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In October 1941 the naval general staff gave final approval to Yamamoto's plan, which called for the formation of an attack force commanded by Vice Admiral [[Chuichi Nagumo]]. It centered around six heavy aircraft carriers accompanied by 24 supporting vessels. A separate group of submarines was to sink any American warships which escaped the Japanese carrier force.
In October 1941 the naval general staff gave final approval to Yamamoto's plan, which called for the formation of an attack force commanded by Vice Admiral [[Chuichi Nagumo]]. It centered around six heavy aircraft carriers accompanied by 24 supporting vessels. A separate group of submarines was to sink any American warships which escaped the Japanese carrier force.
Nagumo's fleet assembled in the remote anchorage of Tankan Bay in the [[Kurile Islands]] and departed in strictest secrecy for Hawaii on November 26, 1941. The ships' route crossed the North Pacific and avoided normal shipping lanes. At dawn on December 7, 1941, the Japanese task force had approached undetected to a point slightly more than 200 miles north of Oahu. At this time the U.S. carriers were not at Pearl Harbor; on November 28, Admiral Kimmel sent USS ''Enterprise'' under Rear Admiral William Halsey to deliver Marine Corps fighter planes to [[Wake Island]]. On December 4 ''Enterprise'' delivered the aircraft and on December 7 the task force was on its way back to Pearl Harbor. On December 5, Admiral Kimmel sent the USS ''Lexington'' with a task force under Rear Admiral Newton to deliver 25 scout bombers to [[Midway Island]]. The last Pacific carrier, USS ''Saratoga'', had left Pearl Harbor for upkeep and repairs on the West Coast.
Nagumo's fleet assembled in the remote anchorage of Tankan Bay in the [[Kurile Islands]] and departed in strictest secrecy for Hawaii on November 26, 1941. The ships' route crossed the North Pacific and avoided normal shipping lanes. At dawn on December 7, 1941, the Japanese task force had approached undetected to a point slightly more than 200 miles north of Oahu. No one sighted the force en route and it maintained complete radio silence. Neither Japan's allies nor Japan's diplomats knew the strike was coming. Nagumo did not know that the American aircraft carriers based at Pearl Harbor would not be there on December 7.<ref>The Japanese did not have current information on the disposition of ships at Pearl Harbor. On November 28, Admiral Kimmel sent USS ''Enterprise'' under Rear Admiral William Halsey to deliver Marine Corps fighter planes to [[Wake Island]]. On December 4 ''Enterprise'' delivered the aircraft and on December 7 the task force was on its way back to Pearl Harbor. On December 5, Admiral Kimmel sent the USS ''Lexington'' with a task force under Rear Admiral Newton to deliver 25 scout bombers to [[Midway Island]]. The last Pacific carrier, USS ''Saratoga'', had left Pearl Harbor for upkeep and repairs on the West Coast.</ref>
Nagumo's force included, in addition to its supply train, six aircraft carriers, two battleships, two cruisers, nine destroyers, and three submarines. They reached position approximately 200 miles north of Oahu before dawn on 7 December (Hawaiian time.) Plans for the strike had been initiated during the previous summer, completed by early November. In September picked crews--with pilots who averaged better than 800 hours' flying time--from the Japanese First Air Fleet had begun a period of intensive training in horizontal and dive bombing and in the technique of torpedo attack in shallow waters. En route to the rendezvous above Oahu, with the ships under radio silence, the pilots were briefed on their coming mission. The primary target was the naval base of Pearl Harbor, the design to cripple the Pacific Fleet. It was hoped that at least four aircraft carriers and four battleships could be sunk or rendered useless for a long period. Exactly on schedule, at 0600 on the 7th, orders for the take-off were given. Shortly thereafter the first wave--fifty fighters, fifty horizontal bombers, forty torpedo bombers, and fifty dive bombers--roared off the carriers and headed toward Oahu. Forty-five minutes later fifty horizontal bombers, eighty dive bombers, and forty fighters followed as the second and last wave of attack.<ref> Wesley Frank Craven and James Lea Cate, eds. ''Army Air Forces in World War II: Vol. I: Plans & Early Operations, January 1939 to August 1942'' (1949), ch. 6</ref>
==The attack==
==The attack==
At 6:00 a.m. on December 7, the six Japanese carriers launched a first wave of 181 planes composed of [[Nakajima B5N|torpedo bombers]], [[Aichi D3A|dive bombers]], horizontal bombers and [[Mitsubishi Zero|fighters]]. Even as they winged south, some elements of U.S. forces on Oahu realized there was something different about this Sunday morning.
At 6:00 a.m. on December 7, the six Japanese carriers launched a first wave of 181 planes composed of [[Nakajima B5N|torpedo bombers]], [[Aichi D3A|dive bombers]], horizontal bombers and [[Mitsubishi Zero|fighters]]. Even as they winged south, some elements of U.S. forces on Oahu realized there was something different about this Sunday morning.