Today marks the 80th anniversary of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Of the eight U.S. Navy battleships present, all were damaged, with four sunk. All but USS Arizona were later raised and six were returned to service and went on to fight in the war.
2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded.Important Base facilities such as fuel and torpedo storage, maintenance and headquarters were not attacked. Although the attack was successful, the attacks failed against the American Aircraft Carriers which were not present at Hawaii.
The Japanese had awakened a sleeping giant and the U.S would repay the favor by destroying 4 aircraft carriers at the battle of Midway, 3 within the first 5-10 minutes of the engagement. In addition, 1 heavy cruiser was sunk and another damaged. 248 aircraft destroyed,3057 killed and 37 captured for the Japanese forces.
