Japanese Plane example essay topic

"A Day That Will Live In Infamy". On December 7, 1941 Japan pulled a surprise attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor. The United States knew that there might be an attack towards the U.S. but did not know where. World War II was happening in 1941, between the Allied Forces and Italy, the Soviet Union, and Germany. The leaders of the three communist countries were, Be nitto Mussolini, dictator of Italy, Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany, and Joseph Stalin, dictator of the Soviet Union. These three leaders believed that Fascism was the form of government to have.

So, Adolf Hitler, created what was called Nazism, he had complete control over his whole country. The United States didn't believe in either type of government, but did not want to get involved unless it was necessary. Adolf Hitler had built up the Nazi Army and made France fall to him. During this time Churchhill's air force in Brit an fought to gained control of the skies after Nazi Germany bombed London. Japan on the other hand had started to gain control of the pacific and joined the Nazis in the fight against the Allied Forces. So, the United States shut off oil exports to Japan.

Japan had enough oil to supply them for nine months. They had to do something, and do it fast, in a place that was completely unexpected. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, home of the Pacific Fleet of the United States Navy. At 7: 00 a.m. there was a shot fired in the Pacific Ocean, the Japanese had sent a submarine into U. S waters. Lieutenant Outer bridge (U.S. Naval Officer) had sunk a Japanese submarine.

So, the U. S Navy brought upon "first blood" for the United States. At 7: 55 a.m. the Japanese bombed Wheeler Field, eight miles north of Pearl Harbor. 2 "I looked out the window and spotted the rising sun on the planes. They were flying so low you could see the faces of the pilots... That was it. My God, everyone is running around, bumping into each other...

I made it to the planes and climbed in one of them. There was another airman already there. I helped him all I could to keep firing. I don't know if we hit anything or not, but at least we showed the Japanese we were there.

After the second wave had passed over, we looked around. What a mess! They had caught most of planes on the ground. This was very important to their plan of attack. If we had been able to put a couple of hundred planes up in the air to meet them, we could have thrown a monkey wrench into their whole operation. Well, we didn't.

They caught us with our pants down and that's all there is to it. (Private Edward J. Ginger of the U.S. Army Air Corps) " There were nine places that the Japanese wanted to attack in Hawaii. They were Haleiwa Field, Wheeler Field, Schofield Barracks, Pearl Harbor, Hickam Field, Ewa Field, Fort Kamehameha, Bellows Field, and Kaneohe Naval Air Station. At least a dozen pilots from Haleiwa and Wheeler Fields made it into the air.

They made ten enemy kills and a not certain number of problems. Two American pilots were killed from Haleiwa and Wheeler Fields. Schofield Barracks in Hawaii is an army infantry adjacent to Wheeler Field. Lieutenant Stephan G. Saltzman heard two planes coming from Kole Kole. At 8: 25 a.m. He had seen a Nakajima plane.

Saltzman grabbed a Springfield rifle and shot at the Japanese pilot. Saltzman nailed the pilot right in the head. The plane fell into the back of a schoolhouse. No injures or fatalities happened at Schofield Barracks.

Hickam was an airstrip southeast of Pearl Harbor. It was bombarded with bombs from fighter planes, dive-bombers, and high-level bombers. Forty-six men were killed and two were severely injured. 3 Ewa Field was a marine air station. At 7: 55 a.m. Zeros made passes to blow up forty-seven of forty-eight fighter planes with 7.7 millimeter machine guns and 20-millimeter cannons.

The fighter planes were lined up along the airstrip, which was a mistake among most of the bases at Hawaii. After blowing up the planes on the strip, the Japanese shot up the planes that were under going repair. Next the Val planes (Japanese Dive-Bombers) started to bomb hangers and other ground facilities. Private First Class Bob Wells took cover in some walk-in refrigerators. Wells later described what he saw. "My, God, what a sight!

We had forty-eight planes of different types lined up. The Japanese had done a number on all of them. The two of us each picked up bolt-action Springfield rifles. A jeep drove by loaded bandoleers in it.

A sergeant in the jeep was tossing them out. We each caught one and went over to where they were building a new swimming pool. There was a bulldozer parked at the site. Using it for cover, we started shooting out rifles at the Japanese planes as they flew by. I don't think we hit anything, but we could let off some steam. Then, out of nowhere, two American planes appeared.

I later found out they were piloted by two Army men named Welch and Taylor. Boy, did they tear into those Japanese planes! I saw two go down. There might have been more... They surely knocked the American airfields to pieces. Not only Ewa, but also Wheeler, Bellows, and Hickam.

Just about every place we had planes we devastated". Kaneohe Naval Air Station was located on the eastern side of Oahu. Twenty-seven PBYs were demolished. Only three patrol flights escaped without harm; and six were damaged. There were thirty-six PBYs on the field at Kaneohe. There was a plane taking off at Bellows Field in Hawaii.

It made it easy prey for the Japanese to bomb or shoot it down. Lieutenant Colonel Leonard W eddington looked on in as two P-40's fell from the sky. Afterward he described their plight: "I personally watched, wondering what should happen if the pilot was hit while taxing, whether the airplane would just go on off, over the island, or 4 whether he would die there, or whether he would ground loop, or what would happen... Six different airplanes made passes at him and seemingly never hit him, but when he got on the runway and started to take off, they got right square behind him, and just as he got off, shot him down in flames; and he was turning, trying to give them a bad target, and crashed into the beach and burned there". At 8: 13 a.m. Fort Kamehameha was hit.

Machine guns started to shoot from the bases tennis courts. Colonel William J. McCarthy recalled the moment as he arrived on the sight. "A Japanese plane had just struck a tree and caromed off the first tree and struck into a wall at my right at the ordnance machine gun shed... The pilot was dead... stuffed in the tree, but the plane was on the ground, and the engine went around the ordnance shop. In caroming off struck several men who were in the road. One man was completely decapitated.

Another man apparently had been hit by the props, because his legs and arms and head were off, lying right on the grass". In the end of the 100 U.S. Navy ships present, only eight battleships were damaged with five sunk. Eleven cruisers and destroyers were also badly damaged. The ones that were there were killed. Two thousand three hundred and thirty-five servicemen and 68 civilians were killed. The wounded included one thousand one hundred and seventy eight people.

The U.S. S Arizona was the worst blow of the attack. The ammunition exploded on board when the 1,760 pound bomb hit it, killing 1,177 servicemen..