Waking a Giant - 75th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack

[Skyraider3D]

"Waking a Giant"

 

 

On 7 December 1941, 75 years ago today, the skies over Oahu, Hawaii, filled with the noise of Japanese radial engines. Before too long Pearl Harbor and surrounding facilities were burning and the American fleet had suffered a major blow. But the carriers had cheated death and would come back to take their revenge on the Imperial Japanese Navy, while in America the war machine went in overdrive. Admiral Yamamoto, the designer of the Pearl Harbor attack, most likely saw this coming.

 

Earlier this year I was commissioned to design the cover for a bookazine written by Jack Harrison for Mortons Media, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. It was only logical to me that I try and combine the two most iconic war machines of this battle: the USS Arizona and the Mitsubishi Zero.

Edited December 8, 2016 by Skyraider3D

[Jim Kiker]

Hi Ronnie,

 

I think that is about as dramatic a painting for the attack as one could imagine.  I quite like it!

 

Cheers, Jim

[Scooby]

Very nice, it captures the day as I imagine the day was.

[Uncle Dick]

Quote

Scurrying to his battle station, Stratton saw a Japanese Zero strafe the Arizona’s deck and then fly past him so low that “I could see the pilot in his leather helmet and goggles taunting me with a smirk and a wave as he passed,” he wrote.

 

The above excerpt from: 

 

https://www.stripes.com/news/uss-arizona-survivor-i-knew-i-had-lost-a-part-of-myself-in-the-ruins-of-that-ship-1.442558

 

Yet the same eyewitness/author and sailor on the Arizona, Donald Stratton says:

 

Quote

A Zero skimmed the surface of the harbor like a dragonfly, just twenty feet from the water, dropped its torpedo, then pulled up sharply. 

 

from:  http://parade.com/518852/parade/grit-and-gallantry-an-excerpt-from-a-pearl-harbor-survivors-memoir/

 

The above account is likely incorrect as I do know of Zero's dropping torpedoes.

 

I understand there are some accounts of Zeros strafing USS Arizona and other ships that day, but it has always puzzled me.

 

1. The Zero was still relatively unknown at that stage - yet we have accounts of sailors saying a Zero strafed this ship and that ship etc... could they have been mistaken for Kates or Vals amongst the explosions and chaos during the attack?

 

2. Are there any accounts of Kates or Vals strafing U.S Navy ships that day?

 

3. Why would you send in a Zero to strafe a Battleship as opposed to maintaining air cover or strafing aircraft at the airfields and other softer targets?

 

4. Are there any Japanese Navy Zero pilot's accounts of them strafing USS Arizona or any other ships that day?

 

Lest We Forget!

 

 

 

Edited December 8, 2016 by Uncle Dick

[e8n2]

4 minutes ago, Uncle Dick said:

 

The above excerpt from: 

 

https://www.stripes.com/news/uss-arizona-survivor-i-knew-i-had-lost-a-part-of-myself-in-the-ruins-of-that-ship-1.442558

 

I understand there are some accounts of Zeros strafing USS Arizona and other ships that day, but it has always puzzled me.

 

1. The Zero was still relatively unknown at that stage - yet we have accounts of sailors saying a Zero strafed this ship and that ship etc... could they have been mistaken for Kates or Vals amongst the explosions and chaos during the attack?

 

2. Are there any accounts of Kates or Vals strafing U.S Navy ships that day?

 

3. Why would you send in a Zero to strafe a Battleship as opposed to maintaining air cover or strafing aircraft at the airfields?

 

4. Are there any Japanese Navy Zero pilot's accounts of them strafing USS Arizona or any other ships that day?

 

Lest We Forget!

 

 

 

I would tend to think that they remember a fighter aircraft strafing them, and much later on learned that the Zero was the fighter aircraft type used on that day. 

Later,

Dave

[Skyraider3D]

No Zeros were involved in the attacks on the battleships. In fact only the Zeros of the Kaga came even close to Battleship Row, as they flew past the burning ships during the second wave attack while strafing the air base at Ford. This is precisely the scenario I picked, as it was the only way to combine the Zero and Arizona, without taking away from the true events. The airplane depicted is that of the leader of the Kaga formation, Lt Yasushi Nikaido flying "AII-121" as he lines up to strafe Ford. The strafing results were uncertain as there was too much smoke, the Japanese after battle report states. To be precise, they claimed "ten or more" at Ford Island, "five or six" at Hickam and "ten or more" at Wheeler.

 

The only aircraft strafing ships will have been Kates as they pulled up after releasing their torpedoes in an effort to suppress anti-aircraft fire, and possibly Vals as they recovered from their dives. The average American at Pearl Harbor will not have been able to distinguish a Kate from a Zero. Meatballs? Then it's a Zero. Poor intel is mostly to blame for this, though admittedly single-engine radial planes look much alike from the front and I think most men would rather duck than ponder what exact aircraft type is strafing them! The Val is kind of an exception thanks to its fixed landing gear and unsurprisingly, throughout the war, Ki-51 Sonias (Army attack planes, similar to the Navy's Val) were almost always claimed as Vals in combat reports. So I am pretty sure Donald Stratton was strafed by a Kate.

Edited December 8, 2016 by Skyraider3D

[Skyraider3D]

NB. As always, Nicholas Millman ("Straggler" on Britmodeller) helped a lot with the research on this and most my other Japanese-themed artwork. His colour research is especially helpful and I thoroughly recommend his publication on early Zero colours. A must-have if you intend to model an A6M2 at some point:

http://www.aviationofjapan.com/2011/10/painting-early-zero-sen-pdf-e-guide.html

[Skyraider3D]

By the way, also on the morning of 7 December 1941, Nakajima Ki-27 "Nate" fighters of the 1st Sentai of the Japanese Army Air Force claimed the first victims of the Pacific War when they shot down a Catalina W8417 FV-Y of 205 Sqn, flown by Australian Flying Officer P.E. Bedell and his seven-man crew, who all perished. Note that despite the date, this happened several almost a whole day before the attack on Pearl Harbor!

[edited; thanks to Nick Millman for the corrections!]

 

Below is an illustration of a 1st Sentai Ki-27 as it looked in 1939. Few photos seem to exist of 1st Sentai Ki-27s at the time of the start of the Pacific War, but they show that the aircraft had yet to receive field camouflage.

[edited]

 

Colour research: Nicholas Millman

 

 

Edited December 8, 2016 by Skyraider3D
Corrected date from 8th to 7th Dec.

[Rod Blievers]

Skyraider - thank you for your post. Whenever I try and point out to my American friends that this action, and indeed the landings at Kota Bharu preceded Pearl Harbour, I get very blank looks...

[Nick Millman]

1 hour ago, Skyraider3D said:

Sadly no photos seem to exist of 1st Sentai Ki-27s at the time of the start of the Pacific War.

 

 

Hi Ronnie

 

In fact there are photos of 1st Sentai Ki-27s on the Thai airfield at Singora taken shortly after its capture following the Japanese landing on the Kra Isthmus. Unfortunately I was not able to secure permission to publish them in Ki-27 Aces!  The aircraft are still in the pre-war overall grey-green scheme with the characteristic Chutai-colour painted rudders and elevators of 1st Hiko Sentai as shown in your excellent artwork above.

 

The Catalina you mention was attacked on 7 December, at first unsuccessfully by an Aichi E13A 'Jake' floatplane from Kamikawa Maru flown by Ensign Eiichi Ogata and then subsequently by the patrol of five Ki-27 'Nates' led by Lt Toshiro Kubotani. 

 

Thanks also for your kind acknowledgement!

 

Regards

Nick 

[DennisTheBear]

With no disrespect for those who died that day at Pearl Harbour, Americans were never very good at aircraft recognition.

Add to that that the sailors, airmen, soldiers, and civilians who wrote reports and memoirs later were trying to sort out things that happened very quickly, and that were quite traumatic. Not surprising that misidentification occurred.

 

We should always remember, not to glorify, but to strive to ensure that events like this don't happen again.

 

DennisTheBear

Edited December 8, 2016 by DennisTheBear
Add a line

[Thud4444]

My grandfather was a veteran of the Guadalcanal campaign, he was a Army Air Corps mechanic. Till the day he died,  every Japanese single engined airplane was a "Zero." It was just the cultural slang they used. It was never meant to be proper identification, it was just a way of speaking that's been lost to time. He wasn't the only veteran locally who used the term. It was pretty common,  especially with all the Flying Tiger news reels from that era. I think we all get too caught up on the details and miss the big picture these days. 

[Skyraider3D]

1 hour ago, Nick Millman said:

The Catalina you mention was attacked on 7 December

Ah yes, you are absolutely right, I got the facts mixed up! That's what made it all the more remarkable: they got almost a full day's notice that the Japanese meant war but sadly no SOS was ever received and the Catalina just went missing.

 

Rod, indeed the date line does cause for some curious timings, which is what I intended to demonstrate with my Ki-27 post, except that the Catalina was also on the 7th as Nick quite rightly points out.

 

Dennis, absolutely! I'm increasingly getting the impression that bit by bit people are forgetting the hard lessons that were learnt from two world wars. My goal is definitely not to glorify war, but to tell a story via an eye-catching image. I admit I do intend to show off the aircraft of the time as nicely as possible, as the era of piston-engine monoplane aeroplanes was quite a short-lived thing, centered firmly around those few years that made up WW2.

 

Thud4444, today the "Zero" slang is still firmly in place in my opinion. Show a Japanese plane of any type anywhere else but a plane-crazy forum and people will call it a Zero. I think it's actually good to differentiate between the different types. It's necessary in order to fully understand the battles that were fought. People find it logical to distinguish between an (Army) P-51 Mustang and a (Navy) F6F Hellcat. Why not treat the Japanese air forceS the same way?

Edited December 8, 2016 by Skyraider3D

[Uncle Dick]

Yes I can understand some veterans referring to every Japanese aircraft as Zeros, however I must say for me when I read Donald Stratton's accounts it makes me wonder how much of his accounts are accurate, and how much is literary license to spin dits to an extant to make the read more interesting or entertaining...

 

Anyway a most interesting historical event with plenty to learn and inspire

 

Keep up the good work Skyraider

[bzn20]

I've been to Pearl twice. In 1970 I did the tourist boat ride from Ala Moana and  'round Ford Island. One of the first targets was a smal lish Flat topped barge, its still there just under the surface against the opposite bank to the Arizona memorial which sits on the Arizona. They thought it was an Aircraft Carrier. The next year (1971) I did the free US Navy trip from the Navy base. That just goes out to the Arizona memorial. The list of the 1,700 names on vertical Marble slabs. It was a moving experience. There were people there that obviously new some of the people named. Small groups in huddles, crying .

The Japanese really blew it. They didn't get one Aircraft Carrier*, all were out at Sea. The underhand way it which it was done and in one stroke bought the USA in to the War.

* I've read that Battleships were the main target but in Pearl Harbour we were told that Aircraft Carriers were the main threat with Battleships. That barge was hit as the attack got under way because it looked like a Carrier.

Zeros were used for strafing (Ford Island was one area) as far as I remember. Think they just had a centreline belly tank for the attack and no other stores.

[e8n2]

16 hours ago, bzn20 said:

One of the first targets was a smal lish Flat topped barge, its still there just under the surface against the opposite bank to the Arizona memorial which sits on the Arizona. They thought it was an Aircraft Carrier.  That barge was hit as the attack got under way because it looked like a Carrier.

IIRC that would be the hulk of the USS Utah.  It had been converted from a battleship to I think a target tug or some other such vessel.

Later,

Dave