Humpday History Highlight
By Wyatt Earp | December 7, 2010
Yes, I know I’m a day early, but there’s a reason for that.
December 7, 1941 – Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor
At 7:02 a.m., two radio operators spotted large groups of aircraft in flight toward the island from the north, but, with a flight of B-17s expected from the United States at the time, they were told to sound no alarm.
Much of the Pacific fleet was rendered useless: Five of eight battleships, three destroyers, and seven other ships were sunk or severely damaged, and more than 200 aircraft were destroyed. A total of 2,400 Americans were killed and 1,200 were wounded, many while valiantly attempting to repulse the attack.
The prime reason why America should be prepared for any attack at any time.
(Oh, check out the Bing.com home page today and compare it to Google.)
Topics: HHH | 15 Comments »
December 7th, 2010 at 9:53 am
I will remember always.
December 7th, 2010 at 11:06 am
Looks like I’m switching to Bing.
December 7th, 2010 at 11:20 am
Rick – As will I. Can’t believe it will be 70 years next year.
Crankipants – I use Bing for most of my searches now. They have a different home page photo for every day of the year, and special ones for today, D-Day, Flag Day, etc.
December 7th, 2010 at 11:28 am
Howdy Wyatt – this is excellent and so appropriate for the U.S. in this Post 9/11 World.
I’d like to direct your attention, however, to possibly the best documentary about Pearl Harbor ever made – it’s linked to at CorrespondenCommittee’s Today In History at : http://www.correspondencecommittee.com/Entry.aspx?ID=3405
December 7th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
I too will always remember…
December 7th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
Bing has zing.
Thanks.
December 7th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
If you ever get the chance you need to visit the Pearl Harbor Memorial. I can’t describe in words what it’s like to see the tears of The Arizona [gaging back tears as he types]… it will change you. The boys should see it. They should know just how great the people who suffered through a world war really were. Fuck it — now I’m going to cry.
December 7th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
Didn’t see your Bing ref until after I posted. Looks like a score. Maybe it’s about time to defect to Bing. Could it be that there are two search engines representing America now? One left & one right?
December 7th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
Mark, on my site I posted a quote that makes me cry EVERY time I read it. I posted it today because it reminded me of soldiers and why they do what they do. It’s from the Lord of the Rings…
Samwise: I know. It’s all wrong. By right we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end, because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when …so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I …do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding onto something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Samwise: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for!
December 7th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
That Bing picture is freakin’ awesome. I’ve seen a bunch of other pics they put up throughout the year. Google’s just too damn fast to switch.
December 7th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Today was Hannah’s due date. (Her birthday was a couple of days ago.) As I was nearing my due date (about the time when people would ask “Haven’t you had that baby yet!?”) I would let them know what my due date was and ask “Other than that being my due date, what else is that date known for? What important thing happened on that day in history?”
I would get blank stares. From the highschool/early college group, I would try to get it to click in their brain when I said “Pearl Harbor.” The response I inevitably got was “What about Pearl Harbor?”
December 8th, 2010 at 10:56 am
Real – That’s awesome. Thanks!
DL474 – Difficult event to forget.
JT – Welcome. I love when they post tributes like that one.
Mark – My parents went to Hawaii when I was in grade school. I made them promise me to bring me back something about Pearl. They brought back souvenir press clippings of the papers there. They said the trip to the memorial was paralyzing.
Captain – Bing is a great search engine, and they aren’t douchey like Google. I use them almost exclusively now.
DL474 – And it’s name is freedom.
Randal – Last year’s pic was awesome, too. It was a shot of the memorial with the Missouri in the foreground.
Kim – That’s disgusting. I can see missing other important wartime dates – like D-Day – but Pearl Harbor and 9-11 should be dates forever etched into people’s minds.
I’m fairly good with historical dates. I always remember September 1 as the German invasion of Poland, and June 22 at the German invasion of Russia.
December 8th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
You’d probably like some of the dates on my late FIL’s service record:
Arawe: December 15, 1943
Cape Gloucester: December 26, 1943 (Reinforcement December 29, 1943)
Saidor: January 2, 1944
Admirality Islands February 29, 1944
Incidentally, he also got 2 bronze stars for participating in New Guinea and Bismarck Archipelago Operations as well as awards for participating in the initial landings in Palau Islands, at Leyte, and Lingaya Gulf.
He was also in Iwo Jima and Okinawa plus was awarded the Philippine Liberation Ribbon with two stars.
You mention any of those places or dates to people and they look at you like you’ve lost your mind. Unless they’ve seen Karate Kid then they know about Qkinawa being in Japan.
And, yes, I take an opportunity to brag a bit about my late FIL when I can. He was a good man who raised a great son who has become a wonderful husband and father.
December 8th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
I have a question for the history buffs on this site. I know a fair amount about the WWII battles in the Pacific, but a while back I saw a list of how many are still missing in action by country and there were something like 10,000 in New Guinea. It was one of the largest numbers of any location. I did not realize that the US had fought such large battles there. I thought it was more Australians and others there.
Is the number so high because it is so remote and has such a dense jungle that it was just more difficult to remove the remains of the fallen? Does anybody have any comments? And why do we not learn anything about Papua/New Guinea either in school or the media?
December 9th, 2010 at 11:42 am
Kim – You should brag. He sounds like a terrific person.
Ingineer66 – I am fairly sure it’s because PNG is like Vietnam. Dense jungles, caves, etc that are difficult to search. As far as teaching, like the battles in North Africa, PNG is not very romantic. The only thing you ever hear about in North Africa is the battle between Rommel and Montgomery.