Matt308
Glock Perfection
Ran across an article in the sunday Tacoma News Tribune entitled Pearl Harbor Survivors Remember the Day, by Jeffrey P. Mayor.
In the article Jeffrey interviews George Neagle who at the time was serving on the USS Curtis, a Navy Seaplane Tender. I quote some of his interview below.
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"We were right across from Ford Island and right next to a hospital ship".
Neagle was up drinking coffee when the Japanese surprise attack began shorly before 0800. Reporting to his battle station on the bridge, Neagle soon was racing to and fro, delivering messages for the captain and returning details on damage. The seaplane tender was first hit by a Japanese dive bomber that crashed on the ship's stern after being hit by American anti-aircraft fire.
"The [Japanese] pilot had a University of Hawaii ring on and civilian clothes underneath his flight suit," Neagle said.
The USS Curtis was hit by two more 250kg bombs which left the ship's bow slipping into the harbor's waters and 21 of the crew dead.
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Does anyone have any information on Japanese pilots dressed as civilians? Did Mr. Neagle perhaps misremember the incident and inadvertantly insert a ship rumour into his account? And if true, was this intended for escape and evasion purposes? Is there more evidence of this having occurred? Was this a single known incidence or was this part of the suprise attack planning and thus commonplace?
This is a picture from the Bureau of Ships Collection, National Archives. A Type 99 Val Dive Bomber is seen in the hangar wreckage with tail number A1-225 from the carrier Akagi. It destroyed an OS2U-2 Kingfisher floatplane. The last couple of pics show the damage from the 250kg bombs having blown out the hangar doors.
In the article Jeffrey interviews George Neagle who at the time was serving on the USS Curtis, a Navy Seaplane Tender. I quote some of his interview below.
___________________________________________________________________________
"We were right across from Ford Island and right next to a hospital ship".
Neagle was up drinking coffee when the Japanese surprise attack began shorly before 0800. Reporting to his battle station on the bridge, Neagle soon was racing to and fro, delivering messages for the captain and returning details on damage. The seaplane tender was first hit by a Japanese dive bomber that crashed on the ship's stern after being hit by American anti-aircraft fire.
"The [Japanese] pilot had a University of Hawaii ring on and civilian clothes underneath his flight suit," Neagle said.
The USS Curtis was hit by two more 250kg bombs which left the ship's bow slipping into the harbor's waters and 21 of the crew dead.
____________________________________________________________________________
Does anyone have any information on Japanese pilots dressed as civilians? Did Mr. Neagle perhaps misremember the incident and inadvertantly insert a ship rumour into his account? And if true, was this intended for escape and evasion purposes? Is there more evidence of this having occurred? Was this a single known incidence or was this part of the suprise attack planning and thus commonplace?
This is a picture from the Bureau of Ships Collection, National Archives. A Type 99 Val Dive Bomber is seen in the hangar wreckage with tail number A1-225 from the carrier Akagi. It destroyed an OS2U-2 Kingfisher floatplane. The last couple of pics show the damage from the 250kg bombs having blown out the hangar doors.
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