There are tragic pages in the history of each country. They cause conflicting feelings. But they are one in one: they must be remembered in order to prevent repetition. In the USA, the name of one such page - “Arizona” - is the battleship that died in 1941 and led the country to enter the Second World War.
How did it all start?
The twentieth century began with the greatest struggle for the redivision of the world. For warships, this meant modernization. Countries competed in the qualitative improvement of their ships and an increase in their number.
The main force of the navy was considered battleships. From the battleships of the nineteenth century, a completely different model of a warship was obtained. Battleships were considered suitable for combat participation in the squadron. They were used to destroy enemy ships with accompanying artillery support from land. These armored heavy vehicles were equipped with guns of caliber 280-460 mm. The crew consisted of one and a half thousand people, and could reach three thousand. With an average vessel length of one hundred and fifty to three hundred meters, the displacement varied from twenty to seventy thousand tons.
The main reason for the increased attention to warships was the desire of states to gain primacy in military power. Many countries emphasized the navy. Some drew attention to aviation. Back in 1922, the United States and England signed the Washington Treaty on the quantitative ratio of the fleets of Japan, the United States and Britain. The first received the right to possess only forty percent of the fleet of England and the United States. The Japanese decided to surpass their opponents in aviation.
In the thirties, the interests of two neighboring states clashed over oil resources. The army and navy needed fuel, but Japan did not have oil reserves. Suppliers of black gold at that time were the countries of Southeast Asia, for example, Indonesia. Japan's desire to seize oil resources led to a clash with the United States.
The American command transferred to Hawaii (Japanese attacks were expected here) warships from California. The Japanese military in response to the battleships and cruisers exhibited by America began the rearmament of their ships. They supplied combat ships with armor-piercing bombs and turned them into aircraft carriers.
Among the ships relocated from California was the battleship Arizona.
Combat parameters
At the Brooklyn Shipyard in March 1914, the construction of the Arizona ship began. The battleship became an indestructible military unit in the battles of the First World War.
Of decisive importance for the combat power of a ship is the characteristic of its weapons. The American battleship Arizona had on its board an impressive arsenal of large-caliber weapons: twelve 356 mm guns; twenty-two guns in caliber 5 "/ 51; four guns in caliber 76/23; four salute guns 47 mm; two 1-pounders 37 mm; two mine-torpedo guns 533 mm. On the ship there was a large crew of 1385 officers and sailors.
The external dimensions also inspired respect. With a length of one hundred eighty and a width of thirty-two meters, the displacement of the ship reached 31,400 tons. The maximum speed of movement is twenty-one knots.
The ship was an impregnable fortress on the water, had powerful impenetrable sides. But the Japanese did not attack him in the expected traditional way. The armor of the upper deck lacked strength, and it was not difficult to break through it.
Preparing Japan for the attack
In 1940, Arizona arrived in Hawaii with other warships. The battleship defended Pearl Harbor military base. The Americans still believed that the approaching war would become a war of ships. But the Japanese thought differently.
By 1941, a team led by Admiral Yamamoto was able to develop an extraordinary plan to destroy the battleship from the air. An aircraft with a crew of three took off from an aircraft carrier and carried a tonne bomb on board. The flight speed reached five hundred kilometers per hour. Absolutely dominance in the airspace over the Pacific Ocean passed to Japan.
The last minutes of the battleship "Arizona"
December 7, 1941 is a sad and tragic page in US history. On an early Sunday morning, when the port of Pearl Harbor was sleeping peacefully, the Japanese command launched a double attack on the military port. The first began at seven to eight and lasted eighteen minutes. The second was repeated at nine o'clock and lasted twenty minutes. At the thirteenth minute of the first attack (at eight hours six minutes), the battleship Arizona died.
Forty torpedo bombers and three hundred and fifty-three bombers attacked Pearl Harbor. Each ship and aircraft had its own task. Bombers headed for the destruction of airfields, torpedo bombers attacked from both sides of the fort island. At eight o’clock four minutes the first bomb hit the battleship, then another four. The first bomb hit the gun barrel and bounced. After a few seconds, an explosion thundered and a fire started. The flame reached a height of two hundred and forty meters.
The death of the battleship Arizona did not occur from a torpedo entering it. Damage inherent in the torpedo strike was not found.
Documentary evidence
From the nearby Soles Hospital Hospital, Dr. Eric Haackenson captured the moment a bomb hit an airplane on the bow deck. Here was the gunpowder supply of the warship. Ammunition exploded and caused a wave of subsequent explosions. The compartment after compartment flew into the air. The battleship broke into two halves and began to sink to the bottom. The whole ship was engulfed in flames that raged for three days. The ship is dead.
The result of the attack on Pearl Harbor
During the raid, 1,177 people died. Among them is Admiral Isaac Keith. He was on the battleship that morning. Only the admiral’s graduation ring from the Naval Academy has survived, which was soldered forever to the board of the Arizona ship. The battleship was led by Franklin Van Valkenburg, who shared the fate of his crew. Only a few survived. For two years, the debris was analyzed. They managed to rescue the bodies of 233 dead from iron captivity. More than nine hundred sailors stayed on the Arizona ship forever. The battleship is still under water.
In that raid, it was not only Arizona that perished. The battleship became one of the four battleships of the U.S. Navy, sunk on December 7, 1941. Two of them were restored by 1944. Four more battleships received injuries of varying severity. Three destroyers, one mine-layer and three cruisers suffered from the Japanese attack. American aviation lost about two hundred aircraft. Two and a half thousand people were killed, wounded and embarrassed - one thousand two hundred eighty-two.
The unexpected Japanese attack and the destruction of the American military base on Pearl Harbor Island led to a change in the views of American politicians. Franklin Roosevelt demanded to declare war on Japan. December 7, 1941 is the day the United States entered World War II. And the reason for this is the following: the battleship Arizona at the bottom as a result of the bombing of Japanese aircraft.
Forever memory
Worship of the site of the sunken Arizona began in 1950. Admiral Arthur Radford, at the time commander of the US Pacific Fleet, ushered in a new tradition by raising the country's national flag in honor of the crew that died. For this, part of the ship’s superstructure was dismantled, concrete piles were hammered on the sides to give structural strength. A small pavilion was installed on the stilts, which seemed to hang over the remnants of the battleship. Here they held ceremonies honoring the sailors of "Arizona".
In 1962, a monument was built right on the spot where the battleship Arizona sank. The memorial is located above the remains of the ship, which are clearly visible through the expanse of the sea. The concrete structure does not touch the body of the battleship. At the entrance to the museum complex visitors are greeted by an anchor raised from the side of the Arizona.
In the main hall, visitors pay attention to seven windows, symbolizing the date of the death of the warship. On the walls of the museum are inscribed the names of the dead sailors. To get there, you need to overcome the water barrier, there is no land way. For the convenience of tourists built a marina.
Proof of Eternal Sorrow
The importance for Americans of preserving the eternal memory of the dead 1,177 sailors is confirmed by several facts:
- On May 5, 1989, the surviving battleship building was included in the list of national historical monuments.
- During the existence of the memorial, more than a million people visited it.
- Every American president must visit this historic site at least once during his tenure at the White House. Today, a visit to the Arizona battleship memorial by the head of the country has become a tradition.
- The Emperor of Japan participated in the ceremony of laying wreaths on the list of dead sailors.
The legend of the death of the battleship
Until now, many questions about the death of the battleship have not been answered. Therefore, legends appear around the memorial event of December 7, 1941.
One of them is associated with such a quick destruction of a warship. They talk about the massive impact of torpedoes into the ship's hull with the joint hit of seven air bombs. But Arizona didn't even flinch. And only the falling of one bomb into the pipe led to the destruction of the battleship. Inspection of the smoke channel showed the failure of such a version. Damage characteristic of such a hit and subsequent explosion was not found.
Living legend
The second legend appeared a few years after the death of the ship, after the construction of a concrete memorial at the place of its flooding. An oily stain spreads periodically on the surface of the water. Its contours are like a teardrop in the eye. Lilac-scarlet color suggests the similarity with blood. Tourists try to take a photo of the battleship "Arizona" at this moment. The Americans are sure that in this way the battleship mourns his dead crew. In fact, it flows engine oil from a rusted engine room. But legends remain and are passed on to the next generation.