l country in the world. A country such as Japan, which does not even have the resources to survive a lengthy war, could not possibly attack them . The result of the attack would have been much less serious had the American officers exercised more vigilance. The ignorance was so great that, on the day of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, several major and peculiar instances were noted and ignored by officers on duty. At 03.50 an unidentified periscope was seen and ignored at the entrance of the harbor. Also, the destroyer "Ward" depth-charged and sank an unidentified submarine at 06.37. The contact report was taken up much later and with no degree of urgency. Finally, two radar sightings of a large mass of aircraft 64 kilometers north of the island were dismissed by the commanding officer at 07.02 as a ‘probable’ flight of B-17s from the US west coast . These events, left utterly unacknowledged, led up to one of the great military defeats in US history. At 06.00, the 2 500 foot anti-torpedo gate that guarded the entrance to Pearl Harbor was opened in a customary morning maneuver unknowingly welcoming the attack. Three-hundred and sixty Japanese planes broke through the clouds above Pearl Harbor at 07.55. The planes attacked in rows of two or three, dropping torpedoes at 100 knots from 70 feet.The first wave of planes destroyed US hangers and the planes in the neat, anti-sabotage rows. Other attacks in the first wave were on ‘Battleship Row’, cruisers and other auxiliary ships. Most ships had numerous torpedo hits. To complete the destruction of the war ships, six submarines aided in the sinking and destroying of what was not already certain. When torpedoing planes left the vicinity, bombers carrying 1 600 pound bombs were sent to destroy any remaining ships. Overlapping the first wave of attack at 08.40 was a second one. They concentrated on the not yet fully destroyed airfields. By 09.45 any ship of the US Pacific! Na...
