Human remains were removed from the ship before it was moved into drydock at Pearl Harbor on December 28. After forcing water out of the ship, the righting operation began on Maand lasted until June 16. 429 of her crew were killed or missing and assumed dead.īy early 1942, the Navy decided to salvage Oklahoma as she had rolled into the harbor’s navigational channel and was a hazard. Her starboard side broke the water’s surface with part of her keel exposed. Oklahoma‘s roll was stopped by her masts touching the bottom of the harbor.
Two more torpedoes struck the mighty battleship and she completed her roll onto her side in just 12 minutes. Fires broke out and Oklahoma began to capsize to port. On December 7, she was struck by three torpedoes, the third of which penetrated her hull. Oklahoma was another total loss for the Navy. A salvaged USS Oklahoma (top) next to the much larger USS Wisconsin (bottom) at Pearl Harbor (U.S.Arizona remains sunk at Pearl Harbor with a white memorial to those who perished aboard sitting above her. These guns shelled Japanese positions at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. However, the guns from Turret II were salvaged and installed USS Nevada (BB-36) in 1944. Both of Arizona‘s forward turrets were left in place. The aft main gun turrets were repurposed as Army Coastal Artillery Corps Battery Arizona at Kahe Point on the west coast of Oahu. The ship’s remaining superstructure was scrapped in 1942 and her main armament was salvaged over the next year and a half. The damage she sustained was so extensive that the Navy decided against raising and salvaging her. On December 1, 1942, she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register. Fires raged aboard for the next two days and 1,177 of her crew perished.Īrizona was declared temporarily out of service at Pearl Harbor on December 29. The resulting explosion ripped Arizona apart and destroyed much of the interior structure of the forward part of the ship. At 8:06, one final bomb struck near Turret II and detonated the forward magazines. On December 7, Arizona was struck by multiple bombs causing fires to break out. She was the second and last of the Pennsylvania-class super-dreadnought battleships and one of the most powerful ships in the Pacific Fleet. The most famous ship from Pearl Harbor, Arizona was a total loss for the Navy. The USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor (U.S.Moreover, the majority of the battleships damaged at Pearl Harbor were soon repaired and returned to service. Naval aviation played a key role in the long-range combat of the Pacific and these carriers led the U.S. The American aircraft carriers were not at Pearl Harbor and were spared from the attack. For all the devastation and tragic loss of life on December 7, 1941, they failed to achieve this goal. The Japanese surprise attack at Pearl Harbor was meant to deal a knockout blow to the American Pacific Fleet.