Remember Pearl Harbor Dec. 7

In March 1938, Hitler took Austria. The conquest was over in a few days. The world simply looked on.

The same year Hitler threatened Czechoslovakia. German speaking people inhabited western Czechoslovakia, and Hitler argued that all German-speaking people should be under one flag. On Sept. 29, 1938, the Munich pact was signed giving Hitler what he wanted. Neville Chamberlin, Prime Minister of England, was largely responsible for this decision, even though Winston Churchill, who was then in the House of Commons, strongly opposed the decision. Then Poland fell in 1939, France and Finland surrendered. Norway was conquered and England was attacked from the air.

Now this is 1940. We began to call up the National Guard units in America. The 45th Division out of my state of Oklahoma, for example, was called to active duty.

Let us now move to the Pacific. In late 1940, the U.S. placed an embargo on the shipment of high-octane petroleum to Japan, after Japan seized a part of French Indochina. The rest of Indochina was then taken by Japan in July 1941. At that time Great Britain and the United States froze Japanese assets in their banks. At the same time Japan, as begun earlier, was continuing to seize land in China.

In mid-November 1941, Japanese planes were taken on board their respective carriers. Then they headed toward the Kurile Islands, traveling singly and on different courses to avoid attention. Then on Nov. 25, 1941, the 28-ship task force including six carriers left the Kuriles.

On Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese task force was 230 miles north of Oahu. Just before dawn, the order was given to take off. Within 15 minutes, 183 aircraft took off from the carriers. The time was now 6:15 a.m. Included were torpedo planes, level bombers, dive bombers and fighter aircraft. At 7:49 a.m. the attack began. Targets were Pearl Harbor, Hickam field, Bellows field, Wheeler field, Ford Naval Base and certain others.

A few minutes later, 167 more aircraft attacked. In addition, 25 to 28 submarines arrived slightly before the aircraft together with midget submarines, (five in number) fastened to the decks of the large submarines.

There were 94 ships of the U.S. Navy in Pearl Harbor at the time of the attack. Seventy were combat vessels including eight battleships.

As a result of the attack, seven of the eight battleships had been sunk or badly damaged. Three cruisers had suffered severe damage, as had three destroyers. Out of a total of 394 U.S. airplanes, 188 were destroyed and 194 damaged. Crumpled hangars collapsed, burying men and planes in the debris.

The tragic and heroic story of that Sunday long ago can never be fully told. Many of the men who could have told it died before it was over.

Two thousand four hundred three persons died. The channels were jammed with sinking hulks, the airfields were a welter of smoldering planes and hundreds of men lay dead in the wide spread wreckage. Fifteen men won the Congressional Medal of Honor, and of these 15, 11 were dead.

War was declared on Dec. 8, 1941. I was in Texas in Aviation Cadet Training.