Harvey Ed Stanford US Navy USS Raleigh |
Remembered forever as "a date that will live in infamy," the United States Pacific Fleet was attacked at Pearl Harbor by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan in the early morning hours on December 7, 1941. The attack came as a complete surprise to Harvey (Ed) Stanford, who was 18 at the time, and stationed aboard the USS Raleigh, anchored in Pearl Harbor. The attacking planes came in two waves: the first hit its target at 7:53 a.m. and the second at 8:55 a.m. The battleships moored along "Battleship Row" were the primary targets of the attack's first wave. Stanford, a fireman, said he was just finishing his breakfast in the ship's mess hall when the attack began. "Our ship was the first one hit first with torpedo mid-section and then with a 1,000 lb. Bomb that passed through the aft of the ship and exploded on the bottom. "The torpedo crashed through about 20-feet from where I was eating, and everything including tables, chairs and food went up in the air. I was a fireman so I thought the boiler had blown. "I had started in that direction when I met a shipmate who had a large gash in his arm. He told me, 'We've just been hit by the Japanese.' "The chief asked me to go down into the engine room and turn off the steam valve, so another shipmate and I went down with flashlights, found the valve and , with difficulty, finally turned it off. "The ship's hull had been ruptured and water swirled in several feet deep," Stanford said. "It was 10 feet over the deck plates in the engine room, so we secured that." When the attack ended, shortly before 10 a.m. less than two hours after it began, American forces had paid a fearful price. Behind were 2,403 dead, 1,178 military and civilian wounded, 188 planes destroyed and a crippled US Pacific Fleet. Twenty-one ships of the fleet had been sunk or severely damaged. Stanford said his ship was one of the fortunate ones that, while badly damaged, didn't sink. "The 1,000-pound bomb passed through the ship and explosed on the bottom of the sea. Had it exploded in us, it would have blown off the fantail and we would have sunk,: he said, "In fact, the Japanese reported us sunk but the ship was listing badly. We just kept throwing things overboard, including our ammo, tossing all of the extra weight into the ocean. "Out of a crew of 250, we had seven injured but no one was killed," he said. The USS Arizona was not so fortunate. Ten minutes after the beginning of the attack, a bomb crashed through the Arizona's two armored decks, igniting its magazine. The explosion ripped the ship's sides open "like a tin can," starting a fire that engulfed the entire ship. Within minutes, the ship sunk to the bottom, taking 1,300 lives with her. Simultaneously, military airfields were attacked. The Navy air base at Ford Island and Kanoehe Bay, the Marine airfield at Ewa and the Army Air Corp fields at Bellows, Wheeler and Hickam were all bombed and strafed. The Japanese had launched a total of 353 aircraft in the attack. More than 18 Army Aircorp aircraft, including bombers, fighters, and attack bombers were destroyed or damaged on the ground. The Japanese air crews achieved complete surprise when they hit American ships and military air installations on Oahu. The purpose of the simultaneous attacks was to destroy the American planes before they could rise to intercept the Japanese. "After the bombing stopped, the harbor was a mass of hot flames and smoke," Stanford said. "Everything on the sea and shore looked like it was on fire. "We spent the night in a motor whale boat and I helped ferry it back and forth, taking crew members and other sailors to the barracks at Ford Island." The Japanese success was overwhelming but it was not complete. They failed to damage any American aircraft carriers, which by a stroke of luck, had been absent from the harbor. They neglected to damage the shore side facilities at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base, which placed such an important fole in the Allied victory in World War II. The following day, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Declaration of War granted by Congress. "The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces," Roosevelt said. "Very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu. "With confidence in our armed forces with the unbounding determination of our people we will gain the inevitable triumph so help us God," Roosevelt said. One day later, both Germany and Italy, as partners of Japan in the Tripartite Pact, declared war on the U.S. Stanford said the Raleigh was later towed to dry dock, "and they filled the huge holes with cement." The ship later returned to dry dock in Vallejo, California roe reconditioning. "When we came into San Francisco Bay, sailing under the Golden Gate, it was such a wonderful feeling," he said, emotionally. "We had returned safely across the Pacific with only three boilers, two engines and no ammo because we had left that all behind for the war efforts. And we had returned to this country, sailing under our own power." The USS Raleigh later rejoined the Pacific Theater of Operation when the Japanese invaded the South Pacific Islands. "We patrolled that area for 18 months," Stanford said, "and then we patrolled the South American coast for another 11 months before coming back through the Panama Canal to Northfork, Virginia." After serving 20 years in the navy, Stanford retired as an E-7 Machinist Mate Chief in 1960. He and his wife Lucille moved to Deming in 1963. |
Information provided by Harvey Ed Stanford. |
