What Happened Before the Event
1.Germany was occupying France, Holland, Poland and Belgium.
2.The London Blitz had begun.
3.Winston Churchill was Britain’s new Prime Minister
4.Russia had been invaded.
5.The Holocaust when Jews had to escape from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia to hide in other countries had begun.
Rationing and evacuation had also started in Britain in 1939.
Preparing to Attack
On the morning of December 7th 1941, the
Japanese army were flying towards Pearl
Harbour. Here is what happened:
7.02 a.m.
The Opana Radar station in Oahu, Hawaii, saw something very odd on the screen. There were lots of planes flying towards them. It was the only radar station turned on. The commander told them that it was nothing to worry about as there was a squadron of American planes from California. What nobody in America knew was that the Japanese had taken off at 6.00 a.m. and were heading towards Pearl Harbour. America was in danger!
7.55 a.m.
The Japanese attacked with deadly force. The first wave of 183 planes dropped a number of bombs and fired many bullets at the ships and planes in Pearl Harbour. America was defenceless.
8.55 a.m.
The second wave of 167 planes followed an hour after the first. American sailors tried to fight back but they struggled to get the planes off the land and they tried to fire bullets at targets which they could not see.
The Damage
When the attack had finished, 21 of the 96 ships anchored had sunk and the others were severely damaged. Of the 396 planes at the airfields 188 had been totally destroyed and 159 were damaged. 2,403 people were killed (including 68 civilians) and 1,178 people were wounded. The