Sneak Attack: Small Arms at Pearl Harbor - The Ayoob Files

American Handgunner, Jan-Feb, 2002 by Massad Ayoob

Situation: An air raid savages Oahu, servicemen and armed citizens alike reach for small arms.

Lessons: Valor and marksmanship count. American soldiers shoot back at invading planes with rifles and pistols, as well as bigger stuff.

President Franklin Roosevelt was right when he called December 7, 1941, a day that would live in infamy. Now, in the 60th anniversary year of the devastating sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, our nation commemorates again the courage of those who fought there and the sacrifice of those who died there. A blockbuster film released in 2001 justly lionizes the courageous pilots who went aloft in a hail of fire and fought the attackers. However, all too many contemporary Americans are not aware of the efforts of their countrymen in returning fire from the ground.

As one historian put it, "Everything from 5" ship's guns to regulation Colt .45 pistols and privately owned hunting rifles had been pressed into service" as the Americans responded to the sneak attack. We know more than ever today about how many balls were dropped and how many warnings ignored, leading to the vulnerability of the U.S. military complex on Oahu.

Admiral Husband T. Kimmel, commander of U.S. Navy forces on the island, watched the devastation of Battleship Row from the second floor of Pearl Harbor's submarine base headquarters. A spent .50-caliber machinegun bullet came through the window, struck him in the chest, and bounced off without causing harm. He picked it up and said, "I wish it had killed me."

Kimmel, along with his Army counterpart in Hawaii, General Walter C. Short, would be targeted with the lion's share of the blame for the lack of preparedness.

Some of those on the ground fought with both courage and skill. Some, not having the skill yet, did the best they could with just courage. At one point, a group of well-meaning servicemen tried to arm Browning .50-caliber machineguns but got the belts in wrong and jammed the weapons. This was not the only time such a thing would happen during World War II. One historian would later note, "The story goes of a new replacement plunked down in a firefight near the Rapido River in Italy. With the Germans only 10 yards away, he looked at his rifle and shouted, 'How do you load this thing?"'

Amidst the heroes of December 7, 1941, there were also a handful of cowards and martinets. History is replete with accounts of soldiers, sailors and Marines having to break their way into armories to gain access to weapons as the bombing and strafing approached fever pitch. One quartermaster said he could not issue weapons until war had been officially declared. Another said he could not give out a firearm without a chit signed by a superior

Yeoman 1st Class Leonard Webb, assigned to Headquarters of the 14th Naval District that day, would recall, "(The armorer) starts off on the old routine about you've got to have a chit. Well, I nervously showed him my .45. The clip was out, and I put it back in and said: 'This is the chit.' I got six guns with no further argument; I mean, he changed Navy regs almost immediately."

We learn from historian Stanley Weintraub that, "At Fort Kamehameha, a harbor installation, Sgt. (later Lt. Col.) Ronald D. Moton watched enemy planes bank overhead and return to the docks and airfields... In an open field he and a supply sergeant were firing .30-caliber rifle ammunition helplessly at the dive bombers. A third soldier joined them until a captain, the local motor pool officer, drove up and ordered them to stop: 'You'll Make the Japs mad and they'll start shooting back at us!' It was an order."

But for every such moment that belonged in the hall of shame, there were many that fit the hall of fame. Let us examine some that involved true small arms.

Service Pistols

In World War I, at least one and probably more episodes occurred in which pistol shots were fired in plane-to-plane dogfights that resulted in downing an opposing aircraft. This is not surprising, considering the fragile, fabric-skinned biplanes of the period. One of Gen. George Patton's most famous exploits during World War II was standing in plain sight and firing his pistol to slide lock at a German plane that was coming directly toward him on a strafing run. Similar things had happened earlier at Pearl Harbor.

Electrician's Mate Third Class Jack White, aboard the USS New Orleans at the height of the battle, made an observation that well defines the role of a .45 service pistol in such situations: "We had an old master-at-arms, Jacobs. Everyone called him 'Jake.' He was one of the men firing a .45. But I saw him in a crying rage, shooting and hollering, 'They can't do this!' Battle affects different people differently. You never know how you're going to react until it actually happens. I guess the whole thing didn't last 45 minutes or an hour, as far as I remember."

Frustrating as it may have seemed blasting at an enemy air armada with a short-range anti-personnel weapon, our troops, who had nothing else to shoot back, at least had one consolation-- pistols didn't do the enemy much good either. According to historian Dan Van Der Vat, "(At Ford Island) a dive-bomber ditched into the water a few hundred yards away and the pilot alone clambered onto the wing. He drew his pistol when a boat from a destroyer approached to pick him up and was promptly shot dead."