The Tragedy Of Pearl Harbor

And then he went back and manned a .50-caliber machine gun, which he had not been trained on.".
             "It wasn't hard," said Miller shortly after the battle. "I just pulled the trigger and she worked fine. I had watched the others with these guns. I guess I fired her for about 15 minutes. I think I got one of those Jap planes. They were diving pretty close to us. "Just days after the attack, Miller was transferred to the U.S.S. Indianapolis. In May 1942 he became the first African American to receive the Navy Cross, presented for courage under fire. .
             Although it was obvious that war was coming to the Pacific, the war in Europe and the ongoing Battle of the Atlantic against German submarines and warships had convinced the U.S. Navy of the need to send many ships and aircraft from the Pacific to the Atlantic to help protect U.S. interests and, indirectly, to help the British. .
             In the Pacific many of the available aircraft were being sent westward, to bases in the Philippines, where the Japanese attack was expected to come first. Also, Wake Island and the Midway Islands were being reinforced to secure them as refueling stops for planes being flown to the Philippines.
             Although warning radar, fighter aircraft, and antiaircraft guns were available at Pearl Harbor, the commanders, Adm. Huband E. Kimmel and Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short, had not established a viable air defense system.
             The Japanese carriers sailed secretly and approached Pearl Harbor on a northern route, rarely used by merchant ships. They did not use their radios and hence were undetected. The pilots who flew the air attack were combat veterans of the Japanese war in China. They had carefully practiced the attack procedures and had specific targets assigned for the attack. Thus prepared, the Japanese carried out the attack on a Sunday morning, when it was known that most of the U.S. Pacific Fleet would be in Pearl Harbor, with many of the officers and crews ashore.