USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor
The surprise attack by Japanese forces on the US fleet at Pearl Harbor commenced at 0755 on Sunday morning 7 December 1941. ... The USS Arizona along with other battleships were moored near Ford Island. The first wave of torpedo planes launched their torpedoes at Arizona but missed their target. Moments later high level bombers attacked with the ship sustaining 8 bomb hits from this attack. One bomb hit on the forecastle glancing off the face plate of Turret 2, penetrating the deck to explode in the black powder magazine which set off the adjacent smokeless powder magazine. ... Acts of heroism on the part of the battleship's officers and men were many, headed by those of LCDR Samuel G. Fuqua, the ship's damage control officer, whose coolness in attempting to quell the fires and get survivors off the ship earned him the Medal of Honor. Posthumous awards of the Medal of Honor also went to RADM Isaac Kidd, the first flag officer to be killed in the Pacific war, and to CAPT Van Valkenburgh, who reached the bridge and was attempting to fight his ship when the bomb hit on the magazines destroyed her. ... A cataclysmic explosion ripped through the forward part of the ship, touching off fires which burned for two days. Majority of crewmembers were either killed by the explosion and fire or were trapped by the rapid sinking of the ship. Of the 1400 aboard ARIZONA that fateful day, 1177 perished.
