Located on the island of Oahu, west of Honolulu, near the center of the Pacific Ocean, roughly 2,000 miles from the U.S. mainland and about 4,000 miles from Japan, Pearl Harbor is well known as the scene of a devastating surprise attack by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941, that finally propelled the United States into WWII. Just before 8 a.m. on that Sunday morning, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes descended on the base, where they managed to destroy or damage 21 American naval vessels, including 8 battleships, and over 300 airplanes. 2,390 Americans died in the attack, and another 1,178 were wounded.
On the postcard can be seen USS Arizona Memorial (about which I wrote here), USS Missouri, USS Bowfin, USS Oklahoma and an aircraft Curtis P-40 Warhawk, in front of Ford Island Field Control Tower. USS Bowfin (SS-287) was a Balao-class submarine that fought in the Pacific (went out on nine war patrols), and helped to make famous the term "Silent Service." It was launched on 7 December 1942, exactly one year after the attack on Pearl Harbor, being nicknamed the Pearl Harbor avenger. Since 1981, she has been open to public at the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park in Pearl Harbor, next to the USS Arizona Memorial.
USS Oklahoma (BB-37) was a Nevada-class battleship (the first American class of oil-burning dreadnoughts), commissioned in 1916. She served in WWI as a part of Battleship Division Six, protecting Allied convoys on their way across the Atlantic. Modernized between 1927 and 1929, in 1936 she rescued American citizens and refugees from the Spanish Civil War. During the attack on Pearl Harbor was sunk by several torpedoes. A total of 429 crew died. Her wreck was eventually stripped of her remaining armament and superstructure before being sold for scrap in 1946.
USS Missouri (BB-63) (Mighty Mo or Big Mo) is an Iowa-class battleship, best remembered as the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan, which ended WWII. Ordered in 1940 and commissioned in June 1944, she fought in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and shelled the Japanese home islands, then fought in the Korean War. She was decommissioned in 1955, but reactivated and modernized in 1984 and provided fire support during Operation Desert Storm in January/February 1991. She was decommissioned in 1992, and in 1998 was donated to the USS Missouri Memorial Association and became a museum ship at Pearl Harbor.
Ford Island Field Control Tower, seen in the movies Tora! Tora! Tora! and Pearl Harbor, is being restored by the Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor. Construction of the tower began in early 1941, and at the time of the Japanese attack it had been about 80% completed. Originally, it was painted with a solid dark primer. Shortly after completion, it received a three-tone light gray, medium gray and dark gray camouflage that graced this structure throughout all of WWII. Its familiar red and white paint scheme didn't appear until the early 1960s.
The only Pearl Harbour aircraft survivor today is a Curtiss P-40B G-CDWH (Warhawk). First flight was in 1938, with production starting in 1939. The type was a solution for building numerous fighters rather than designing a fighter from scratch. The P-40 in all its various models became the third highest production fighter in history with over 13,738 aircraft built by the time production ended and the last aircraft handed over to the USAAF in December 1944. P-40's were designed as land based pursuit fighters and fighter-bombers.
About the stamp, Green Succulent, I wrote here.
References
USS Bowfin (SS-287) - Wikipedia
USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park - Official website
USS Oklahoma (BB-37) - Wikipedia
USS Missouri (BB-63) - Wikipedia
Ford Island Control Tower - Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum official website
Curtiss P-40 Warhawk - Wikipedia
Aircraft of Pearl Harbour, and some South African connections - avcom.co.za
Sender: Marius Vasilescu
Sent from Honolul (Hawaii / United States), on 29.03.2018
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