_Ewa’s 1938 Ford ambulance, seen after the Japanese raid, its Red Cross
status violated, took over 50 hits from strafing planes._]
As if _Akagi_’s and _Kaga_’s fighters had not sown enough destruction
on Ewa, one division of Zeroes from _Soryu_ and one from _Hiryu_
arrived on the scene, fresh from laying waste to many of the planes at
Wheeler Field. This second group of fighter pilots went about their
work with the same deadly precision exhibited at Wheeler only minutes
before. The raid caught Master Technical Sergeant Darner’s crew in the
middle of changing the tires on the station’s ambulance. Private First
Class Mann, who by that point had managed to obtain some ammunition for
his rifle, dropped down with the rest of the Marines at the garage and
fired at the attacking fighters as they streaked by.
Lieutenant Kiyokuma Okajima led his six fighters down through the
rolling smoke, executing strafing attacks until ground fire holed
the forward fuel tank of his wingman, Petty Officer 1st Class Kazuo
Muranaka. When Okajima discovered the damage to Muranaka’s plane, he
decided that his men had pressed their luck far enough, and began to
assemble his unit and shepherd them toward the rendezvous area some
10 miles west of Kaena Point. The retiring Japanese in all likelihood
then spotted incoming planes from _Enterprise_ (CV-6), that had been
launched at 0618 to scout 150 miles ahead of the ship in nine two-plane
sections. Their planned flight path to Pearl was to take many of them
over Ewa Mooring Mast Field, where some would encounter Japanese
aircraft.
Meanwhile, back at Ewa, after what must have seemed an eternity, the
Zeroes of the first wave at last wheeled away toward their rendezvous
point. Having made a shambles of the Marine air base, Japanese pilots
claimed the destruction of 60 aircraft on the ground: _Akagi_’s airmen
accounted for 11, _Kaga_’s 15, _Soryu_’s 12, and _Hiryu_’s 22. Their
figures were not too far off the mark, for 47 aircraft of all types had
been parked at the field at the beginning of the onslaught, 33 of which
had been fully operational.
Although the Japanese had wreaked havoc upon MAG-21’s complement of
planes, the group’s casualties seemed miraculously light. Apparently,
the enemy fighter pilots in the first wave maintained a fairly high
degree of discipline, eschewing attacks on people and concentrating
their attacks on machines. Many of Ewa’s Marines, however, had parked
their cars near the center of the station. By the time the Japanese
departed, the parking lot resembled a junk yard of mangled automobiles
of various makes and models.
Overcoming the initial shock of the first strafing attack, Ewa’s
Marines took stock of their situation. As soon as the last of Itaya’s
and Shiga’s Zeroes had departed, Marines went out and manned stations
with rifles and .30-caliber machine guns taken from damaged aircraft
and from the squadron ordnance rooms. Technical Sergeant William G.
Turnage, an armorer, supervised the setting up of the free machine
guns. Technical Sergeant Anglin, meanwhile, took his little boy to the
guard house, where a woman motorist agreed to drive Hank home to his
mother. As it would turn out, that reunion was not to be accomplished
until much later that day, “inasmuch as the distraught mother had
already left home to look for her son.”
Master Technical Sergeant Emil S. Peters, a veteran of action in
Nicaragua, had, during the first attack, reported to the central
ordnance tent to lend a hand in manning a gun. By the time he arrived
there, however, there were none left to man. Then he saw a Douglas
SBD-2, one of two spares assigned to VMSB-232, parked behind the
squadron’s tents. Enlisting the aid of Private William G. Turner,
VMSB-231’s squadron clerk, Peters ran over to the ex-_Lexington_
machine that still bore her USN markings, 2-B-6, pulled the after
canopy forward, and clambered in the after cockpit, stepping hard on
the foot pedal to unship the free .30-caliber Browning from its housing
in the after fuselage, and then locking it in place. Turner, having
obtained a supply of belted ammunition, took his place on the wing as
Peters’ assistant.
Elsewhere, nursing his painfully wounded finger and leg, Lieutenant
Colonel Larkin ordered extra guards posted on the perimeter of the
field and on the various roads leading into the base. Men not engaged
in active defense went to work fighting the many fires. Drivers parked
what trucks and automobiles had remained intact on the runways to
prevent any possible landings by airborne troops. Although hardly
transforming Ewa into a fortress, the Marines ensured that they would
be ready for any future attack.
Undoubtedly, most of the men at Ewa expected--correctly--that the
Japanese would return. At about 0835, enemy planes again made their
appearance in the sky over Ewa, but this time, Marines stood or
crouched ready and waiting for what proved to be Lieutenant Commander
Takahashi’s dive bombing unit from _Shokaku_, returning from its
attacks on the naval air station at Pearl Harbor and the Army’s Hickam
Field, roaring in from just above the treetops. Initially, their
targets appeared to be the planes, but, seeing that most had already
been destroyed, the enemy pilots turned to strafing buildings and
people in a “heavy and prolonged” assault.
[Illustration: