Warbird Information Exchange

Thanks Mark!

I have often wondered how the officers housing on Ford Island would be - pretty nice for the housing on the is my guess - exclusive anyway as far as the housing on the far northeast end goes. That shot in 2013 is cool because it has the SBX radar platform in the background just above the USS Utah memorial.

Tom P.

View looking toward the southern end of Ford Island on 8 December 1941

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“Knowing what’s right, doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.”

Photos below of the USS Curtiss (AV-4)


USS Curtiss (AV-4) afire after she was hit by a crashing Japanese dive bomber. Photographed from USS Tangier (AV-8). USS Medusa (AR-1) is at right. Timbers floating in the water (foreground) may be from USS Utah (AG-16), which had been sunk at her berth, astern of Tangier


The damaged USS Curtiss (AV-4), at left, and USS Medusa (AR-1), at right, at their moorings soon after the Japanese raid.


View on the Main Deck, looking forward, showing blast damage to the hangar doors resulting from a Japanese 250 kilogram bomb that exploded inside the hangar during the Pearl Harbor raid, 7 December 1941. In the foreground is the wreckage of an OS2U-2 floatplane that was destroyed on board Curtiss during the attack


View on the Main Deck, looking aft from the hangar doors area. Burned-out plane on deck is an OS2U-2 floatplane that was destroyed on board Curtiss during the Pearl Harbor raid, 7 December 1941


View on the Main Deck, looking forward and to port, showing blast damage to the hangar doors resulting from a Japanese 250 kilogram bomb that exploded inside the hangar during the Pearl Harbor raid, 7 December 1941. In the foreground is the wreckage of an OS2U-2 floatplane that was destroyed on board Curtiss during the attack.


Wreckage of a Japanese Navy type 99 carrier bomber (Val) that crashed into the ship's forward crane, on the starboard side of the Boat Deck atop the hangar, during the Pearl Harbor raid, 7 December 1941. This was plane # A1-225, from the carrier Akagi.


An officer and crewman with the wreckage of a Japanese Navy type 99 carrier bomber (Val) that crashed into the ship's forward crane, on the starboard side of the Boat Deck atop the hangar, during the Pearl Harbor raid, 7 December 1941. This shows the tail of the aircraft, resting atop some of Curtiss' boats. It was plane # A1-225, from the carrier Akagi.


Wreckage of a burned-out OS2U-2 floatplane on the after deck of USS Curtiss (AV-4), photographed soon after the Japanese raid. Curtiss had been hit in the hangar area by a Japanese plane and by a bomb during the Japanese raid, and near-missed off the stern by another bomb.


Hole in the Main Deck made by a Japanese 250 kilogram bomb that struck the ship during the Pearl Harbor raid, 7 December 1941. The bomb initially struck atop Curtiss' Boat Deck near the starboard side amidships and penetrated three decks to explode at Main Deck level at the site of this hole. The hole was about eight feet in diameter.

_________________
“Knowing what’s right, doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.”

USS Hornet (CV-8) Enters Pearl Harbor

_________________
“Knowing what’s right, doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.”

Several complete/partial Japanese aircraft were recovered after the raid, and I've always wondered why none of them (that I know of) were saved. You'd think that a Japanese plane brought down in the raid would have been a huge draw at war bond rallies and such...

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

I love the image from 1 Aug 42 with the USS Langley.
Most of the Japanese photos can be found at the National Archives in MD. When I worked for World War Two magazine, I spent hours upon hours there reviewing WW II images. There are a lot in the previously private collections that have been donated to the NA.

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Cheers!

Lance Jones

Thank you so much for posting the pictures. I have never seen them before, and I spent 1-2 hrs going thru and studying them. Very much enjoyed.

I think first they were probably studied for as much information as possible but that was usually true of war bond aircraft anyway. Still it seems all of these aircraft really came as a surprise so any information that could be gleaned was important. Second I doubt anyone really wanted to put artifacts from one of the greatest military and naval defeats the US had ever suffered on display so soon afterward. Still you have to wonder what became of all that wreckage.

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"I can't understand it, I cut it twice and it's still too short!" Robert F. Dupre' 1923-2010 Go With God.

I think first they were probably studied for as much information as possible but that was usually true of war bond aircraft anyway. Still it seems all of these aircraft really came as a surprise so any information that could be gleaned was important. Second I doubt anyone really wanted to put artifacts from one of the greatest military and naval defeats the US had ever suffered on display so soon afterward. Still you have to wonder what became of all that wreckage.

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"I can't understand it, I cut it twice and it's still too short!" Robert F. Dupre' 1923-2010 Go With God.

over the side comes to mind