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Before The attack
At pearl harbor naval base, before the Japanese attack, there were 15 Ships in total, 8 battleships, 3 cruisers, and 4 destroyers. -
It begins
Radar picked up a large group of enemy aircraft approaching the base but was disregarded because of a shipment of aircraft that was supposed to be delivered later that day. It turns out that they were not friendly aircraft... -
Initial Attack
The Japanese started their initial attack at 7:55 am and it lasted until 8:25 am -
The pause
Japanese Bombers took a brief pause lasting from 8:25 am to 8:40 am in order to make the soldiers and civilians think the attack was over and to lull them into a false sense of security -
The second wave
at 8:40 am the Japanese began a wave of Horizontal bombing which both further devastated the remaining people and items but also kept the bombers (B5N2 "Nakajima"'s) safe from anti-air fire because they could bomb from higher altitudes. The bombing lasted until approximately 9:15 am -
Dive Bombers
After the Horizontal bombing was complete that's when dive bombers re-entered the scene and continued to wreck havoc until 9:45 am -
It's Finally Over
The attack concluded at 9:45 am with almost 20 ships and 300 planes destroyed or crippled -
The warning comes in
Previous to the attack it had been determined that pearl harbor was at risk for a Japanese attack so a message was sent in order to warn them... it got there two hours too late -
The warning
There were multiple warning signs that could have been used to prepare for the attack. One of these was that a soldier on watch duty spotted a periscope that came from an unauthorized and unidentified submarine. He reported it to his superiors who shrugged off while stating that similar claims had been made. Another warning sign they had was that the radar had picked up a large assembly of Japanese aircraft but that was also ignored because they had been expecting a delivery later that day. -
U.S. Gets involved
The U.S. officially declares war on japan
