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The Most Dramatic Aerial Attacks That Changed Military History

Khalid Elhassan January 31, 2023 35 min

The Raid that Thrust America in WWII

Route taken by the Japanese force that attacked Pearl Harbor. Wikimedia

The attack that set in motion the chain of events that led to both the Doolittle Raid and the eventual devastation of Japan from the air occurred on December 7^th, 1941. On that date, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack from aircraft carriers against the US naval base at Pearl Harbor. Early that morning, Japanese warplanes, laden with torpedoes and bombs and escorted by Zero fighters, took off from carriers that had made their way in secrecy and radio silence to launch positions 200 miles north of Hawaii.

Raid - Some of the Pearl Harbor attack's devastation — Some of the Pearl Harbor attack’s devastation. New York Times

The raid that the Japanese pilots executed that morning had been planned for almost a year. It was coordinated with other attacks that day against US possessions in the Philippines, Wake, and Guam, and against the British in Singapore, Malaya, and Hong Kong. The attack on Pearl Harbor was intended to cripple America’s Pacific fleet, and impede US interference with planned Japanese conquests of American, British, and Dutch territories. As seen below, it was a devastating attack that caught the defenders off guard.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.