Harris: I was down below, brushing my teeth and getting ready to visit a neighbor from back home who was stationed aboard the battleship West Virginia. There was a huge commotion, so I ran outside to see what was going on. The first thing I saw was a Japanese bomber dropping its torpedo, which then ran right up into the old Utah and exploded.

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Mike Callahan: I was to have the duty at 12 noon and so went to early Mass. While the service was going on, we heard a tremendous amount of gunfire, and I wondered why they were having exercises like that so early on a Sunday morning. Then someone burst into the church and yelled, “We’re being attacked!” I ran outside and knew in a second it was true.

Ernest “Dutch” Smith: I ran up to the OOD [officer on the deck], who was a young ensign, and said, “Sir, the Goddamn Japs are attacking!” He said, “Ah, you’re full of baloney!” Then I said, “Well, go back and take a look at Utah, if you don’t believe me.” He went back and looked at Utah, which had just been hit with a torpedo.

Reichert: My General Quarters station was at gun two, which was up forward. So when that torpedo hit the old Utah, I took off as fast as I could. As I was moving along the length of the ship, I passed the wardroom, where a frightened-looking ensign was standing in the hatchway. “We’re being attacked, Sir,” I said without slowing down.

Within the first two minutes of the attack, all of the battleships along Battleship Row had taken hits from dive bombers. The torpedo attacks took longer, as many pilots made two or three runs before actually launching their torpedoes. The anchored Pacific Fleet was at a low state of readiness, and few of the ships’ machine guns were manned. Nevada, for example, had machine guns manned in her fighting tops, and consequently suffered only one torpedo hit, as compared to the six that hit West Virginia, four on Oklahoma, two on California, and one on Arizona.

As the attacking planes sent torpedo after torpedo slamming into the battleships, Oklahoma rolled over onto its side and sank into the bay. West Virginia also took on a severe list, but counterflooding by daring seaman prevented the ship from rolling over and allowed it to settle onto the bottom on an even keel. California, Maryland, and Tennessee also suffered varying degrees of damage in the first half hour of the raid.

At about 8:10, Arizona was hit by an armor-piercing round dropped by a level bomber. The round penetrated the battleship’s deck near turret two and ignited the forward ammunition magazine. The resulting explosion and fire killed 1,177 crewmen. Those serving on ships near the exploding Arizona that day would say, “It rained sailors!”

Reichert: I got to my General Quarters station at gun two before anyone else and even before the GQ klaxon sounded. By then, there were explosions everywhere, and I looked around for what to do next.

Each of our five-inch guns needed a powderman, shellman, pointer, gun captain, and phone talker. Trouble was, most of our crew was ashore, including the older married guys, who were the ones who knew how to do everything. And that was not the least of it either, because we were tied up at Berth X-14 with three other cans. The order was Aylwin, Farragut, Dale, and Monaghan, which meant we were sandwiched tight between two other cans and none of our forward guns could bear without shooting up our sister ships.

Miller: I dashed down to the radio shack and started the ball rolling. We came up on every important frequency I could think of. The harbor frequency was the one on which all the important messages were coming over. The first message I copied was: “Air raid on Pearl Harbor. This is no drill!” Next was a message for all ships to get underway. Then the frequency became almost useless due to the Japs causing interference and sending out messages for all to cease fire.

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