U.S. Army pilots take to the sky

On the eve of the Japanese attack, an estimated 700 Marines were stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Ewa, whose landing strip was designed like an aircraft carrier flight deck for Marine Air Group 21, which flew fighters, tactical bombers and scout planes.

There were 49 aircraft at Ewa. Most were Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers and F4F Wildcat fighters.

In the aerial attack that preceded the raid on Pearl Harbor by two minutes, nine of 11 Wildcat fighters, 18 of 32 dive bombers and other planes were lost on the ground as Marines fired back with Springfield rifles and handguns, according to battlefield studies.

Single-seat Japanese fighter planes began the first attack on Ewa Field at 7:55 a.m., firing incendiary, explosive and armor-piercing 7.7 mm and 20 mm rounds in low-level strafing runs over Runway 1 1/2 9, according to the 14th Naval District Command history.

“Zero” pilots also killed the officer of the day as he tried to call the camp to arms from the Ewa Gate guardhouse, according to the Navy.

The second and third attacks lasted from 8:35 to 9:15 a.m. and consisted of heavy strafing by rear gunners flying in Japanese dive bombers and torpedo planes that were retreating from the attack on Pearl Harbor, about seven miles east of Ewa Field.

The Japanese tail gunners killed three Marines who were firing back from disabled planes, according to the Navy, and wounded 11 other Marines who were trying to extinguish U.S. planes burning along the flight line.

In addition to the four Marine fatalities, two civilians were killed, and a total of 13 Marines were wounded in three waves, according to the Navy.

Japanese planes were attacked over Ewa by celebrated U.S. Army pilots George Welch and Kenneth Taylor, who took off from Haleiwa Airfield in P-40 fighters.

According to the military history accounts, the aviators, who had attended a dance the night before at Wheeler Army Air Field and stayed up playing poker, piled into Welch’s Buick and sped off to the North Shore airfield the morning of the attack. Taylor took to the air in his tuxedo shirt.