Day Of Infamy by Walter Lord

Author:Walter Lord [Lord, Walter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: PTO, Naval, USN, eBook, WWII, Pearl Harbor
ISBN: 0552087734
Publisher: Open Road
Published: 1957-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

“I know, but, son, there’s a war on.”

“Okay,” the pilot sighed, “if I can just get a cup of coffee, we’re off.”

Flood couldn’t bear to keep the joke going any longer, told the pilot to get some sleep and he’d use him tomorrow.

It’s hard to say how many planes really did get up from Wheeler. General Howard Davidson, commanding all the fighters, thought about 14. Air Force records indicate no P-40s and only a handful of worthless P-36s. Perhaps the general was counting in Welch and Taylor, who landed three different times for ammunition and then took off again.

These two were having a busy morning. After reaching Haleiwa, they had rushed straight for their planes. No briefing or checking out — Major Austin, the squadron commander, was off deer hunting, and they didn’t bother with Lieutenant Rogers, the acting CO. They just took off.

First they flew down to Barbers Point, where the Japanese were said to be rendezvousing. Nobody there. Just as well — there hadn’t been time to belt up enough ammunition. So they dropped by Wheeler to get some more. By nine o’clock they were almost ready to take off again when seven Japanese planes swept in from Hickam for one last strafing run. Welch and Taylor gunned their P-40s and flew straight at them. Both men were up and away before the Japanese could give chase. Instead, the P-40s managed to get into the Japanese flight pattern and shot two down — one was the plane that grazed the eucalyptus tree behind Mr. Young’s laundry.

Then Welch and Taylor headed for Ewa, where they had seen some dive-bombers at work. It was a picnic. Between them, they got four more before Taylor had to land with a wounded arm. Welch stayed on and picked off another.

They had plenty of cooperation from the ground. Ewa, like the other airfields, was bounding back. Sergeant Emil Peters and Private William Turner manned a machine gun in one of the disabled planes; Sergeant William Turrage manned another; Sergeant Carlo Micheletto was firing too, until a low-flying strafer cut him down.

A piece of shrapnel nicked Lieutenant Colonel Larkin, the base commander, and Captain Leonard Ashwell became another casualty when he sped off on a bicycle to check some sentries. He forgot about a barbed-wire fence, careened into it, and arose somewhat the worse for wear. As Pharmacist’s Mate Orin Smith treated the wounded, he himself was hit in the leg. He patched it up and rejoined his ambulance, which eventually accumulated 52 bullet holes.

On the windward side of the island, Bellows tried to fight back too, but a group of Japanese fighters gave the men little chance. Lieutenant George Whitman took up the first P-40 about nine o’clock, and six Zeroes got him right away. Next they pounced on Lieutenant Hans Christianson before he could even get off the ground. Then they caught Lieutenant Sam Bishop just after he took off. He managed to crash-land into the ocean and swim to safety. The attack was over before anybody else tried his luck.

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