Pearl Harbor Attack Photos

[Simaril]

Thanks to Life recently uploading many pics from their photo archive, Google Images hosts a host of images that have been hard or impossible to find till now. Since many of us may not take the time to mine that trove and since this is the anniversary of America's entry into WW2 I'm posting some of the new pictures.

Many of these are familiar, if not downright taken for granted. Others were new (to me at least). Taken together, with a little effort they can give us a glimpse into what it might have been like to have lived through some of the most frightening times in modern history.







Try to imagine what it felt like. Most knew war was coming, but most expected it to stay safely far away for a good while. Experts thought Japan would start with the far east and the Phillipines, and many felt they could be stopped there long before they threatened even America's distant possessions. (There was, after all, a substantial reservoir of racism even among the powerful.) Yeah, there were U Boats sinking American ships off the US coast, but that seemed different.

In short, most probably felt the way many here do now about Iran getting nukes.


What's very hard for us to see with hindsight is just how SHATTERING these attacks were. Try to imagine NOT knowing that aircraft carriers would be the masters of the sea; remember that the Washington Naval Treaty was the equivalent of our era's Nuclear Strategic Arms Reduction Talks. Everyone "knew" that the battleships were the Queens of the Seas, and most thought that they would be the backbone of our defense.




They were our strategic weapons, our safety net. And in one morning, they were all gone.




We were in the middle of a war, one many wanted to avoid completely. And we were disarmed, and terribly vulnerable. Thinking this way made these photos far more intimidating to me, and even that feeling can't begin to approach what it must have been like.

[Simaril]

From the cockpit of an attacking Japanese aircraft, now over land. Note second plane just above center.
Note: As Buzzard7 accurately points out, there were no multiengined Japanese attackers. Despite the caption LIFE put on the photo, this shot must have been from a US aircraft that fortunately was ignored by the attacking fixed gear bombers!




Broad view of actual attack. Note smoke pouring from Arizona and Japanese aircraft still over the harbor.




Captured Japanese photo of attack on Battleship Row. Note torpedo tracks; in photo center you can see the expanding ripples of a torpedo impact that hasn't yet had time to geyser. (Or is it a bomb near miss? Or something else?) In background note the strategic target they missed -- look at all those oil storage tanks, and imagine how long it would have taken to rebuild them, replenish Hawaiian reserves again, AND have kept up with the operational needs of a navy at war a thousand miles from the tanks of San Fran!

[Simaril]

Now the attack is happening. A quiet routine Sunday.....suddenly isn't quiet, and surely isnt routine. They must have been choking down panic...




The USS Nevada burns after being hit by bombs and torpedos


Sailors on the roof of the Naval Air Station watch the USS California burn, with men evacuating even while the fire is being fought.



The USS Maryland, relatively undamaged, sits next to the capsized USS Oklahoma and in front of other burning vessels.


Fireboats and regular longboats come dangerously close to the USS West Virginia while trying to help extinguish flames and save the injured.



And the danger isn't theoretic -- those men saw the USS Shaw explode dramatically after she was hit.



Another view of the USS Shaw's end.


That sequence really hits home for me -- those men in the longboats were no different than the first responding firemen at the Twin Towers. People are the same now as they were then...and the real hero is the guy who does what needs to be done because its the right thing to do, regardless of risk to himself.




Others did their duty by getting their vessels -- which took years and millions to build -- out from the confines of the harbor. Here's a light cruiser sailing past the burning wreckage of the USS Arizona. (Actually taken a little after the attack... but the fires are still burning hot, and no one knew how many waves there would be.)

[glock89]

Those are nice pictures may who ever die that day RIP. 

[Simaril]

And there was work to do ashore. Aerial view of the Naval Air Station complex with the fires at their height.


These are the burned out hulks of hangars at the Naval Air Station. Note the warbirds reduced to embers.


Firemen battle the blazes at Hickam.


In a famous shot, sailors look to the harbor as secondary explosions rock the base.


Another famous shot, though I'd never heard the story behind it. This was a Coast Guard B-17 that was landing during the attack. It had its flares set on fire by Japanese bullets, and the resulting fire destroyed the aircraft on the ground. Pilot Ray Swenson managed to set her down at Hickam field without loss of life.


Hangar 11 at Hickam field after the fires were out.



What would your emotions be like, cleaning up a mess like this while fires were still burning in the harbor? Hickam Field again.

[Simaril]

Remember what I said about panic? These men were killed by "friendly" fire.

[Simaril]

This one scared me. It's daytime -- that's how much smoke filled the sky in the middle of the attack. Burning ships everywhere, some already capsized keel up.


Fires seem unstoppable aboard the USS West Virginia and USS Tennessee


Left to Right -- USS West Virginia (heavy damage), USS Tennessee (heavy damage), USS Arizona (sunk)


The USS Arizona in her death throes. Note the ship gun rising above the water...everything else submerged.


Later December 7th, the West Virginia is resting on the bottom -- "sunken" but retrievable.


The fires have died off, but the Arizona is an absolute wreck.


Another view of the Arizona's superstructure, twisted and torn.

[Simaril]

Now late in the day --
Remember the dramatic explosion of the USS Shaw? Even though it looked like there wouldn't be two planks still together, you can see her wreckage in the foreground. She was in drydock, but all you can see of her is the twisted mess in photo center. The catwalk in foreground is decimated, and the dark mass in background is (I think) the drydock structure itself, not a ship at all.



One of the most sobering pictures of all. This is the capsized hull of the USS Oklahoma. If my memory serves me right, sailors could hear tapping from inside the hull as trapped sailors desperately hoped for rescue. But without manpower, equipment, and time -- they died in the darkness.

[Simaril]

December 8th, 1941.




Destroyer USS Cassin leans against sister Destroyer USS Downes, in Pearl Harbor drydock. Hoses are still being played on the wreckage.


Same drydock, with the USS Pennsylvania pulling in to the space behind the damaged vessels. Note the oil scum and wreckage still floating in the drydock.

[Simaril]

December 13th, 1941




WE know these battleships were going to be raised, refitted, and sent back out to wreak some vengeance. But can you imagine what the sailors in the harbor thought when they looked at those wrecks every day?

[Simaril]

February 1942



Here's part of the "total war effort" you don't hear about -- these guys are inmates at San Francisco's San Quentin maximum security prison. They're working in the harbor shifting tons of copper that was salvaged from Pearl Harbor's wreckage.



Look familiar? Yep, that's the USS Oklahoma, still laying on her side 3 months later.


And this is familiar too. The USS Arizona resting on the bottom of the harbor. Others have posted color images of the National Monument that resides at the spot, but even though this is black and white it seems more real to me...less sterile and "honored", and more like the reminder of sacrifice it must have seemed in 1942.

[Buzzard7]

  to those who gave their lives for all of us.


On a side note I believe the first shot you posted is actually the outboard engine on a B-17. The japanese did not have any multi-engine carrier borne aircraft.

[1pLUs44]

 

good pics.

[Newman5]

Thank you so much for taking the time to post these images of "a date which will live in infamy".  Simply amazing.   

[Simaril]

Thank you so much for taking the time to post these images of "a date which will live in infamy".  Simply amazing.   

My pleasure. I'd saved these to my hard drive -- being a bit of an historical picture fiend -- but figured they'd be appreciated here.



For any who are interested:
The AH boards limit photo size to 1024 resolution, so what you're seeing here is moderately smaller than what's available at Google Images' Life archive. Here's a link that will generate the same search parameters I used, so you can cull out the pictures that impressed you most at their full resolution. http://images.google.com/images?q=pearl+harbor&q=source%3AlifeAnd for once, I think the watermark (LIFE) adds to the appeal rather than detracts from it!