"Arizona" (battleship) - a grave for 1177 sailors

Tragic pages are in the history of each country. They cause conflicting feelings. But they are one in one: they must be remembered in order not to allow repetition. In the United States, the name of one such page is Arizona, a battleship that died in 1941 and led the country to join the Second World War.

How did it all start?

The twentieth century started with the greatest struggle for the redivision of the world. For warships this meant modernization. Countries competed in the qualitative improvement of their ships and increasing their number.

The main force of the navy was considered battleships. Of the battleships of the nineteenth century, a completely different model of a combat ship turned out. Linear ships were considered suitable for combat participation in the squadron. They were used to destroy enemy ships with the accompanying artillery support from the land. These armored heavy vehicles were equipped with guns of caliber 280-460 mm. The crew consisted of one and a half thousand people, and could reach three thousand. With an average length of the vessel from one hundred and fifty to three hundred meters, the displacement varied from twenty to seventy thousand tons.

The main reason for increasing attention to warships was the desire of states to gain primacy in military power. Many countries have focused on the navy. Some paid attention to aviation. Back in 1922, the United States and Britain signed the Washington Treaty on the quantitative balance of the fleets of Japan, the United States and Britain. The first had the right to possess only forty percent of the fleet of England and the United States. The Japanese decided to outdo their opponents in aviation.

In the thirties, the interests of the two neighboring states collided due to oil resources. The army and navy needed fuel, and Japan did not have oil reserves . The suppliers of black gold at that time were the countries of Southeast Asia, for example, Indonesia. Japan's desire to seize oil resources has led to a clash with the United States.

The American command transferred to Hawaii (here the Japanese attack was expected) from California warships. The Japanese military, in response to American battleships and cruisers, began rearming their ships. They equipped combat vessels with armor-piercing bombs and turned them into aircraft carriers.

Among the ships redeployed from California was the battleship Arizona.

Combat parameters

At the Brooklyn shipyard in March 1914 the construction of the ship "Arizona" began. Battleship has become an indestructible military unit in the battles of the First World War.

The determining feature for the combat power of the ship is the characterization of its armament. American battleship Arizona had on its board an impressive arsenal of large-caliber weapons: twelve guns in the caliber of 356 mm; Twenty-two guns of caliber 5 "/ 51, four guns caliber 76/23, four guns 47 mm, two 1-pounders 37 mm, two mine-torpedo guns 533 mm." The ship had a large crew of 1385 officers and sailors.

External dimensions, too, inspired respect. With a length of one hundred and eighty and a width of thirty-two meters, the displacement of the ship reached 31,400 tons. The maximum speed of movement is twenty-one knots.

The ship was an impregnable fortress on the water, possessed powerful impenetrable sides. But the Japanese did not attack him with the expected traditional way. The armor of the upper deck lacked strength, and it was not difficult to break through it.

Preparing Japan for an attack

In 1940, "Arizona" arrived in Hawaii with other warships. Battleship rose to defend the military base of Pearl Harbor. Americans still believed that the approaching war would become a war of ships. But the Japanese thought differently.

By 1941, the team led by Admiral Yamamoto managed to develop an extraordinary plan to destroy the battleship from the air. The aircraft with a crew of three people took off from the aircraft carrier and carried on board a bomb weighing a ton. The flight speed reached five hundred kilometers per hour. Absolute dominance in the airspace over the Pacific Ocean passed to Japan.

The last minutes of the battleship "Arizona"

The seventh of December 1941 is a sad and tragic page in the history of the United States. On an early Sunday morning, when the port of Pearl Harbor slept serenely, the Japanese command launched a double attack on the military port. The first began without seven and eight and lasted eighteen minutes. The second was repeated at nine o'clock and lasted twenty minutes. On the thirteenth minute of the first attack (at eight o'clock six minutes) the battleship Arizona was killed.

Attack on Pearl Harbor was made by forty torpedo bombers and three hundred and fifty-three bombers. Each vessel and aircraft had its own task. Bombers headed for the destruction of airfields, torpedo bombers attacked from both sides of the island of the fort. At eight o'clock four minutes the first bomb hit the battleship, then four more. The first bomb hit the barrel of the gun and rebounded. A few seconds later the explosion exploded and a fire broke out. The flame reached a height of two hundred and forty meters.

The death of the battleship "Arizona" was not due to the torpedo falling into it. Damage inherent in torpedo damage was not detected.

Documentary evidence

From the nearby ship-hospital Soles, Dr. Eric Haakenson photographed the moment the bomb hit the aircraft in the bow deck. Here was the powder stock of the warship. Ammunition exploded and caused a wave of subsequent explosions. Compartment behind the compartment took off in the air. Battleship broke into two halves and began to sink to the bottom. The whole ship swept through the flames, which raged for three days. The ship was lost.

The result of the attack on Pearl Harbor

During the raid, 1,177 people died. Among them, Admiral Isaac Kit. He was on the battleship that morning. Only the ring of the admiral's release from the naval academy, which was permanently soldered to the ship "Arizona", was preserved. Battleship was headed by Franklin Van Valkenburg, who shared the fate of his crew. Only a few survived. Two years of debris analysis. It was possible to rescue 233 victims from the iron captivity. More than nine hundred sailors remained forever on the ship Arizona. Battleship is still under water.

In that raid, not only Arizona died. Battleship was one of the four ships of the US Navy, sunk on December 7, 1941. Two of them managed to be restored by 1944. Four more battleships were damaged of different severity. Three destroyers, one minelayer and three cruisers suffered from the Japanese attack. American aircraft lost about two hundred aircraft. Killed two and a half thousand people, wounded and embarrassed - one thousand two hundred and eighty-two.

The unexpected attack of the Japanese and the destruction of the US military base on the island of Pearl Harbor led to changes in the views of American politicians. Franklin Roosevelt demanded to declare war on Japan. December 7, 1941 - the day the US joined the Second World War. And the reason for this is the following: the battleship Arizona at the bottom as a result of the bombing of Japanese aircraft.

Memory forever

The worship of the sunken "Arizona" began in 1950. Admiral Arthur Radford, then commander of the Pacific Fleet of the USA, initiated a new tradition, raising the national flag of the country in honor of the deceased crew. For this, part of the superstructure of the ship was dismantled, concrete piles were beaten along the sides to impart strength to the structure. On piles, a small pavilion was installed, which seemed to hang over the remains of the battleship. Here, and held the ceremony of honoring the sailors of "Arizona".

In 1962, a monument was built right on the site, where the battleship Arizona sank. The memorial is above the remains of the ship, which are clearly visible through the sea surface. The concrete structure does not touch the hull of the battleship. At the entrance to the museum complex, visitors are greeted by an anchor lifted from the Arizona board.

In the main hall, visitors pay attention to seven windows, symbolizing the date of the death of a combat ship. On the walls of the museum are inscribed the names of the dead seamen. To get there, you need to overcome the water obstacle, there is no land path. For the convenience of tourists built a pier.

Proof of Eternal Tribulation

The significance for Americans of preserving the eternal memory of the dead 1177 sailors is confirmed by several facts:

• On May 5, 1989, the surviving corps of the battleship was included among the national historical monuments.
• During the existence of the memorial, it was visited by more than a million people.

• Every American president, during his years in the White House, must at least once visit this historic site. Today, visiting the memorial of the battleship Arizona, the head of the country turned into a tradition.
• The Emperor of Japan participated in the ceremony of laying wreaths to the list of dead seamen.

The legend of the death of the battleship

Many questions about the death of the battleship have so far not been answered. Therefore, around the memorable event on December 7, 1941, there are legends.

One of them is connected with such a rapid destruction of a combat ship. They say about the massive impact of torpedoes in the hull of the ship with the joint hit of seven air bombs. But the Arizona did not even flinch. And only the hit of one bomb in the pipe led to the destruction of the battleship. Inspection of the smoke channel showed the inconsistency of this version. Damage, typical for such a hit and a subsequent explosion, was not detected.

Living legend

The second legend appeared a few years after the death of the ship, after the construction of a concrete memorial on the site of its flooding. Periodically, an oily stain spreads on the surface of the water. Its contours are like a tear at the eyes. Lilac-scarlet color suggests a similarity with blood. Tourists try to make a photo of the battleship "Arizona" at this very moment. Americans are sure that this way the battleship mourns for its dead crew. In fact, this results in engine oil from the rusted engine room. But legends remain and are passed on to the next generations.