The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was one of the most effective and devastating surprise attacks of all time. The attack wasn't only confined to the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Japanese planes also struck the Army garrison at Schofield Barracks, where the headquarters of the 24th and 25th Infantry Divisions were located. Many of the 35,000 soldiers stationed there, slept in that Sunday morning as they were attacked.
All across the island, soldiers reacted without hesitation. Hastily organized units from the 24th and 25th Infantry divisions secured defensive
positions on the north and south sectors of the island, with the 25th defending Pearl Harbor and Honolulu. Small arms were broken out of armories at every point under attack; individuals manned the machine guns of damaged aircraft. Men even fired pistols at the enemy planes as strafed. One man lugged a machine gun to the roof of a hangar. Another climbed into a parked B-18, mounted a .30-cal. machine gun in the nose and kept firing at the enemy until his aircraft was hit and consumed by fire. The 24th and 25th Infantry Divisions had the distinction of being the first U.S. Army divisions to see combat in WWII when they returned fire at the Japanese.
In the 110 minutes of the attack, U.S. forces suffered 2,403 killed in action, 1,178 wounded in action, 640 that were never accounted for; plus, 350 planes lost or damaged, and every battleship of the Pacific Fleet, eight, crippled or sunk. It was the most disastrous defeat the U.S. military had ever suffered in a single day. |
