Pearl Harbor: The sleeping giant awakens

Flight Journal, Jun 2001 by Tillman, Barrett

War was coming to the ocean called "Pacific." Imperial Japan, in need of oil to feed its growing ambition, squirmed under the stricture of an American embargo (implemented because of Japan's aggression toward China). Japan would not be denied its self-proclaimed destiny, so Tokyo's warlords cast covetous eyes southward to the petroleum-rich Dutch East Indies, ripe for the plucking. The Pacific was to be "their" ocean, and the only major obstacle was the U.S. Pacific Fleet based in Hawaii. The focus of the two-year-old war in Europe was about to swing dramatically to what would soon be the world's largest theater of operations.

To U.S. servicemen in 1941, Hawaii was a tropical paradise and a "dream" duty station. Army air and ground forces enjoyed a pleasant tour of duty; after all, the only potential enemy was 3,400 miles to the west. In 1940, the Pacific Fleet had moved to Pearl Harbor from San Diego despite the objections of Adm. J.0. Richardson, "CinCPac," who felt that basing the fleet in Hawaii was no more a deterrent to Japanese aggression than leaving it by the mainland; furthermore, it made a tempting target. His objections were overridden by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who replaced him with Adm. Husband E. Kimmel. His Army counterpart, Gen. Walter Short, had no more influence than Kimmel on Roosevelt's decision.

Meanwhile, the Army, Navy and Marine airmen on Oahu basked in the joy of flying in a pleasant climate, even amid growing concern about Tokyo's actions in China. Many of the fliers at Hickam, Pearl and Ewa ("Evva") would later clash with Axis aircraft in other sorties around the globe. Lt. Francis S. Gabreski, currently America's highest-scoring living ace, remembered duty in Hawaii as "wonderful." He said, "Unless you had the duty that day, you flew from eight a.m. to noon or so, maybe did some paperwork then had the rest of the day for surfing, fishing, or chasing girls." "Gabby" Gabreski met his future wife in Hawaii, eventually trading his P-36s and P-40s for P-47s in England.

Status of forces

On the morning of December 7, 1941, the U.S. Army Air Force had about 230 aircraft in Hawaii; the Navy and Marines had about 170, plus 70 to 80 each on the aircraft carriers USS Lexington (CV-2) and Enterprise (CV-6). Lex was delivering Marine scout-bombers to Midway, 1,100 miles northwest of Honolulu. "The Big E" was en route home to Pearl Harbor, having delivered Marine fighters to Wake Island.

The Army had 45 bombers in Hawaii, though 33 were obsolete Douglas B-18s, barely capable of 200mph. A dozen B-17D Flying Fortresses represented the USAAF's best striking arm, with excellent range and payload and a 25,000-foot capability. At that early time, however, it had not yet been realized how ineffective high-altitude bombers would be against moving ships. More promising were 13 Douglas A-20 attack bombers, later demonstrably effective in the Southwest Pacific.

Defending Hawaiian skies were 152 "pursuit ships" of various numbers and performance. The largest contingent was 99 Curtiss P-40B and C Tomahawks, with decent armament and speeds approaching 350mph. First delivered early in 1941, they were the most modern fighters available.

Dating from 1938 was the Curtiss company's earlier entry, the radial-engine P-36A. Though claiming a 310mph top speed, the 39 fighters with Pratt & Whitney R-1830s lacked the altitude performance of the -40s and packed a less lethal punch. Owing to export contracts for Britain, France and other nations, however, Curtiss was unable to deliver enough P-40s to its own country, so the second-line -36 soldiered on. Some squadrons flew both types interchangeably.

The P-36 may have been lacking in speed and firepower, but it was two-and-a-half laps ahead of the petite Boeing P-26. Fourteen of the fixed-gear, braced monoplane fighters remained in Hawaiian squadrons, and though the "Peashooters" had been considered hot ships in 1934, they were now more than 100mph slower than the opposition-fit only for proficiency flying. The other USAAF aircraft on hand represented a variety of obsolete observation and liaison types.

By far the most significant naval aircraft in Hawaii was Consolidated's long-lived PBY flying boat. Newly named "Catalina," the big twin-engine patrol plane equipped two air wings with a total of 69 aircraft. They were based at Kaneohe Naval Air Station on the east coast of Oahu and were largely responsible for long-range patrol of Hawaiian waters. However, the Pacific Fleet commander, Adm. Kimmel, realized that he had too few PBYs to provide adequate coverage of all the approaches to the Hawaiian Islands. America was heavily committed to the ill-named "Neutrality Patrol" covering the Atlantic, where American-flown PBYs had been involved in destroying the German battleship Bismarck seven months before.

The Navy service wing at Kaneohe owned nearly 40 utility and scout-observation Grumman, Beech and Sikorsky types. There was also a small fleet-aircraft pool with 21 replacement fighters and dive bombers.