_Capt Chevey S. White was a veteran of service in China with the 4th
Marines, where he had edited the_ Walla Walla, _the regiment’s news
magazine. White had become CO of_ Tennessee_’s_ (_BB-43_) _Marine
Detachment on 3 August 1941. Ultimately, he was killed by enemy mortar
fire on Guam on 22 July 1944._]
_West Virginia_, outboard of _Tennessee_, had been scheduled to
sail for Puget Sound, due for overhaul, on 17 November, but had
been retained in Hawaiian waters owing to the tense international
situation. In her exposed moorings, she thus absorbed six torpedoes,
while a seventh blew her rudder free. Prompt counterflooding, however,
prevented her from turning turtle as _Oklahoma_ had done, and she sank,
upright, alongside _Tennessee_.
On board _California_, moored singly off the administration building
at the naval air station, junior officer of the deck on board had
been Second Lieutenant Clifford B. Drake. Relieved by Ensign Herbert
C. Jones, USNR, Drake went down to the wardroom for breakfast (Kadota
figs, followed by steak and eggs) where, around 0755, he heard airplane
engines and explosions as Japanese dive bombers attacked the air
station. The general quarters alarm then summoned the crew to battle
stations. Drake, forsaking his meal, hurried to the foretop.
By 0803, the two ready machine guns forward of the bridge had
opened fire, followed shortly thereafter by guns no. 2 and 4 of the
antiaircraft battery. As the gunners depleted the ready-use ammunition,
however, two torpedoes struck home in quick succession. _California_
began to settle as massive flooding occurred. Meanwhile, fumes from the
ruptured fuel tanks--she had been fueled to 95 percent capacity the
previous day--drove out the men assigned to the party attempting to
bring up ammunition for the guns by hand. A call for men to bring up
additional gas masks proved fruitless, as the volunteers, who included
Private Arthur E. Senior, could not reach the compartment in which they
were stored.
_California_’s losing power because of the torpedo damage soon
relegated Lieutenant Drake, in her foretop, to the role of “... a
reporter of what was going on ... a somewhat confused young lieutenant
suddenly hurled into war.” As _California_ began listing after the
torpedo hits, Drake began pondering his own ship’s fate. Comparing his
ship’s list with that of _Oklahoma_’s, he dismissed _California_’s
rolling over, thinking, “who ever heard of a battleship capsizing?”
_Oklahoma_, however, did a few moments later.
Meanwhile, at about 0810, in response to a call for a chain of
volunteers to pass 5-inch/25 ammunition, Private Senior again stepped
forward and soon clambered down to the C-L Division Compartment. There
he saw Ensign Jones, Lieutenant Drake’s relief earlier that morning,
standing at the foot of the ladder on the third deck, directing the
ammunition supply. For almost 20 minutes, Senior and his shipmates
toiled under Jones’ direction until a bomb penetrated the main deck at
about 0830 and exploded on the second deck, plunging the compartment
into darkness. As acrid smoke filled the compartment, Senior reached
for his gas mask, which he had lain on a shell box behind him, and put
it on. Hearing someone say: “Mr. Jones has been hit,” Senior flashed
his flashlight over on the ensign’s face and saw that “it was all
bloody. His white coat also had blood all over it.” Senior and another
man then carried Jones as far as the M Division compartment, but the
ensign would not let them carry him any further. “Leave me alone,”
he gasped insistently, “I’m done for. Get out of here before the
magazines go off!” Soon thereafter, however, before he could get clear,
Senior felt the shock of an explosion from down below and collapsed,
unconscious.
[Illustration: