Sunday in Hell, page 21
More later
Joey21
When kickoff for the football game between the University of Hawaii and Willamette University of Salem, Oregon began at 2:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon, the carrier Lexington and Task Force 12 were continuing on their heading west from Hawaii, bound for the designated launch area to reinforce Midway with additional aircraft. At the standard speed of 17 knots, occasionally reduced fleet speed of 10.5 knots and altered headings to conduct flight operations, the Task Force was approximately 480 miles west of Oahu.22
The carrier Enterprise with Task Force 8 had delivered the twelve Marine F4Fs to reinforce Wake Island, and was on a base course of 093 degrees, almost due east, approximately 540 miles west, southwest of Oahu, returning to Pearl Harbor. The destroyer McCall, was alongside starboard of Enterprise, refueling.23
Since its inception in 1920 the annual invasion of mainland football teams to play the University of Hawaii had become the largest, most important, and colorful sports spectacle in the Hawaiian Islands. A series of intercollegiate charity benefit games sponsored by the Aloha Chapter of the Shriners, the December sports contests between mainland schools and the Rainbows had grown in popularity and attendance in the 21 preceding years.
The history of the event included such notable colleges and universities as the University of Nevada, which sent their Wolfpack as the first visiting team, and took the measure of the Rainbows, 14-0; the University of Oregon, St. Mary’s, Pamona, Oregon State, Colorado, San Mateo, Colorado State, Washington, Washington State, Utah, South Dakota State, Utah State, Occidental College, University of Denver, Oklahoma, Idaho, Brigham Young, California, University of Southern California, Santa Clara, Drake University, College of the Pacific, San Diego State, the Green Bay Packers professional team, and more. The first game this year was being played on the same day of the month as the first game against Nevada in 1920.24
This year, the profits from the first game, between the Rainbows and the Bearcats, was for crippled children. The police fund would receive the profits from the second game, scheduled for Saturday, 13 December, between the Rainbows and the San Jose State Spartans. The Spartans and the Bearcats were to play one another the night of 16 December, before boarding Lurline for the return voyage to San Francisco, and trips home before Christmas.
From the visiting teams’ arrival on Wednesday, through Saturday morning’s 6 December issues, the sports pages of Honolulu’s two major newspapers, the Advertiser and Star-Bulletin published a steady stream of articles about the Bearcat and Rainbow teams’ and coaches’ records, strengths and types of play expected of them; star players and their individual strengths, daily practice schedules, starting line-ups, and details and instructions for pre-game ceremonies.
The newspapers urged fans to be in their seats by 1:15 p.m., when a parade of 14 marching bands led by color guards with the flags of Hawaii and the United States, began assembling on the football field, the marching order based upon which bands had participated the most in the years since the event’s inception. The Marine Band led the 14 onto the field, and the Shriners’ crack drill team entertained the crowd at halftime, as did the massed bands playing together.
When the kickoff came at 2:30, the crowd had swollen to an estimated 24,000, the largest in the event’s history, and just shy of the stadium capacity of 25,000. Giving away two inches in average height and six pounds per man in weight, the Rainbows, with a 7 and 1 record, were favored by 12 points over the Bearcats. The men from Willamette University sported an 8 and 1 record and clinched the Pacific Northwest Conference title, while leading the nation’s small colleges in total offense of 430.5 yards per game, 300.8 passing and 129.7 passing. What’s more, they outscored opponents 314 to 47 total points, and held six of their nine opponents scoreless.25
Before a stadium filled with excited football fans, the Rainbows and the Bearcats battled through a close first half, with Hawaii holding a slim 7-6 lead. As predicted, it was a wide open game. The Bearcats, using short and long passes, and multiple formations including a man in motion off the single wing with an unbalanced line, had so outplayed the Rainbows, however, that bettors had changed the odds to favor them for the second half finish.
In the second half, the Bearcats were unable to mount a consistent offense against a practiced, hard-nosed defense that included a game total of seven intercepted passes, by a pass defense noted for its weakness - and the Rainbows completely reversed their fortunes. The Hawaiian’s stormed down the field in the first three and a half minutes of the third quarter to go ahead, 14-6, and locked the victory away with four minutes left, by punching over another touchdown.25
In the crowd watching the game were the San Jose State Spartans and their coaches, scouting their two opponents. The happy Rainbow fans now looked forward to the next game, on 13 December, while the Bearcats mentally began preparing to take the measure of the Spartans the night of 16 December.
Far to the southwest of Oahu, en route to Honolulu, was the American Presidents Line’s SS President Coolidge, and a sister ship, the US Army Transport General Hugh L. Scott, formerly the SS President Pierce. Escorted by the Pacific Fleet’s light cruiser, Louisville (CL-28), Coolidge and Scott were carrying passengers being evacuated from the Southeast Asian region due to rising tensions and the American government’s urging employees and their dependents, as well as military dependents, to return to the United States.26
Saturday evenings on Oahu were normally filled with relaxed revelry, sprinkled with “happy hours” in the local hotel lounges and bars, dinners at restaurants and clubs, dances, floor shows, quiet gatherings with families and friends, and walks on the beaches. On the military installations, in the officers’ clubs, enlisted recreation centers, and other locations on bases and posts, similar activities occur.
Tracing its origins to the early 1900s, the Navy’s School of Music opened in Washington, D.C. in 1935 and operated in conjunction with the U.S. Navy Band. Students enrolled in the school in this era were interviewed in advance, selected for attendance, graduated in complete ensembles, and transferred aboard ship. For example, Band No. 13, until 1 December 1941, was on board the light cruiser Raleigh (CL-7) when it was temporarily shifted to the destroyer tender, Dobbin (AD-3). Band No. 22 was assigned to the battleship Arizona.
At Pearl Harbor, a crowd gathered at the new Bloch Recreation Center the night of the 6th for “The Battle of the Bands,” the last elimination round of a Pacific Fleet music tournament begun the previous 13 September and held every two weeks, with the final competition planned for 20 December. The Bloch Recreation Center was a place designed to give the enlisted man every kind of relaxation the Navy felt proper - music, boxing, bowling, billiards, and 3.2 beer. Called by some “The Battle of Music,” “The Battle of the Bands” featured Navy bands primarily from “capital ships” home ported in Pearl Harbor and those attached to shore installations in Hawaii. Four bands were to compete in each round of the tournament with one winner per round selected to perform in the final competition rounds. The Arizona band won the first round in September, and several of its members attended this night, to listen to their future “competition” - tonight’s winner.
Each band performed a swing number, a ballad and one specialty tune, then played for the jitterbug contest. Competing this final night of the elimination round, were only three bands. As the men stomped and cheered, bands from the battleships Pennsylvania (BB-38) and Tennessee, and the fleet support ship, Argonne (AG-31), fought it out to go to the finals. The Pennsylvania band won, everybody sang “God Bless America,” and the evening wound up with dancing. When the crowd filed out at midnight, many argued that the best band of the tournament thus far was the Arizona’s.27
The presence of two thirds of the Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, with a considerable number of men from each ship’s crew on liberty for the evening; the Army always present with it’s units at reduced strength because of weekend passes and leaves, the Hawaiian Air Force standing down for the night before the somewhat lessened pace of weekend duties, adds to the already busy whirl of social activities and romance on the island. Despite the ominous, rapid, ratcheting up of tensions in the Pacific, and the quiet, hurried, usually one-on-one meetings involving senior officers and their key staff officers, this Saturday was little different than all Saturday’s on Oahu. The threat of hostilities on Oahu seemed farfetched to all but a few.
Rear Admiral Claude C. Bloch, Commandant of the 14th Naval District spent his evening at home. He played golf in the afternoon, read for awhile, then, very tired, went to bed about 8:30 p.m. Rear Admiral Patrick N.L. Bellinger, the commander of Patrol Wings ONE and TWO and their attendant surface units, had an even less eventful evening. The flu had taken him down on Tuesday, and Sunday would be his first day up.
Some of the Army Air Force officers, including Major General Martin, attended a dinner party at the Hickam Field Officers’ Club. Lieutenant Colonel James A. “Jimmy” Mollison, Martin’s chief of staff, was at a similar function in the home of Lieutenant Colonel William C. Farnum. While there, at about 2230 hours, he received notice of a long-distance phone call from San Francisco saying that twelve B-17s would arrive at Hickam from the mainland at 0800 the next morning. Mollison called the duty officer to give him the estimated time of arrival. Because Mollison wanted to be sure he would be in the tower when they came in, he left the party immediately and went straight home.
Lieutenant General Short, the Hawaiian Department Commander, and Major General Durward S. Wilson, the 24th Infantry Division Commander were among those attending “Ann Etzler’s Cabaret” - an annual charity dinner-dance which “one of the very talented young ladies had worked up” at Schofield Barracks Officers’ Club. Before going to the club, a large group, including General and Mrs. Short, gathered at the home of Lieutenant Colonel and Mrs. Emil Leard for cocktails. The Shorts left the club with Lieutenant Colonel and Mrs. Kendall J. Fielder, Short’s intelligence officer, between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m. and went straight home. They drove past Pearl Harbor, a magnificent sight with all its lights blazing. Short remarked to his G-2, “What a target that would make!” He had no idea his words would come true the next morning. He was looking forward to his usual Sunday morning golf game with Admiral Kimmel.28
Earlier in the day on 6 December, the newspaper headlines on the mainland declared: ARMY TO TRAIN 30,000 BOMBER CREWS A YEAR; HOUSE PASSES DEFENSE BILL to expand Army to two million; DEFERRED MEN MAY BE DRAFTED; and NAVY TO WAIVE MENS DEFECTS, indicating physical standards were being lowered for new recruits.29
When Joey arrived at their apartment following her last day at work, Bob was already home. They relaxed the remainder of the day, calling on the Tennessee’s junior medical officer and his wife, the Marron’s, then ate dinner at the Kau Kau Corner before returning to their apartment to play acey ducey and retiring for the night. They slept soundly, happy to be together again, thinking of love, Christmas in Hawaii, and not too many days until the next exciting assignment - Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida.30
The First Shots of the Pacific War
While Bob, Joey, and the people of Oahu slept peacefully the night of 6-7 December 1941, armed forces of the Japanese Empire moved undetected, ever closer to the Island of Oahu from the north, west, and south. To the north, Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo’s Carrier Striking Force, composed of the First, Second, and Fifth Carrier Divisions, plus their combatant escorts, support ships, and submarine screens, bore down on the island through rough seas. The United States Pacific Fleet’s long range patrol aircraft, concentrating their daily search patterns primarily in an arc from the south, clockwise through west to northwest of the island, hadn’t crossed paths with or observed from a distance the large, powerful Japanese fleet narrowing the distance between itself and its intended targets.
To the south, as well as from the north and west, the oncoming foe was of a different form, moving quietly, submerged during daylight hours, and on the ocean’s surface at night, submarines and midget submarines. The Japanese Naval General Staff had concluded the planned submarine attack was necessary to obtain subsequent cumulative effects. The first priority was given to the air attack by the Carrier Striking Force. “The principal aim of the Submarine Force was render the result of the air attack more effective.”
Its primary operational duties were the secret preliminary reconnaissance of the Lahaina Anchorage and other strategic points in the Pacific; the tracking down and destruction of the enemy fleet, which might run out of Pearl Harbor escaping the air attack, and the interception of any counterattack against the Carrier Striking Force by the enemy fleet; participation of the Submarine Force in the attack by midget submarines against the enemy fleet in the harbor; and rescue of aircraft crews which might be forced down during the air attack.31
In the event the attack by the Carrier Striking Force on Pearl Harbor succeeded, the Submarine Force would maintain submarine patrol and reconnaissance of Pearl Harbor for a long period after the Carrier Striking Force withdrew to home base. Additionally, the Submarine Force would disrupt enemy surface traffic between the West Coast of North America and Hawaii and launch attacks on enemy air bases lying between Hawaii and the Samoan Islands. Screening ahead of the Carrier Striking Force were submarines, I-19, I-21, and I-23, which were under the direct control of the Strike Force Commander.
OAHU AND THE PARENT SUBMARINES.
Exclusive of the three screening submarines, when the First, Second, Third and Special Attack Groups left Japanese ports in November, in command of the overall submarine operation was the commander of the 6th Fleet, Vice Admiral Shimizu Mitsoyoshi, who would be aboard his flagship Katori, stationed at the Kwajalein Atoll. Because the remainder of the large submarine force would be in position at least 24 hours before X-day, he would maintain command until the air attack commenced, when all submarines would be under the Strike Force commander, Admiral Nagumo, for three days.
To complete their tasks and missions on and after 7 December, the First Submarine Group, consisting of I-9, I-15, I-17 and I-25, was patrolling the sea northeast of Oahu, to track down and annihilate any escaping vessels, and be in readiness to intercept any counterattacks against the Carrier Striking Force. Assigned the same mission, the Second Submarine Group, composed of I-1, I-2, I-3, I-4, I-5, I-6, and I-7, was on patrol covering the area between and to the northeast of Oahu and Molokai, which was the primary passage and sea lane between the two islands, en route to and from Oahu and the West Coast of the mainland. Thus, on the morning of 7 December, these two missions initially interposed at some distance between them, two submarine groups along and directly astride the sea lanes from Oahu to America’s west coast ports.
Patrolling south of Oahu, the Third Submarine Group, consisting of I-8, I-68, I-69, I-70,
I-71, I-72, I-73, I-74, and I-75 had the same mission as the First and Second Groups, and in addition I-72 and I-73 were to perform a reconnaissance of the Lahaina Anchorage to determine whether or not major enemy ships were stationed there. By the morning of 7 December, the third Group was in position, the two submarines had completed their reconnaissance, reported no enemy units in the anchorage, and returned to stations south of Oahu. One other submarine in the group, 1-75, was directed to remain on station near the northwestern most island of Niihau.32
