In Reply
Refer to: Serial |
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DD350/A16
Serial 0390 |
U.S.S. Hull |
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December 9, 1941. |
From: |
Commanding Officer. |
To: |
Commander Destroyers Battle Force. |
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Subject: |
Air Raid on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941 Report on |
- This vessel with Destroyer Division One plus Phelps
was alongside USS Dobbin undergoing tender overhaul. Fires
were out under the boilers.
- Offensive Measures:
0757 - |
General Quarters; prepared to get underway. |
0758 - |
Gangway Watch opened fire with .45 cal. pistol on two (2) planes
crossing bow within 50 yards. |
0805 - |
#4 Machine gun opened fire. |
0807 - |
#1 Gun, 5"/38 cal. opened fire. |
0809 - |
#5 Gun, 5"/38 cal. opened fire, followed by guns #2, #3,
and #4, shortly thereafter. |
0812 - |
All Machine guns plus two (2) automatic rifles on the bridge
and one on after deck house firing. |
- Damage to Enemy:
- No. 2 Machine Gunner, while firing at a plane on
the bow saw it ignite and crash into cane field in flames. Gunner
states that as far as he knew he was the only one firing at this
plane.
- One plane that crossed the bow of this nest was seen to smoke
and crash in Aiea with an attendant explosion. Officer at director
stated that this plane was still carrying her 50-100 lb. bombs.
(This plane can only be claimed by the nest as a whole).
- Gunner at #3 machine gun put 15-20 shells in bottom of one
plane. Plane dropped out of sight; men from other ships in
nest state this plane immediately crashed. Same gunner states
he cut part of a wing off another plane.
- Machine gunners stated they hit other planes without any
definite results. Three (3) machine gunners stated that their
tracers seemed to bounce off the planes.
- Pointer on Gun #4 had depressed for loading by hand. As plug
went home he sighted plane in his cross-wire. He pulled his trigger
and saw wing come off plane. Plane immediately dropped out of
sight beyond USS Pelias and may have been the plane that
crashed on the deck of the USS Curtiss.
0830 - |
There was a lull. |
0830 - |
Two Vee's high level bombers (10,000 ft.) directly over head
seen intermittently through the clouds. Opened fire with all
guns. Formations broke up and dropped their bombs in the cane
field. |
0845 - |
Second attack of dive bombers.
All attacks except one was broken up. One formation of three
(3) continued on. Two of these wore shot down; one by USS Dobbin
and one by the nest of ships. Two bombs landed astern of nest,
close to side of Dobbin. |
- Own Losses:
- No personnel casualties this vessel.
- One of the two bombs mentioned above hit USS Dobbin
Motor Launch killing boat's crew. Other bomb landed 10-15 yards
astern of this vessel and sprung a flange in the hydraulic system
of the steering engine, causing an oil leak. No other damage.
It is believed that a fragment from this bomb killed a machine
gunner on the Dobbin and broke the leg of another man
on the Dobbin.
- Distinguished Conduct:
- It is felt that no individual or set of individuals
can be singled out for distinguished conduct. The entire company
of the Dobbin and the ships alongside are deserving of
the highest praise. As a single example: A Dobbin welder
was over the side welding up airports when a bomb hit 25 yards
from his. Not for a moment did he stop welding. Another example:
At the beginning of the raid while the men were in the magazines
breaking out ammunition the Dobbin pulled all light and
power. In spite of these difficulties the crew succeeded in servicing
the guns with ammunition. All guns had to be loaded and operated
by hand, yet this vessel fired 200 rounds of 5"/38 Cal.
ammunition. Passengers from other ships helped in whatever [rest
of sentence is missing from document]
Note: The following fact stood out very forcibly: Any vessel
or any nest of vessels that could maintain a volume of fire suffered
little or no damage. Time and again attacks (in the second
raid) were directed at this nest of ships and were successfully
driven off.
[signed]
R.F. STOUT.
Copy to:
Comdelsflot-One,
Comdesron-One,
Comdesdiv-ONE.