before 0800,Whaling rolled over and asked: "Jer-ry, don't you think the Admiral is alittle bit inconsiderate of guests?"Monaghan, then also awake, replied:"I'll go down and see about it." Whal-ing, meanwhile, lingered in bed un-til more blasts rattled the quarters'windows. Thinking that he had notseen any 5-inch guns emplaced closeto the building, and that somethingwas wrong, he got up and walkedover to the window that faced theharbor. Looking out, he saw smoke,and, turning, remarked: "This thingis so real that I believe that's an oiltank burning right in front there:'Both men then dressed and hurriedacross the parade ground, where theyencountered Lieutenant Colonel El-mer E. Hall, commanding officer ofthe 2d Engineer Battalion. "Elmer,"Whaling said amiably, "this is amighty fine show you are putting on.

Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 65746

Col William 1. Whaling, seen here circa1945, was an observer to the Pearl Har-bor attack, being awakened from slum-ber while staying in Col Gilder Jackson'squarters on the morning of 7 December.

I have never seen anything quite likeit:'

Meanwhile, Swartz ordered thefield music to sound "Call to Arms:'Then, running into the officers' sec-tion of the mess hall, Swartz in-formed the officer-of-the-day, FirstLieutenant Cornelius C. Smith, Jr.,who had been enjoying a cup ofcoffee with Marine Gunner FloydMcCorkle when sharp blasts hadrocked the building, that theJapanese were attacking. LikeSwartz, they ran out onto the lanai.Standing there, speechless, theywatched the first enemy planes div-ing on Ford Island.

Marines began to stumble, eyeswide in disbelief, from the barracks.Some were lurching, on the run, intopants and shirts; a few wore onlytowels. Swartz then ordered one ofthe platoon sergeants to roust out themen and get them under cover of thetrees outside. Smith, too, then ranoutside to the parade ground. As helooked at the rising smoke and theJapanese planes, he doubted thosewho had derided the "Japs" as "cross-eyed, second-rate pilots who couldn'thit the broad side of a barn door:' Itwas enough to turn his stomach."They're kicking the hell out of PearlHarbor;' he thought.

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Meanwhile, unable to reachColonel Harry B. Pickett, the 14thNaval District Marine Officer, as wellas Colonel Jackson, and CaptainSamuel R. Shaw, commandingofficer of Company A, by telephone,Swartz sent runners to the officers'respective quarters. He then ordereda noncommissioned officer from thequartermaster department to dis-pense arms and ammunition.

While Swartz organized the menbeneath the trees outside the bar-racks, Lieutenant Noyes dressed andthen drove across the parade groundto Building 277, arriving about 0805.At the same time, like Swartz, FirstLieutenant James S. O'Halloran, the3d Defense Battalion's duty officerand commanding officer of BatteryF, 3-inch Antiaircraft Group, want-ed to get in touch with his seniorofficers. After having had "assembly"sounded and signalling his men totake cover, O'Halloran ordered Ma-rine Gunner Frederick M. Steinhaus-er, the assistant battalion com-munications officer, to telephone allof the officers who resided outsidethe reservation and inform them ofthe attack.

In Honolulu, mustachioed MajorHarold C. Roberts, acting command-ing officer of the 3d Defense Battal-ion since Lieutenant Colonel RobertH. Pepper had accompanied ColonelJackson to sea in Indianapolis, aftertaking Steinhauser's call with wordof the bombing of Pearl, jumped intohis car along with his neighbor,Major Kenneth W. Benner, com-manding officer of the 3-inch An-tiaircraft Group and theHeadquarters and Service Battery ofthe 3d Defense Battalion. As Roberts'car crept through the heavy traffictoward Pearl, the two officers couldsee Japanese aircraft flying along thecoast. When they reached the WaterStreet Fish Market, a large crowd ofwhat seemed to be "Japanese resi-dents . . . cheering the Japaneseplanes, waving to them, and tryingto obstruct traffic to Pearl Harbor by

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pushing parked cars into the street"blocked their way.

Meanwhile, as his acting battalioncommander was battling his waythrough Honolulu's congested streets,O'Halloran was organizing his Ma-rines as they poured out of the bar-racks into groups to break out smallarms and machine guns from the var-ious battalion storerooms. After Har-ry Noyes drove up, O'Halloran toldhim to do what he could to get the3-inch guns, and fire control equip-ment, if available, broken out and setup, and then instructed other Ma-rines to "get tractors and start haul-ing guns to the parade ground:'Another detail of men hurried off torecover an antiaircraft director thatlay crated and ready for shipment toMidway.

Marines continued to stream outonto the grounds, having been or-dered out of the barracks with their

rifles and cartridge belts; they dou-bled the sentry posts and received in-structions to stand ready and armed,to deploy in an emergency. Noyessaw some Marines who had not beenassigned any tasks commencing fireon enemy planes "which were con-siderably out of range:' At the maingate of the Navy Yard, the Marinesfired at whatever planes came closeenough — sailors from the high-speedminelayer Sicard (DM-21), en routeto their ship, later attested to seeingone Japanese plane shot down by theguards' rifle fire.

Tai Sing Loo, who was to havephotographed those guards at thenew gate, had left Honolulu in a hur-ry when he heard the sound of ex-plosions and gunfire, and saw therising columns of smoke. He arrivedat the naval reservation without hisGraflex and soon marveled at thecool bravery of the "young, fightingMarines" who stood their ground,

under fire, blazing away at enemyplanes with rifles while keepingtraffic moving.

Finally, the more senior officersquartered outside the reservation be-gan showing up. When Colonel Pick-ett arrived, Lieutenant Swartzreturned to the officer-of-the-day'sroom and found that Captain Shawhad reached there also. Securingfrom his position as officer of theguard, Swartz returned to his 3-inchgun battery being set up near Build-ing 277. Ordering Marines out of thebuilding, he managed to obtain asteel helmet and a pistol each forhimself and Lieutenant O'Halloran.Captain Samuel G. Taxis, command-ing officer of the 3d Defense Battal-ion's 5-inch Artillery Group,meanwhile, witnessed "terrific con-fusion" ensuing from his men's effortsto obtain "ammunition, steel helmets,and other items of equipment:'

Meanwhile, the comparatively fewSmoke darkens the sky over the Marine Barracks complex at to be holding his head in disbelief. Marines at far left in back-the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard; Marine in foreground appears ground appear to be unlimbering a 3-inch antiaircraft gun.

Naval Historical Center Photo NH 50926

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Marines of Lieutenant Colonel BertA. Bone's 1st Defense Battalion —most of which garrisoned Wake,Johnston, and Palmyra — made theirpresence felt. Urged on by LieutenantNoyes, one detail of men immediate-ly reported to the battalion gun shedand storeroorns, and issued rifles andammunition to all corners, whileanother detachment worked feverish-ly assembling machine guns. NavyYard workmen — enginemen LokanaKipihe and Oliver Bright, firemanGerard Williams, and rigger ErnestW. Birch — appeared, looking forsome way to help the Marines, whosoon put them to work distributingammunition to the machine guncrews. Soon, the Marines at the bar-racks added the staccato hammeringof automatic weapons fire to thegeneral din around them. Mean-while, other Marines from the 1stDefense Battalion broke out firefight-ing equipment, as shrapnel from ex-ploding antiaircraft shells began tostrike the roof of the barracks andadjacent buildings.

At about 0820, Majors Robertsand Benner reached the Marine Bar-racks just in time to observe the be-ginning of the Japanese second waveattacks against Pearl. Roberts foundthat Lieutenant O'Halloran had got-ten the 3d Battalion ready for battle,with seven .50-caliber and six.30-caliber machine guns set up andwith ammunition belted. Under Cap-tain Harry 0. Smith, Jr., command-ing officer of Battery H, MachineGun Group, 3d Defense Battalion,the 3d's Marine gunners had alreadyclaimed one Japanese plane shotdown. Lieutenant Noyes was, mean-while, in the process of deployingseven 3-inch guns — three on the westend of the parade ground and fouron the east.

Sergeant Major Leland H. Alex-ander, of the Headquarters and Serv-ice Battery of the 3d DefenseBattalion, suggested to LieutenantO'Halloran that an armed convoy beorganized to secure ammunition for

the guns, as none was available in theNavy Yard proper. Roberts gaveAlexander permission to put togetherthe requisite trucks, weapons, andmen. Lieutenant Colonel Bone hadthe same idea, and, accordingly dis-patched a truck at 0830 to the nearestammunition dump near Fort Kame-hameha. Bone ordered anothergroup of men from the 5-inch batteryto the Naval Ammunition Depot atLualualei just in case. He hoped thatat least one truck would get throughthe maelstrom of traffic. Marinesfrom the 2d Engineer Battalion madeammunition runs as well as provid-ed men and motorcycles for mes-sengers.

Meanwhile, Roberts directedMajor Benner to have the 3d Battal-ion's guns operational before the am-munition trucks returned, and to setthe fuzes for 1,000 yards, since theguns lacked the necessary height-finding equipment. The makeshiftemplacements, however, presentedless than ideal firing positions sincethe barracks and nearby yard build-ings restricted the field of fire, andmany of the low-flying planes ap-peared on the horizon only for aninstant.

Necessity often being the motherof invention, Roberts devised an im-promptu fire control system, station-ing a warning section of eight men,equipped with field glasses and ledby Lieutenant Swartz, in the centerof the parade ground. The spotterswere to pass the word to a group offield musics who, using their instru-ments, were to sound appropriatewarnings: one blast meant planes ap-proaching from the north; two blasts,from the east, and so on.

Taking precautions against fires inthe temporary wooden barracks,Roberts ordered hoses run out andextinguishers placed in front of them,along with shovels, axes, and buck-ets of sand (the latter to deal with in-cendiary bombs); hose reel andchemical carts placed near the centerhydrant near the mess hall; and all

26

possible containers filled with waterfor both fighting fires and drinking.In addition, he ordered cooks andmessmen to prepare coffee and fill ev-ery other container on hand withwater, and organized riflemen ingroups of about 16 to sit on theground with an officer or noncom-missioned officer in charge to directtheir fire. He also called for runnersfrom all groups in the battalion andestablished his command post at theparade ground's south corner, andordered the almost 150 civilians whohad showed up looking for ways tohelp out to report to the machine gunstoreroom and fill ammunition beltsand clean weapons. Among other ac-tions, he also instructed the battal-ion sergeant major to be ready tosafeguard important papers from theheadquarters barracks.

Prior to Roberts' arrival, Lieu-tenant (j.g.) William R. Franklin(Dental Corps), USN, the dentalofficer for the 3d Defense Battalion'sHeadquarters and Service Battery,and the only medical officer present,had organized first aid and stretcherparties in the barracks. As the otherdoctors arrived, Roberts directedthem to set up dressing stations ateach battalion headquarters and oneat sick bay. Elsewhere, Marines va-cated one 100-man temporary bar-racks, the noncommissioned officer'sclub and the post exchange, to readythem for casualties. Parties of Ma-rines also reported to the waterfrontarea to assist in collecting and trans-porting casualties from the ships inthe harbor to the Naval Hospital.

By the time the Marines had got-ten their new fire precautions inplace, the Japanese second wave at-tack was in full swing. Althoughtheir pilots selected targets exclusive-ly from among the Pacific Fleet war-ships, the Marines at the barracks inthe Navy Yard still were able to takethe Japanese planes, most of whichseemed to be coming in from the westand southwest, under fire. WhileMarines were busily setting up the

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3-inch guns, several civilian yardworkmen grabbed up rifles and"brought their fire to bear upon theenemy;' allowing Swartz's men tocontinue their work.

The Japanese eventually put MajorRoberts' ingenious fire controlmethods — the field musics — to thetest. After hearing four hearty blastsfrom the bandsmen, the .50-calibersbegan hammering out cones of tracerthat caught two low-flying dive bom-bers as they pulled out of their runsover Pearl, prompting Roberts' fearthat the ships would fire at them, too,and hit the barracks. One Val slant-ed earthward near what appeared tobe either the west end of the lowertank farm or the south end of theNaval Hospital reservation, while theother, emitting great quantities ofsmoke, crashed west-southwest of theparade ground.

Although the Marines' success

against their tormentors must haveseemed sweet indeed, a skepticalCaptain Taxis thought it more like-ly that the crews of the two Valsbagged by the machine gunners hadjust run out of luck. Most of the fir-ing, in his opinion, had been quiteineffectual, mostly "directed at ene-my planes far beyond range of theweapons and merely fired into the airat no target at all ." Gunners on boardthe fleet's warships were faring littlebetter!

Almost simultaneously with thedive-bombing attacks, horizontalbombing attacks began. MajorRoberts noted that the 18 bombers"flew in two Vees of nine planes eachin column of Vees and [that] theykept a good formation:' At leastsome of those planes appeared tohave bombed the battleship Pennsyl-vania and the destroyers Cassin andDownes in Dry Dock No. 1. In the

27

confusion, however, Roberts proba-bly saw two divisions of Kates fromZuikaku preparing for their attackruns on Hickam Field. A single di-vision of such planes from Shokaku,meanwhile, attacked the Navy Yardand the Naval Air Station.

Well removed from the barracks,Marines assigned to the Navy Yard'sFire Department rendered invaluableassistance in leading critical f ire-fighting efforts. Heading the depart-ment, Sergeant Harold F. Abbott su-pervised the distribution of thevarious units, and coordinated theflood of volunteers who stepped for-ward to help.

One of Abbott's men, Private FirstClass Marion M. Milbrandt, with his1,000-gallon pumper, summoned tothe Naval Hospital grounds, foundthat one of Kaga's Kates — struck bymachine gun fire from the shipsmoored in the Repair Basin—had

Oily smoke from the burning Arizona (BB 39) boils up in thebackground beyond the Navy Yard water towers, one of them,

Naval Historical Center Photo NH 50928in center, signal-flag bedecked. Note several Marines attempt-ing to deploy a 3-inch antiaircraft gun in the foreground.

crashed near there. The resulting fire,fed by the crashed plane's gasoline,threatened the facility, but Milbrandtand his crew controlled the blaze.

Other Marine firefighters werehard at work alongside Dry DockNo. 1. Pennsylvania had not been theonly ship not fully ready for war,since she lay immobile at one end ofthe drydock. Downes lay in thedock, undergoing various items ofwork, while Cassin had been havingordnance alterations at the Yard andthus had none of her 5-inch/38s

ready for firing. Both destroyers sooncame in for some unwanted at-tention.

As bombs turned the two destroy-ers into cauldrons of flames and theircrews abandoned ship, two sailorsfrom Downes, meanwhile, sprintedover to the Marine Barracks: Gun-ner's Mate First Class Michael C.Odietus and Gunner's Mate SecondClass Curtis P. Schuize. After theorder to abandon ship had beengiven, both had, on their own initia-tive, gone to the Marine Barracks to

28

assist in the distribution of arms andammunition. They soon returned,however, each gunner's mate with aBrowning Automatic Rifle in hand,to do his part in fighting back.

Utilizing three of the department'spumpers, meanwhile, the first fire-fighters from the yard, who includ-ed Corporal John Gimson, PrivatesFirst Class William M. Brashear, Wil-liam A. Hopper, Peter Kerdikes,Frank W. Feret, Marvin D. Daliman,and Corporal Milbrandt, amongthem, soon arrived and began to play

—It]'

water on the burning ships. At about0915, four torpedo warheads onboard Downes cooked off and ex-ploded, the concussion tearing thehoses from the hands of the menfighting the blaze and sending f rag-ments everywhere, temporarily forc-ing all hands to retreat to the nearbyroad and sprawl there. Knocked flatseveral times by the explosions, theMarines and other firefighters, whichincluded men from Cassin andDownes, and civilian yard workmen,remained on the job.

Explosions continued to wrack thetwo destroyers, while subsequentpartial flooding of the dock causedCassin to pivot on her forefoot andheel over onto her sister ship. Work-ing under the direction of LieutenantWilliam R. Spear, a 57-year-old re-tired naval officer called to the colors,the firemen were understandablyconcerned that the oil fires burningin proximity to the two destroyersmight drift aft in the partially flood-ed dry dock and breach the caisson,unleashing a wall of water thatwould carry Pennsylvania (three ofwhose four propeller shafts had beenpulled for overhaul) down upon theburning destroyers. Preparing forthat eventuality, Private First ClassDon 0. Femmer, in charge of the750-gallon pumper, stood readyshould the conflagration spread tothe northeast through the dock.

Fortunately, circumstances neverrequired Femmer and his men to de-fend the caisson from fire, but theyoung private had more than hisshare of troubles, when his pumperbroke down at what could have beena critical moment. Undaunted, Fern-mer made temporary repairs andstood his ground at the caissonthroughout the raid.

At the opposite end of the drydock, meanwhile, Private First ClassOmar E. Hill fared little better withhis 500-gallon pumper. As if the firefighting labors were not arduousenough, a ruptured circulating waterline threatened to shut down his fire

engine. Holding a rag on the brokenline while his comrades raced awayto obtain spare parts, Hill kept hispumper in the battle.

Meanwhile, firefighters on thewest side of the dock succeeded inpassing three hoses to men on Penn-sylvania's forecastle, where theydirected blasts of water ahead of theship and down the starboard side toprevent the burning oil, which resem-bled a "seething cauldron," from drif t-ing aft. A second 500-gallon enginecrew, led by Private First ClassDallman, battled the fires at thesouthwest end of the drydock,despite the suffocating oily blacksmoke billowing forth from Cassinand Downes. Eventually, by 1035,the Marines and other volunteers —who included the indomitable TaiSing Loo — had succeeded in quellingthe fires on board Cassin; those onboard Downes were put out earlythat afternoon.

More work, however, lay in storefor Corporal Milbrandt and his crew.Between 0755 and 0900, three Valshad attacked the destroyer Shaw(DD-373), which shared YFD-2 withthe little yard tug Sotoyomo. Allthree scored hits. Fires ultimatelyreached Shaw's forward magazines

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and triggered an explosion that senttendrils of smoke into the sky andsevered the ship's bow. Several othervolunteer units were already battlingthe blaze with hose carts and two350-gallon pumpers sent in fromHonolulu. Milbrandt, aided as wellby the Pan American Airways fireboat normally stationed at PearlCity, ultimately succeeded in extin-guishing the stricken destroyer's fires.

In the meantime, after havingpounded the military installations onOahu for nearly two hours, between0940 and 1000 the Japanese planesmade their way westward to returnto the carrier decks from whence theyhad arisen. With the respite offeredby the enemy's departure (no oneknew for sure whether or not theywould be back), the Marines at lastfound time to take stock of their sit-uation. Fortunately, the Marine Bar-racks lay some distance away fromwhat had interested the Japanese themost: the ships in the harbor proper.Although some "shell fragments liter-ally rained at times" the material losssustained by the barracks was slight.Moreover, it had been Americangunfire from the ships in the harbor,rather than bombs from Japaneseplanes overhead, that had inflicted

National Archives Photo 80-G-32739

While firefighters train massive jets of water from dockside at left, Shaw (DD 373)burns in the Floating Drydock YFD 2, after being hit by three bombs. Tug Sotoyo-mo (YT 9), with which Shaw has been sharing the drydock, is barely visible aheadof the crippled destroyer. Marines led these firefighting efforts on 7 December 1941.

the damage; at one point that morn-ing a 3-inch antiaircraft shell crashedthrough the roof of a storehouse —the only damage sustained by thebarracks during the entire attack.

Considering the carnage at the air-fields on Oahu, and especially,among the units of the Pacific Fleet,only four men of the 3d Defense Bat-talion had been wounded: SergeantSamuel H. Cobb, Jr., of the 3dDefense Battalion's 3-inch Antiair-craft Group, suffered head injuriesserious enough to warrant his beingtransferred to the Naval Hospital fortreatment, while Private First ClassJules B. Maioran and Private WilliamJ. Whitcomb of the Machine GunGroup and Sergeant Leo HendricksII, of the Headquarters and ServiceBattery, suffered less serious injuries.In addition, two men sent with thetrucks to find ammunition for the3-inch batteries suffered injurieswhen they fell off the vehicles.

In their subsequent reports, thedefense battalion and barracksofficers declined to single out in-dividuals, noting no outstanding in-dividual behavior during theraid — only the steady discharge ofduty expected of Marines. To be sure,great confusion existed, especially atfirst, but the command quickly set-tled down to work and "showed nomore than the normal excitement andno trace of panic or even uneasiness."If anything, the Marines tended toplace themselves at risk unnecessar-ily, as they went about their businesscoolly and, in many cases, "in utterdisregard of their own safety." MajorRoberts recommended that the entire3d Defense Battalion be commend-ed for "their initiative, coolness un-der fire, and [the] alacrity with whichthey emplaced their guns:'

Commendations, however, werenot the order of the day on 7 Decem-ber. Although the Japanese had left,the Marines expected them to returnand finish the job they had begun(many Japanese pilots, includingFuchida, wanted to do just that). If

National Archives Photo 80-G-19943

In the aftermath of the attack, Pennsyl-vania (BB 38) lies astern of the wreckeddestroyers Cassin (DD 372) and Downes(DD 375) in Dry Dock No. 1. Lightcruiser Helena (CL 50) lies alongside1010 Dock in right background; pall ofsmoke is from the still-burning Arizona(BB 39). Marine firefighters distinguishedthemselves in battling blazes in this area.

another attack was to come, therewas much to do to prepare for it. Asthe skies cleared of enemy planes, theMarines at the barracks secured theirestablishment and took steps to com-plete the work already begun on thedefenses. At 1030, the 3d DefenseBattalion's corporal of the guardmoved to the barracks and set thebattalion's radio to the Army Infor-mation Service frequency, thus ena-bling them to pass "flash" messagesto all groups. The Marines also dis-tributed gas masks to all hands.

The morning and afternoon passedquickly, the men losing track of time.The initial confusion experiencedduring the opening moments of theraid had by that point given way toat least some semblance of order, asofficers and noncoms arrived fromleave and began to sort out theircommands. At 1105, the 3d DefenseBattalion's Battery G deployed tomakeshift defense positions as an in-fantry reserve in some ditches dug forbuilding foundations. All of themessmen, many of whom had takenan active hand in the defense of thebarracks against the Japanese attack,

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returned to the three general messhalls and opened up an around-the-clock service to all corners, including"about 6,000 meals. . . to the civilianworkmen of the navy yard," a serv-ice discontinued only "after the foodsupply at the regular established eat-ing places could be replenished:'

By 1100, at least some of the3-inch batteries were emplaced andready to answer any future Japaneseraids. At the north end of the paradeground, the 3d Defense Battalion'sBattery D stood ready for action at1135 while another battery, consist-ing of three guns and an antiaircraftdirector (the one originally ear-marked for Midway) lay at the southend. At 1220, Major Roberts or-ganized his battalion's strength intosix task groups. Task group no. 1 wasto double the Navy Yard guard force,no. 2 was to provide antiaircraftdefense, and no. 3 was to providemachine gun defense. No. 4 was toprovide infantry reserve and fire-fighting crews, no. 5 was to coor-dinate transportation, and no. 6 wasto provide ammunition and equip-ment, as well as messing and billet-ing support.

By 1300, meanwhile, all of the firesin Dry Dock No. 1 had been extin-guished, permitting the Marine andcivilian firefighters to secure theirhard-worked equipment. Althoughthe two battered destroyers, Cassinand Downes, appeared to be totallosses, those who had battled theblaze could take great satisfaction inknowing that they had not onlyspared Pennsylvania from serious firedamage but had also played a majorrole in savihg the drydock. As TaiSing Loo recounted later in his ownbrand of English: 'The Marines of theFire Dep[artmen]t of the Navy Yardare the Heroes of the Day of Dec. 7,1941 that save the Cassin andDownes and USS Pennsylvania inDry Dock No. 1'

Later that afternoon, Battery D'sfour officers and 68 enlisted men,with four .30-caliber machine guns

Photo courtesy of Mrs. Evelyn Lee, via Paul Stillwell, U.S. Naval Institute

Tai Sing Loo and His Bright Red 'Putput'

T ai Sing Loo, Navy Yard photographer, had scheduled anappointment to take a picture of the Main Gate guards at theNavy Yard on the morning of 7 December 1941. While he end-

ed up not taking pictures of the Marines, he gallantly helped the Ma-rines of the Navy Yard Fire Department put out fires in Dry Dock No.1 and later delivered food to famished Leathernecks. He is seen hereon his famous bright red "putput" that he drove around the yard thatday delivering sandwiches and fruit juice.

sent along with them for good meas-ure, moved from the barracks overto Hickam Field to provide the Armyinstallation some measure of antiair-craft protection. Hickam alsobenefitted from the provision of the2d Engineer Battalion's service andequipment. After the attack, the bat-talion's dump truck and two bulldoz-ers lumbered over to the stricken airbase to assist in clearing what re-mained of the bombers that had beenparked wingtip to wingtip, and f ill-ing bomb craters.

Around 1530, a Marine patrol ap-proached Tai Sing Loo, a familiarfigure about the Navy Yard, andasked him to do them a favor. Theyhad had no lunch; some had had nobreakfast because of the events of theday. Going to the garage, Loo rodehis bright red "putput" over to the 3dDefense Battalion mess hail andrelated to his old friend Technical Ser-geant Joseph A. Newland the tale ofthe hungry Marines. Newland andhis messmen prepared ham andchicken sandwiches and Loo madethe rounds of all the posts he couldreach.

In the afternoon and early even-ing hours of 7 December, the menreceived reports that their drinkingwater was poisoned, and that vari-ous points on Oahu were beingbombed and/or invaded. In the ab-sence of any real news, such alarm-ing reports — especially when addedto the already nervous state of thedefenders — only fueled the fear andparanoia prevalent among all ranksand rates. In addition, most of themen were exhausted after their exer-tions of the morning and afternoon.Dog-tired, many would remain onduty for 36 hours without relief.Drawn, unshaven faces and puffyeyes were common. Tense, expectantand anxious Marines and sailors atPearl spent a fitful night on the 7th.

It is little wonder that mistakeswould be made that would have trag-ic consequences, especially in the

stygian darkness of that first blacked-out Hawaiian night following theraid. Still some hours away fromOahu, the carrier Enterprise and herair group had been flying searchesand patrols throughout the day, in aso-far fruitless effort to locate theJapanese carrier force. South ofOahu, one of her pilots spotted whathe thought was a Japanese ship andEnterprise launched a 31-plane strikeat 1642. Nagumo's fleet, however,was homeward bound. While Enter-prise recovered the torpedo planesand dive bombers after their fruitlesssearch, she directed the fighters toland at NAS Pearl Harbor.

Machine guns on board the battle-ship Pennsylvania opened fire on theflight as it came for a landing,though, and soon the entire harborexploded into a fury of gunfire ascones of tracers converged on the in-coming Wildcats" Three of the F4Fsslanted earthward almost immediate-ly; a fourth crashed a short timelater. Two managed to land at Ford

31

Island. The 3d Defense Battalion'sjournalist later recorded that "sixplanes with running lights under 400feet altitude tried Ford Island land-ing and were machine gunned:' It wasa tragic footnote to what had beena terrible day indeed.

The Marines at Pearl Harbor hadbeen surprised by the attack thatdescended upon them, but they roseto the occasion and fought back inthe "best traditions of the naval serv-ice:' While the enemy had attackedwith tenacity and daring, no less sowas the response from the Marineson board the battleships and cruis-ers, at Ewa Mooring Mast Field, andat the Marine Barracks. One can onlythink that Admiral Isoroku Yamamo-to's worst fears of America's "terribleresolve" and that he had awakeneda sleeping giant would have beenconfirmed if he could have peeredinto the faces, so deeply etched withgrim determination, of the Marineswho had survived the events of thatDecember day in 1941.

Pearl Harbor RememberedSeveral of the many memoirs in the Marine Corps Oral

History Collection are by Marines who were serving atPearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, and personally wit-nessed the Japanese attack. Two such memoirs—one byLieutenant General Alan Shapley and a second by BrigadierGeneral Samuel R. Shaw—vividly describe the events ofthat day as they remembered it. General Shapley, a majorin December 1941, had been relieved as commander of Ar-izona's Marine detachment on the 6th. He recalled:

I was just finishing my breakfast, and I was justabout ready to go to my room and get in my baseballuniform to play the Enterprise for the baseball cham-pionship of the United States Fleet, and I heard thisterrible bang and crash. I thought it was a motor sail-er that they dropped on the fantail, and I ran up thereto see what it was all about. When I got up on deckthere, the sailors were aligned on the railing there, look-ing towards Pearl Harbor, and I heard two or three ofthem say, 'This is the best damned drill the Army AirCorps has ever put on.' Then we saw a destroyer beingblown up in the dry dock across the way.

The first thing I knew was when the fantail, whichwas wood, was being splintered when we were beingstrafed by machine guns. And then there was a littlebit of confusion, and I can remember this because theypassed the word on ship that all unengaged personnelget below the third deck You see in a battleship the 'f"third deck is the armored deck, and so realizing whatwas going on this attack and being strafed the unen-gaged personnel were ordered below the third deck.

That started some people going down the ladders.rhen right after that the Pennsylvania which was the

flagship of thewhole fleet, put up these signals Coto#eneral quarters" So that meant that the people weregoing the other way too Lt I Carleton E Simensen didquite a job of turning some of the sailors around, andwe went up in the director. [On the way up the main-mast tripod, Lt Simensen was killed.] He caught a burstthrough the heart and almost knocked me off the tri-pod because I was behind him on the ladder and Iboosted him up in the searchlight platform and wentin to my director. And of course when I got up there,there were only seven or eight men there and I thoughtwe were all going. to get cooked to death because $couldn't see anything but fire below after a while. Istayed there and watched this wo1 attack, becauseI had a grandstand seat for that, and th,n it go..prettyhot Anyway the wind was blowing from the stern tothe stem and tsent the men down and got those menoff Then I apparently got knocked off or blown off

I was pretty close to shore There was a dredg-ing pipeline that ran between the ship and Ford IslandAnd I guess that I was only about 25 yards from the

pipeline and 10 yards from Ford Island, and managedto get ashore. I wasnt so much covered with oil. I didn'thave any clothes on. [The burning fuel oil] burnt allmy clothes off. I walked up to the airfield which wasn'tvery bright of me, because this was still being attackedat first. I wanted to get a machine gun in the adminis-tration building but I couldn't do that. Then I was givena boat cloak from one of my men. It was quite a sightto see 400 or 500 men walking around all burnt, justlike charred steak. You could just see their eyes andtheir mouths. It was terrible. Later I went over to theisland and went to the Marine barracks and got someclothes.

At the Marine Barracks, Captain Samuel R. Shaw, whocommanded one of the two barracks companies, vividlyremembered that Sunday morning as well:

The boat guards were in place, and the music wasout there, and the old and new officer of the day. Andwe had a music, and a hell of a fine sergeant buglerwho had been in Shanghai. He would stand beside theofficers of the day, and there came the airplanes, andhe looked up and he said, "Captain, those are Japanesewar planes." And one of the two of them said, "MyGod, they are, sound the call to arms:' So the buglerstarted sounding the call to arms before the first bombhit.

Of course they bad already started taking out themachine guns They didntwalt for the kn the ODsoffice, they just broke the'door down atd hauled outthe machine guns, put them in position. Everybodythat wasn t involved in that drill grabbed their riflesand ran out in the parade ground' and starting'firingat the airplanes. They must have hfseveral hundredmen out there with rifles. And every [Japanese) planethat was recovered there, or pieces of it, had lots of.30-caliber holes — somebody was hitting them.machine guns or rifles.

Then I remembered — here we had all these guys onthe post who had not been relieved and they had beenposted at 4 o'clock, and come 9 o'clock,: 9:30 they notonly had not been relieved but had no chow and nowater. So I got hold of the mess sergeant and told himto organize, to go around to the posts.

They had a depot At the beginning it was a supplydepot. I told him to send aparty over there and drawa lot of canteens and make sandwiches and wed sendwate x and sandwiches around to the guys on posts untilwe found out some way to relieve all these guys, andget people back. Then he..told me that it was fine ex-cept that he didn t have nearly enough messmen theywere all out in the parade ground shooting I think thesecond phase of planes came in at thatime and wehad a hell of an uproar

Photo of USS Arizona Memorial, 1991, by Maj Charles D. Melson, USMC (Ret)

The authors consulted primarymaterials in the Marine Corps Histor-ical Center Reference Section(November/December 1941 musterrolls) and Personal Papers Section(Claude A. Larkins, Roger M. Em-mons, and Wayne Jordan collections),as well as in the Naval HistoricalCenter Operational Archives Branch(action reports and/or microfilmeddeck logs for the 15 ships with em-barked Marine Detachments, andthose units included in the Comman-dant, 14th Naval District, report), inthe office of the Coast Guard Histori-an, and in the Gordon W. PrangePapers.

The Pearl Harbor Attack: HearingsBefore the Joint Committee on the In-vestigation of the Pearl Harbor At-tack (Washington, D.C.: GovernmentPrinting Office, 1946) contains usefulaccounts (Lieutenant Commander Fu-qua, Lieutenant Colonel Whaling,and Lieutenant Colonel Larkin), asdoes Paul StillweIl, ed., Air Raid:Pearl Harbor! Recollections of a Dayof Infamy (Annapolis: Naval InstitutePress, 1981).

General works concerning PearlHarbor that were consulted includeGordon W. Prange, et al., December7, 1941: The Day The Japanese At-tacked Pearl Harbor (New York:McGraw Hill, 1987), Walter Lord,Day of Infamy (Henry Holt & Co.,1957), and Japanese War HistoryOffice, Senshi Sosho [War HistorySeries], Vol. 10, Hawaii Sakusen(Tokyo: Asagumo Shimbunsa, 1970).

Articles from the Naval InstituteProceedings include: Cornelius C.Smith Jr., A Hell of a Christ-mas:' (Dec68), Thomas C. Hone,"The Destruction of the Battle Line atPearl Harbor:' (Dec77) and Paul H.Backus, "Why Them And Not Me?"(Sep81). From Marine Corps Gazette:Clifford B. Drake, "A Day at PearlHarbor:' (Nov65). From Shipmate:Samuel R. Shaw, "Marine Barracks,Navy Yard, Pearl Harbor:' (Dec73).From Naval History: Albert A. Gras-selli, "The Ewa Marines" (Spring1991). From Leatherneck: Philip N.Pierce, "Twenty Years Ago(Dec61)

R obert J. Cressman is currently a civilian historian in the NavalHistorical Center's Ships' Histories Branch. A graduate of the

University of Maryland with a bachelor of arts in history in 1972,he obtained his master of arts in history under the late Dr. Gor-don W. Prange at the University of Maryland in 1978. Mr. Cress-man, a former reference historian in the Marine Corps HistoricalCenter's Reference Section (1979-1981), is author of That GallantShip: USS Yorktown (CV-5), and editor and principal contributor of A GloriousPage in Our History: The Battle of Midway, 4-6 June 1942. He and the co-authorof this monograph, J. Michael Wenger, also co-authored Steady Nerves and StoutHearts: The USS Enterprise (CV-6) Air Group and Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941.

JMichael Wenger, currently an analyst for the Square D Com-

pany in Knightdale, North Carolina, graduated from Atlan-tic Christian College in 1972, and obtained a master of arts fromDuke University in 1973. Mr. Wenger has taught in the Raleigh,North Carolina, school system and writes as a free-lance militaryhistorian. He is the co-author of The Way It Was: Pearl Harbor—The Original Photographs. His publication credits include theRaleigh News and Observer and Naval Aviation News.

About the Cover: In the aftermath of the attack, Pennsylvania (BB 38) lies asternof the wrecked destroyers Cassin (DD 372) and Downes (DD 375).

For sale by the U.S. Government Printing OfficeSuperintendent of Documents, Mail Stop: SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-9328

/ A11941 W'W' (II 11945

THIS PAMPHLET HISTORY, one in a series devoted to U.S. Marines in theWorld War II era, is published for the education and training of Marines bythe History and Museums Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps,Washington, D.C., as a part of the U.S. Department of Defense observanceof the 50th anniversary of victory in that war.

Editorial costs of preparing this pamphlet have been defrayed in part bya bequest from the estate of Emilie H. Watts, in memory of her late husband,Thomas M. Watts, who served as a Marine and was the recipient of a PurpleHeart.

WORLD WAR II COMMEMORATIVE SERIES

DIRECTOR OF MARINE CORPS HISTORY AND MUSEUMSBrigadier General Edwin H. Simmons, IJSMC (Ret)

GENERAL EDITOR,WORLD WAR II COMMEMORATIVE SERIES

Benis M. Frank

EDITING AND DESIGN SECTION, HISTORY AND MUSEUMS DIV1SIONRobert E. Struder, Senior Editor; W. Stephen Hill, Visual Information

Specialist; Catherine A. Kerns, Composition Services Technician

Marine Corps Historical CenterBuilding 58, Washington Navy Yard

Washington, D.C. 20374-0580

1992PCN 190 003116 00

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About the Authors