Pearl Harbor Timeline

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03:42 Ensign R.C. McCloy, aboard the minesweeper Condor, spots a periscope in the darkness.

03:57 The Condor sends a message to the destroyer Ward: "Sighted submerged submarine on westerly course, speed 9 knots."

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06:00 The first wave of the Japanese attack takes off for Hawaii from ships anchored north of the islands.

06:26 Japanese pilots bound for Pearl see the sun rise, and the vivid shafts of light bring to mind their naval flag.

06:45 After searching for hours, the Ward fires depth charges and sinks the Japanese sub.

07:02 Privates Joseph Lockard and George Elliott pick up blips on radar. They are told by a superior that what they have spotted is an incoming flight of American planes.

07:49 Commander Fuchida Mitsuo, the head of the assault, issues the attack signal as his plane passes just off Lahilahi Point. Four minutes later he calls out, "Tora! Tora! Tora!"—code words confirming that the Japanese have surprised their enemy.

07:55 The raid begins at Pearl Harbor as the Raleigh, Helena, Utah and Oklahoma are struck. Years later, in an interview with Ronald E. Marcello of the University of North Texas Oral History Program, Seaman Garlen W. Eslick of the Oklahoma recalls, "This boy just slumped over. Blood was all over everything. I still didn't know what had happened ... I heard this thing roar over ... the officer-of-the-deck came on and announced, 'Man your battle stations.'"

07:56 There are two explosions on the Arizona. Pfc. James Cory: "The bridge shielded us from flames ... Around the edges in these open windows came the heat and the sensation of the blast. We cringed there ... I think that at this moment I wanted to flee, but this was impossible. You're on station, you're in combat."

07:58 As bombs explode on Ford Island, Lt. Comdr. Logan Ramsey hurries to the radio room and sends the message, "Air raid, Pearl Harbor. This is not drill!" Yeoman 1c. Leonard Webb rushes to get his wife and child to a car: "When we're almost to the car, my wife says, 'The baby doesn't have any diapers! Get some!' Here's the humor. Bear in mind that this is Armageddon, the end of the world, and my wife has me chasing diapers!"

08:01 Ensign Joseph K. Taussig Jr. sounds the Nevada's general quarters and rushes to his battle station. Injured as his ship is strafed, Taussig continues his work.

08:02 Twenty-five bombers dive toward Wheeler Field. "The sailor approximately six feet in front of me fell," says Pvt. Leslie Le Fan. "I stepped over him, and remember thinking to myself: 'That's the first dead man I have ever seen.'"

08:03 Machine and antiaircraft guns aboard the Cummings, California, Swan and the submarine Cachalot open fire.

08:06 A 1,763-lb. missile fired by PO Kanai Noboru hits the Arizona. It demolishes the forward magazine and kills nearly 1,000 men. "It was so vivid in my mind," says Private Le Fan, who saw the action from the Marine barracks. "[The Arizona] just quivered, buckled and then settled. It looked like ... well, that killed it ... It was so devastating."

08:08 Two bombs strike the West Virginia, whose captain, Mervyn Bennion, is mortally wounded by a piece of shrapnel that flies over from the Tennessee. "A huge waterspout splashed over the stack of the ship and then tumbled down like an exhausted geyser," recalls Japanese commander Matsumura Midori, who fired one of the torpedoes that hit the ship. "What a magnificent sight." Webley Edwards at KGMB radio announces: "All Army, Navy and Marine personnel to report to duty." As Water Tender 2c. Emil T. Beran closes the hatch behind him on board the Allen, he says, "God save us! This is the last time that I'm ever going to see the sunshine!" Beran will ultimately survive the attack.

08:10 (13:40 E.S.T.) In Washington, President Roosevelt is informed by Navy Secretary Frank Knox that there has been a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. This is "just the kind of unexpected thing the Japanese would do," says FDR. "[A]t the very time they were discussing peace in the Pacific, they were plotting to overthrow it."

08:12 The Utah capsizes. "By the time I got to the door, the ship rolled over," says Seaman 2c. John Vaessen. "Well, I'm hanging on to everything—the door and anything I could grab—and the deck plates come flying at me, fire extinguishers—everything loose—and I was hit in many places but no sharp edges ... I was just lucky that God was with me, that's for sure."

08:14 Americans set up machine guns at Wheeler Field and fire at Japanese planes, bringing down one Zero. "I helped to give the sacraments to the dying and aid to the suffering," says Father Marcus Valenta. "They had boys lying out on the lawn in front of a little first-aid station."

08:15 Rescue workers pull men out of the burning water. "Our own oil was bubbling up and congealing," says Pfc. James Cory of the Arizona. "People who have never seen this at sea cannot imagine what oil is like once it is exposed to cool seawater ... It was catching fire slowly and was incinerating toward us."

08:17 The destroyer Helm clears the harbor, spots a Japanese submarine and fires on it—missing.

08:25 At Schofield Barracks, Lt. Stephen Saltzman and Sgt. Lowell Klatt grab rifles and fire at a Zero as it strafes them. The men keep shooting until the plane crashes.

08:25 Japanese planes attack Hawaiian firemen at Hickam Field, killing three. "They were so low you could see them grinning," says Machinist Mate 2c. Leon Bennett. "They were laughing, all smiles."

08:30 Sailors on the Downes open fire on attacking planes. "We had the .50-caliber machine guns," recalls Gunner's Mate 2c. Curtis Schulze. "They were water-cooled, and some of the men worried about the water, and I said, 'To hell with the damned water! Don't worry about it! Just start firing the goddamned things!'"

08:35 A number of U.S. planes returning from a scouting mission see that they cannot land on Ford Island. They head instead for Ewa Field to the west, where the Japanese have damaged or destroyed all 47 Marine planes. When one of the planes touches the ground, a Marine runs out and shouts, "For God's sake, get into the air or they'll strafe you too!" The plane manages to take off again.

08:35 The first wave of the attack ends. "Amputees. They started coming in, and they had arms and legs just shot off—a terrible mass of tissues, bones, blood," recalls 2d Lt. Elizabeth Murphy, a nurse at Tripler General Hospital. "Oh, heavens! I had never seen anything like this!"

08:47 The destroyer Blue gets under way, with Ens. Nathan F. Asher at the helm. When two planes dive toward the ship, sailors respond with .50-caliber machine guns. (Asher later says he had no idea how the men "got their ammunition from the magazines to the guns in the fast and swift manner that they did.") After they down a Japanese plane, crewmen on the Blue stop shooting and pat one another on the back.

08:50 The battleship Nevada heads out, in part because the wounded Ensign Taussig has managed to start the second boiler. The Japanese spot the ship leaving the harbor and determine to sink her, hoping to block the channel. "The Japanese bombers swarmed down on us like bees," recalls Lt. Lawrence Ruff.

08:50 (14:20 E.S.T.) In Washington, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, well aware of what is transpiring in Hawaii, erupts when given a note from the Japanese breaking off peace talks: "I have never seen a document that was more crowded with infamous falsehoods and distortions—on a scale so huge that I never imagined until today that any government on this planet was capable of uttering them."

08:54 The second wave of the Japanese attack, this one under the command of Lt. Comdr. Shimazaki Shigekazu, swarms over Pearl. Fifty-four high-level bombers and 78 dive-bombers spread out to hit ships, airfields and barracks throughout Oahu, while 36 fighters maintain air control.

09:00 A formation of Zeros strikes Bellows Field, blowing up a gasoline truck and hitting a plane from the 44th squadron as it tries to take off. Just in case anyone on the island remains unconvinced, KGMB radio's Edwards blurts over the air, "This is the real McCoy!"

09:05 At Wheeler Field, 27 Japanese planes attack aircraft that are parked on the ground. The Japanese also strike barracks, service buildings and a baseball field.

09:06 A bomb hits the Downes while she sits in dry dock. Another strikes Adm. Husband E. Kimmel's flagship, the Pennsylvania, detonating guns and ammunition.

09:07 An order is issued instructing Americans to cease firing on U.S. B-17s that are attempting to land at Hickam Field.

09:08 Dive-bombers attack the Raleigh; one bomb misses the ship's aviation tanks by mere feet. "A lot of times planes were coming at us from all angles," remembers Seaman 1c. Nick L. Kouretas, a gunner. "I'd try to concentrate on one target. They'd say: 'Get this guy!' you know, and I'd lead him, hoping I could get him. I know I was scared as hell."

09:10 In order not to block the channel that leads out of the harbor, Lt. Comdr. J.F. Thomas beaches the wounded Nevada at Hospital Point. 09:15 Captain J.W. Bunkley, who has spent the night ashore, returns to the California. The ship has been hit numerous times and is in flames. "If we had a 15-minute warning, we could have been partially prepared to defend ourselves," says Seaman Jerod Haynes. "Anything would have beaten [being] a sittin' duck." Within an hour, Bunkley is forced to abandon his ship.

09:20 A bomb passes through the dock alongside the cruiser Honolulu. It explodes underwater, flooding part of the ship and damaging her oil tanks.

09:28 Gunners aboard the Mugford shoot down a Japanese bomber after it pulls out of its dive alongside the ship's port bow.

09:30 In the ships' logs of the Antares and Whitney, it is noted that the attack may be over. Years later, Seaman Eslick tells the Oral History Program what it was like to be trapped aboard the Oklahoma: "You did a little praying and thinking things. You think about your family. I had a younger sister who was just a baby. I thought about my brothers and all my family. Would I ever see them again? But I never once ... thought that I was going to die ...

I knew I was in one heck of a predicament ... I was hoping I would get out. I knew what kind of situation I was in, and I came to the conclusion of what I was up against ... With all these fumes and stuff, my eyes were burning. I had saltwater, gasoline, bunker oil and stuff all in my eyes; and I'd swallowed I don't know how much saltwater ... We stayed in that compartment rapping out this SOS. I don't know how long it was. We could hear the boys, some of them, in this one compartment next to us, and they were hollering for help for a good long time. There wasn't anything we could do about it, and then they became quiet. They evidently drowned."

09:37 A large explosion on the battleship Cassin causes her to roll over onto the Downes.

09:40 The flames on the West Virginia reach as high as the foretop. Wounded are being removed from the ship.

09:41 "It was noted by everyone participating in action that after an hour or more heavy thirst was experienced requiring considerable drinking water," notes the ship's log of the Pennsylvania. "This confirms the necessity of having water at all battle stations."

09:43 Sailors aboard the Tern pull survivors out of the water. They will rescue 47 in all.

09:50 The Blue picks up the signal of a submarine. She maneuvers to attack and then drops six depth charges. An oil slick and air bubbles rise to the surface. The ship then detects another signal from a submarine that appears to be bearing down on the St. Louis. That sub, too, is sunk by a depth charge.

10:00 The Japanese first wave returns, victorious and exultant, to its aircraft carriers north of Hawaii.

10:00 Robert Shivers, head of the FBI's Honolulu bureau, places a guard at the Japanese consulate. Elsewhere, wounded are being attended to, dead are being found. Seaman 1c. Nick L. Kouretas of the Raleigh is looking frantically for his brother: "Every time we brought a load over to the landing, I would jump off and run up the landing, because they were laying them like cordwood, a body here and a body there, with a walkway down the center where they would try to identify them by their dog tags, with their heads pointing into the walkway.

I would run along the aisle and, knowing my brother's characteristics, look for him. He chewed his nails.

I knew where he had a wart; I knew every little mark on his body. I would get so far, and I'd say, 'Well, this guy looks like him,' but I couldn't see his face. I'd pick up a hand, and I'd say, 'No, that's not him,' and then go on." Seaman Kouretas's brother survived the attack.

10:04 A Japanese midget sub shoots two torpedoes at the St. Louis, which has made its way clear of the channel. Captain George Rood reacts and has the ship change course; the torpedoes strike near the harbor's entrance. Sailors fire at the sub when it surfaces.

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