_Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, looking south, on 13 October 1941. Marine
Barracks complex is located to the left of the tank farm visible just
to left of center. Several temporary wooden barracks, completed in
early 1941, ring the parade ground._]
At the outset, apparently no one except the squadron commanders knew
their respective destinations, but the men of VMF-211 and VMSB-231,
meanwhile, apparently ordered their affairs and made ready for what
was to appear as “advanced base exercises.” Among those men seeing to
his financial affairs at Ewa Mooring Mast Field on 3 December 1941 was
First Lieutenant Richard E. Fleming, USMCR, who wrote to his widowed
mother: “This is the last time I’ll be able to write for probably some
time. I’m sorry I can’t give you any details; it’s that secret.”
On the 5th, Task Force 12 sailed from Pearl. Eighteen light gray
Vought SB2U-3 Vindicators from VMSB-231, under 41-year old Major
Clarence J. “Buddy” Chappell, then made the 1.7-hour flight from Ewa
and landed on board _Lexington_, along with the “Lady Lex” air group.
Planes recovered, the force set course for Midway. The _Lexington_
departed Pearl Harbor on the morning of 5 December. That afternoon saw
the arrival of Battleship Division One from gunnery exercises in the
Hawaiian Operating Area, and the three dreadnoughts, _Arizona_ (BB-39),
_Nevada_ (BB-36), and _Oklahoma_ (BB-37), moored in their assigned
berths at the quays along Ford Island. The movements of the ships in
and out of Pearl Harbor had been the object of much interest on the
part of the espionage system operating out of the Japanese consulate in
Honolulu throughout the year 1941, for the information its operatives
were providing went to support an ambitious and bold operation that had
taken shape over several months.
Unbeknownst to Admiral Kimmel, a Japanese task force under the command
of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, formed around six carriers and the
most powerful force of its kind ever assembled by any naval power, had
set out from the remote Kurile Islands on 27 November. It observed
radio silence and steamed via the comparatively less traveled northern
Pacific.
Nagumo’s mission was to destroy the United States Pacific Fleet and
thus ensure its being unable to threaten the Japanese Southern
Operation poised to attack American, British, and Dutch possessions in
the Far East. All of the warning signs made available to Admiral Kimmel
and General Short pointed toward hostilities occurring within the
forseeable future, but not on Oahu. War, however, was about to burst
upon the Marines at Pearl Harbor “like a thunderclap from a clear sky.”
_Suddenly Hurled into War_
Some 200 miles north of Oahu, Vice Admiral Nagumo’s _First Air
Fleet_--formed around the aircraft carriers _Akagi_, _Kaga_, _Soryu_,
_Hiryu_, _Shokaku_ and _Zuikaku_--pressed southward in the pre-dawn
hours of 7 December 1941. At 0550, the dark gray ships swung to port,
into the brisk easterly wind, and commenced launching an initial strike
of 184 planes 10 minutes later. A second strike would take off after an
hour’s interval. Once airborne, the 51 Aichi D3A1 Type 99 dive bombers
(Vals), 89 Nakajima B5N2 attack planes (Kates) used in high-level
bombing or torpedo bombing roles, and 43 Mitsubishi A6M2 Type 00
fighters (Zeroes), led by Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, _Akagi_’s air group
commander, wheeled around, climbed to 3,000 meters, and droned toward
the south at 0616. The only other military planes aloft that morning
were Douglas SBD Dauntlesses from _Enterprise_, flying searches ahead
of the carrier as she returned from Wake Island, Army Boeing B-17
Flying Fortresses heading in from the mainland, and Navy Consolidated
PBY Catalinas on routine patrols out of the naval air stations at Ford
Island and Kaneohe.
[Illustration: