Awesome picture of PH attack

[fbastos]

Rally cool picture - I wonder how I never saw it before:

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h50000/h50931.jpg

Text says:

Photo #: NH 50931

Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941

Torpedo planes attack "Battleship Row" at about 0800 on 7 December, seen from a Japanese aircraft. Ships are, from lower left to right: Nevada (BB-36) with flag raised at stern; Arizona (BB-39) with Vestal (AR-4) outboard; Tennessee (BB-43) with West Virginia (BB-48) outboard; Maryland (BB-46) with Oklahoma (BB-37) outboard; Neosho (AO-23) and California (BB-44).
West Virginia, Oklahoma and California have been torpedoed, as marked by ripples and spreading oil, and the first two are listing to port. Torpedo drop splashes and running tracks are visible at left and center.
White smoke in the distance is from Hickam Field. Grey smoke in the center middle distance is from the torpedoed USS Helena (CL-50), at the Navy Yard's 1010 dock.
Japanese writing in lower right states that the image was reproduced by authorization of the Navy Ministry.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph

[dtravel]

I saw this picture about a year ago (I think). There is a torpedo wake that apparently can't be accounted for as coming from any of the torpedo bombers, so it is considered evidence that one of the mini-subs did make it into the harbor.

[Gudgeon]

Didn't the F14 take a picture alot like this in that movie where the nimitz time warped back to PH?

[Caltone]

That is a great photo. The site below has that one and a few others, plus lots of other great stuff. Just follow the links from the main page to your area of interest [:D] The photo fbastos posted is under Japan>>>Pearl Harbor Attack>>>Pictures for example.

WWII Pics and Sounds

Here's another of their pictures from Pearl of the Shaw's magazine going up.

[Caltone]

And just to be fair and balanced [:D] Here's another interesting one of the landings at Iwo from the same site I believe. Lots to see here as in the Pearl Photo fbastos posted. As a retired Marine, this one fills me with pride. Just imagine what's ahead for most of those guys.

Check out the smoke around the beach, Mt Surabachi, and the fire coming from the landing craft.

Sorry to hijack the thread fbastos, but I love WWII pics [:D] I have tons of them.

[MadmanRick]

Both of those Pearl photos have been around for a while. I remember seeing them in a book, perhaps "At Dawn We Slept..." or "Day Of Infamy"? They are however, great pics, particularly the Shaw photo.

Rick

[T Rav]

Tactics question:

It is interesting to see the fire-support ships just behind the second wave there. DDs and DDEs (I assume) lined up at a 90 degree angle from the beach. When I first saw this picture a few years ago, I had always assumed that those ships would be parallel not perpendicular.
However, those ships are very close in and very early in the assault. The choice may well have been to give the defenders a small profile to shoot at and maybe sacrifice the "full broadside" on a single target that a parallel ship would provide.

Anyone out there now the real skinny on whether that was doctrine or just happened to be that way for this particular snapshot in time?

Ciao,
T-Rav

[madflava13]

Those ships are marking the line of departure, I believe... They aren't fire support - just navigational markers, if I am correct...

[Tankerace]

And if you see a yellow stain, and a converted DD retiring at high speed, we all know who that is [:D]

[Wildhack]

He can make men quail if he should spot a shirt tail.

[UncleBuck]

Line of Departure and I beleive AA suport. they woudl do fire support but probably not untill the last wave went by, that concussion would swamp those landing craft .[:D]

As for the Angle they have guns in turrets so the forward guns would only cover the beach directly ahead but other guns could be turned to bear on onter portions of beach. Notie that none of them are burning as WitP woudl have them doing.

UB

[Speedysteve]

Nice pic Caltone

[JamesM]

The film was called "Final Countdown" with Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen.

cheers

jim

[Tanaka]

ORIGINAL: dtravel

I saw this picture about a year ago (I think). There is a torpedo wake that apparently can't be accounted for as coming from any of the torpedo bombers, so it is considered evidence that one of the mini-subs did make it into the harbor.

yep cool stuff!!!

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:eQ ... dget&hl=en

[Tankerace]

I have seen that picture several times, and each time I always wondered "Where was the plane that dropped that torpedo?" I guess now we know it wasn't a plane after all.

[Tiornu]

It is an utter disgrace that the Naval Institute let itself get involved in this ridiculous midget sub theory. It's not bad enough that they let it slip into Naval History, but they waited a year and reprinted it in Proceedings, which is supposed to be a professional journal. I couldn't believe it!
I can't imagine there was any peer review on this nonsense, as anyone looking closely at the topic will realize that the midget sub torpedoes were already accounted for. The greatest irony is that the photo that the writers manufactured into this ridiculous story was a blurred copy of a clear original located in Japan. The original shows that the article misidentifies features fundamental to the theory. (Is it a midget sub...or a guy standing in his boat?)