block 2 navy history and heritage world war ii pacific

Kimmel his headquarters was also on Oahu, overlooking the great Navy base at Pearl Harbor. Commanding the United States Pacific Fleet was Rear Admiral Husband E. Short commanded the Hawaiian Department, the Army’s most vital overseas outpost. On the Hawaiian island of Oahu, Lieutenant General Walter C.

In a nearby office sat his Navy counterpart, Admiral Harold R. Marshall, Chief of Staff, was responsible for the entire United States Army and all of its installations. The information was largely ignored the preparations were utterly inadequate.Īt the moment of the attack four professional military men filled posts of vital importance. The United States government, its senior military leaders, and its commanders in Hawaii had had sufficient information to be adequately warned that an attack was possible, and had had time to be prepared to thwart or to blunt the blow. But as to the disaster itself, the military record is clear.Ī well-planned and brilliantly executed surprise attack by Japanese carrier-based aircraft was launched against the major American bastion in the Pacific. As in most wars, the political and diplomatic background was so complex and confused as to defy definitive analysis-though this has not prevented historians and others from making the attempt. The worst disaster in the military annals of the United States had ushered us into World War II. Our army air strength in Hawaii-the Japanese found its planes ranged neatly wing to wing on airfield ramps-was a tangled mass of smoking wreckage.

When it was over, the battleships of our Pacific Fleet, moored by pairs in their Pearl Harbor base, had received a mortal blow. on Sunday, December 7,1941, a devastating Japanese aerial attack struck the island of Oahu, Territory of Hawaii.

Block 2 navy history and heritage world war ii pacific