In the wee hours of December 7, 1941, the minesweeper USS Condor spots a periscope in restricted waters less than 2 miles from Pearl Harbor. They radio the news to the destroyer USS Ward, which responds and attacks the sub. After shooting the submarine at the waterline, the crew drops depth charges to ensure its sinking. At 0653 hours, they radio the Pearl Harbor Naval Station with reports of the submarine. Since the message was sent in code, the decoding and further paraphrasing (so there will not be a hard copy to aid enemy code breakers) stall the message’s progress. When it reaches Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, the commander in chief, he decides to wait for further confirmation on the basis that there had been “so many false reports of submarines.” Meanwhile, one of the privates on duty at the Opana Point Radar Station sees 50 or more aircraft bound for Honolulu, much to his amazement. After confirming it with the other private on duty, they send a message to headquarters. The lieutenant assumes that they are B-17s due in from California, but for security reasons cannot reveal this to the privates. He simply tells them not to worry about it.

*

The people of Oahu awaken on the morning of December 7, 1941 to air raid sirens and the sound of Japanese bombs ravaging the American fleet in Pearl Harbor and surrounding areas. Ten vessels are sunk and eleven are significantly damaged. The majority of the aircraft are destroyed, having been parked wingtip-to-wingtip to discourage saboteurs. However, the greatest loss is in American lives – at the end of the day, 2403 people lie dead and 1178 are wounded. The B-17s did arrive in the middle of the attack, but were unarmed to save weight and could do nothing more than dodge Japanese fire. There had, in fact, been a warning message sent from Washington, but atmospheric static forced it to be sent via commercial telegram. It is received at 0733 hours, but is not decoded and delivered to the commander until 1145 hours, almost 4 hours after the attack. Communication mishaps and simple human error equated to a “day that shall live in infamy” and the entrance of the United States into the Second World War.