Norman Robarr USS Navy USS Trever |
Sunday morning, 7 December 1941 I was reading the "funnies" when the general alarm began to ring. "What's going on? I decided to do a bit of looking around and then - between the well decks of the ships on our starboard I saw - FIRE! Fire over at the Ford Island Naval Station. There were flames and clouds of black smoke coming from the hangers near the seaplane ramps. So that's it. (But) airplanes! Coming low on the port bow, they are not familiar types, they're shiny bright aluminum, and they have red trim and round red emblems. I've never seen airplanes like these before. They're crossing our bow real low then it happened, I saw torpedoes fall. My God! They're aiming those torpedoes at the old target battleships Utah! As I watched a huge column of water rose high in the air as those torpedoes hit Utah and a fifty foot mortar launch alongside just disappeared. It didn't take more than a minute till Utah was bottom side us. She was "tight as a bathtub" and flooded just like that! By this time more of the crew was topside, everybody running around all excited, nobody knowing what to do. I didn't go to my battle station - the four inch gun on the forecastle. You couldn't elevate it to shoot in the air, Machine guns - that's where it's at - machine guns.heck we've got four of them. Anyone know where they keep the ammunition? It didn't take long before someone got down in the forward magazine and found where it was kept and a few minutes later began hauling these funny looking boxes up on deck. We opened some boxes, found tin boxes inside, opened those and found loose rounds inside the tin box. Now this stuff's gotta be belted and put in drums before we can shoot it? Where's a gunners mate? Where's the stupid clips we need to belt with? Next, I heard a horrible boom from aft - I felt the ship lurch forward, and suddenly found myself sprawled on the deck at least ten feet from where I had been working. They said later that bomb was so close it sunk the buoy we were moored to. Back on the well deck with the ammunition, I now hear a voice on the radio shouting "AIR RAID PEARL HARBOR." We've hauled up more .50 caliber ammunition, found some clips - grab a strip of the belted ammunition and go! Get to the guns. Let's see, lift the cover load pull the trigger and bang! One round! The dumb thing shoots once and quits - do it again - BAM! It quits again, just one lousy round. Lord! Wish we had a gunners mate. What the heck is this? GREASE! Heavy black grease! All slushy inside, the guns full of it, take it apart. We don't know a thing about it, we've never seen one of these guns fire. . I learned an awful lot about .50 caliber machine guns in the next few minutes while several of us pulled that thing apart and cleaned it. We put some light oil on the moving parts, loaded a strip of ammunition and found that the gun did fire. Now what? The paint is burning right off the guns water jacket - anybody know where the water pump is? Wow! Look at that, a plane just literally blew into small pieces above us and a bit to starboard. He wasn't too high and he was coming our way, but we weren't shooting at him. Look at the sheets of burning gas falling, his right hand wing has broken off, parts are filtering down. Where's the engine? Where's the pilot? Nothing but junk and gas - Kerwhump! Most of the mess hit the beach right at the waters edge. Holy Mackerel! Way - way up high - what is that? It's got four engines and a narrow slip of a wing - it's not ours, nobody's shooting at it, better remember thinking it's important someone will be interested later. Bang! Bang! Oh my God! I don't believe it. They're shooting at the P40-up-up - they're climbing and turning left, now they're both down low, out of sight behind those trees at the edge of the cane filed behind us. BOOM! Look at that yellow flash, burning gas. I'm holding a strip of ammunition, about three feet long - LORD! Look at that, those tracers are hitting that plane and bouncing off. They are actually ricocheting off the plane, never thought they'd do that, gotta remember this. It's important and somebody will want to know about this later. Here comes a plane. It's a Jap! He's low and astern. Nobody's shooting at him he's going real slow, looks okay, no smoke, no parts fluttering, oh no! He's coming straight down. He's headed for the Curtiss. He's hit the Curtiss' fantail. There is the yellow flash again. Jap or not that has to be the bravest man I've seen. Go to sea! Yes, we are going to get out of here. Look over there at the Navy Yard and Ford Island, It's a big burning mess covered with black smoke. Look at the cruisers in front of the Utah, they're sunk and sinking in the mud, decks awash, ships on this side of the Island are burning...all that smoke, wonder what battleship row looks like. Up ahead, starboard side of the channel...the beached Battleship Pennsylvania Look! Over the portside of the waters a shot down American plane. At sea now and at battle stations. Oh God, what's that? On the surface and coming fast on the port bow. Don't shoot. Don't shoot! It is one of ours. Now we're coming up on Battleship Row. I can't believe this, it's not real, all our battleships are sunk some upside down, and they've sunk all our battleships. Feel the heat from the burning ships, you can feel the heat way out here in the channel, and look upon the bridge, leaning out the window, Mr. Feutch our executive officer, he's looking at the battleships and he's crying. I see the tears on his cheeks. He's an old timer - may even be in his thirties. I'll bet some of his friends are in those ships. Some folks say we weren't prepared that day at Pearl Harbor. Well, my opinion of that is, we were prepared, but we were not alert and therein lies a big difference. I've often wondered how the story would have ended if Japan has told us they planned to attack and let us know a few days ahead. I'd like to quietly go aboard the Arizona again, and there be alone with my own thoughts. Then I'd like to take a small boat and visit a couple of anchorage areas. I'd like to get on the plane and leave - never looking back. |
Information provided by Norman Robarr. |
