Fifth Avenue Forum

...plus the lives lost from destroying the crash sites.

...plus the lives lost from destroying the crash sites.

Do they do that with another drone, or a fixed wing asset?

When the Empire of Japan launched its attack on Pearl Harbor the morning of December 7, 1941, Airman First Class Shigenori Nishikaichi was one of the Mitsubishi Zero fighter pilots escorting bombers on their second wave over Bellows Field, a U.S. Army air base.

Radar plot from Opana Radar Station on the morning of December 7, 1941, indicating a large number of aircraft approaching the island of Oahu, which turned out to be the first wave of Japanese bombers. (National Archives Identifier 2600930)
Japan initially scored a devastating blow, but they no longer had the element of surprise on their side. Although American defenses were caught unaware during the early stages of the attack, by the time Nishikaichi and his fellow airmen began to made their way back to their aircraft carriers, a squadron of American P-36 Hawks became airborne and challenged the Japanese Zeroes.

The Hawks were out-performed by the superior Japanese Zeroes; they were slower, less maneuverable, and their pilots lacked the combat experience of their adversaries. But not all of the Japanese aircraft escaped unscathed.

Nishikaichi’s plane took multiple hits, and a round pierced the fuselage, causing a rapid loss of fuel. Realizing that he would not make it back to his aircraft carrier some 200 miles to the north, Nishikaichi’s only option was to put his plane down on the tiny island of Ni’ihau, the westernmost in the Hawaiian chain.

Prior to the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese Imperial Navy designated Ni’ihau as a location for crippled aircraft to land. Japanese intelligence had indicated that the island was uninhabited, and pilots were told that they could wait there and rendezvous with a rescue submarine. They were wrong.

Angered, Ben grabbed the pilot and hoisted him over his head and threw him against a stone wall.

On a summer morning in July 1918, the USS San Diego was steaming off the coast of Long Island, N.Y., when it was rocked by an explosion.

Within 30 minutes, the vessel listed and sank, forcing its crew of more than 1,000 to abandon ship. Six enlisted sailors died. The armored cruiser was reportedly the only major U.S. warship to be lost in World War I.

For the past century, the ship has sat at the bottom of the Atlantic, its location well-known but the cause of its sinking a mystery. Now, a team of researchers say they have determined the source of the blast: an underwater mine from a German U-boat.