How 7 American Pilots Risked Everything To Protect Pearl Harbor

in the infamous December 7th attack that crippled the U.S Fleet the Americans were caught by such surprise that there were essentially no organized defenses to try and protect their Harbor but in this video we will go through seven forgotten heroes from this famous battle who miraculously got their planes off the ground and fought back against the Japanese [Music] everyone knows that the fighter pilots of World War II were ladies men and were very well groomed and thanks to the sponsor of this video may inscaped you can look just as Dapper as the famous Knights of the air manscaped is the leader in Men's Grooming and this holiday season they have you covered from head to toe if you are looking for a gift for yourself or for someone else their performance package 4.0 has everything you need to stay groomed and ready for action including my favorite their top of the line body trimmer with a built-in light and a Sleek design for super smooth shaving so this holiday season if manscape sounds like something for you get 20 off in free international shipping with code tj3 history at manscape.com tj3 history thanks again to manscaped and without further Ado enjoy December 7th of 1941 a date which will live in infamy and while it will always carry on in history with these tragic memories there are some bright spots of heroism and courage that must also be remembered so in this special edition of Heroes of the Skies we will go through seven of these Heroes and follow their stories from that day ordering them from the fewest to the most Japanese planes shot down and to start the first two Airmen that we will go through did not even see victory in the air but will certainly showcase just how dangerous getting a Plane off the ground truly was so first let's look at the fate of two pilots by the name of Lieutenant George Whitman and Lieutenant Samuel Bishop George Whitman was a U.S Army Air Force pilot and officer stationed at the harbor on December 7th he was popular and well liked by nearly all of the men at his base on this fateful morning Whitman awoke from his bed and looked out the window to see the attack underway he immediately jumped into his car and sped down the road to get to Bellows Airfield which had not yet been hit during this drive his car was strafed by Japanese Fighters repeatedly but he courageously carried on in a later interview after receiving his car his sister would note that it had so many bullet holes throughout it that she was amazed that he even survived the drive a few minutes later Whitman arrived at Bellows where he jumped from his car and immediately sprinted to a P-40 it was still in the process of being armed but he said that he would take it as is and jumped into the cockpit he started the engine and taxied onto the runway with the engine still cold he pushed the throttle forward and started to take off unfortunately at that moment two or three Japanese zeros saw him moving down the runway in turn to engage they opened up and strafed his plane Whitman as he was trained attempted to use the rudder and turn once his wheels were in the air to try and shake the fighters but this tactic would be useless and ineffective because the zero was incredibly agile and the U.S intelligence had ignored all of the warnings about this new fighter so American Pilots were truthfully not armed with the proper strategies to take them on in a few seconds Whitman's P40 took multiple hits and caught fire it crashed near the beach by Bellows Airfield shortly after takeoff when Whitman's plane went down he was so loved by his fellow servicemen that many of them immediately sprinted from the Airfield to his plane to try and tend to him regardless of their own safety tragically upon reaching his aircraft Whitman was dead at almost the exact same time at Bellows another P-40 pilot by the name of first lieutenant Samuel W Bishop attempted to take off as well The Bravery to do this after just watching a fellow P40 shot down and killed is unimaginable Samuel Bishop pushed his P40 down the runway and took to the air shortly after his wheels were up however his plane was also engaged and took critical damage although he himself was wounded in the leg he was able to miraculously make a crash landing in the water below and was somehow able to swim ashore and survive the remainder of the attack George Whitman and Samuel Bishop would both be awarded the Silver Star for their actions on December 7th this story of bellows field shows just how dangerous it was for these Pilots to even attempt to get their planes in the air during this attack and what fate awaited them if they were caught in the wrong place now that we have seen these possible fates let's look at some of the pilots who did succeed in getting in the air and survived long enough to fight against the Japanese the first of these would be second lieutenant John Leroy daines Leroy Danes was stationed with the 47th Pursuit squadron at Wheeler Field in Hawaii like many of the other airfields on the island the planes were grouped together and unarmed to protect them from sabotage the ammunition was also locked up and difficult to get in the Panic of the morning but after these obstacles were overcome Leroy Danes would be one of the first pilots in the air for the Americans under heavy Japanese fire he completed two missions dogfighting with enemy aircraft and possibly damaging up to two Japanese planes in the air after completing these sorties however he landed and went back up for a third in this final mission he would take off in an older p-36 instead of the P40 likely because it was ready to go and he would not have to wait tragically as he came back in to land after this Mission his plane was misidentified by The Americans on the ground and he was killed by friendly anti-aircraft fire this shows the true risk for these men was even greater than that of normal combat not only potentially could they be shot down by the enemy but also by their own Gunners on the ground Leroy Danes would be awarded the Silver Star for his actions on this day up next we will look at first lieutenant Louis Sanders Lewis was a squadron commander in the 46th Pursuit Squadron also stationed at Wheeler shortly after the attack began Sanders would lead a flight of four p-36s to take off from the damaged Airfield through pure luck smoke from the attack was concealing their aircraft from the attacking Japanese and they were able to get multiple Fighters ready for combat once in the air he and his flight climbed up to Diamond Head and engaged 11 Japanese planes in this intense dogfight where the U.S Defenders were outnumbered and flying obsolete aircraft Sanders downed one of the fighters and survived the mission following this he would continue to lead the 46th Pursuit Squadron until his Tour of Duty was over and was awarded the Silver Star for his actions on December 7th at number 5 we will look at second Lieutenant Philip Rasmussen this young pilot was actually one of the other p-36s that took off on the wing of first lieutenant Lewis Sanders from wheeler also flying a p-36 Rasmussen would famously go down as the pajama pilot who was in such a hurry that morning that he did not even have time to change out of his pajamas but simply strapped a pistol onto his purple night clothes and took to the air with the other three usp-36s he took on the 11 Japanese aircraft and also downed one himself during this tangle however his aircraft was badly damaged and he even survived a ramming attempt from a Japanese pilot at one point from the damage he received his aircraft went into an uncontrolled dive but he was able to eventually recover it he landed his plane back at Wheeler with over 500 bullet holes throughout his aircraft Philip Rasmussen was also awarded the Silver Star for his gallantry that day up next at number four is another one of the p-36s from the flight of Wheeler Field led by Lewis Saunders this would be piloted by second Lieutenant George Sterling George had just recently passed his flight test but this made no difference when Duty called upon him as he jumped into his plane he handed his watch from his wrist to his crew chief and his final recorded words were give this to my mother I'm not coming back he joined the other pilots and taxi down the runway and took to the air when their flight met the large group of Japanese aircraft he was able to get on the tail of one of the zeros he opened fire and the chase continued in the sky above Diamond Head while doing this though another zero got behind him and began to fire his plane burst into flames and went down it crashed into the ocean below and neither him or his plane were ever found before he was shot down however he was in fact credited with shooting down and destroying the Japanese fighter that he was pursuing he was also awarded the Silver Star for number three we will shift away from the pilots of Wheeler Field to a smaller airstrip named halewa at this small Runway planes were being armed and made ready for flight AS Pilots hurried to the field because of this three of the aircraft were able to get up from this airstrip and take on the Japanese attackers with substantial success the first of these Pilots would be second Lieutenant Harry Brown after seeing and hearing the attack in the early morning Harry actually hopped into a car with John Danes who was featured earlier in this list and was killed by Friendly Fire together the pair drove down the road to get to an Airfield and Danes would get out at Wheeler but Brown opted to continue on to halewa in hopes of finding a better plane and a better Runway to take off of as he arrived Kenneth Taylor and George Welch who we will cover in a moment had just taken off from this Airfield Brown was able to locate a p-36 by himself however and did not hesitate he took to the air and opted to take on the Japanese alone as he got up he came across a flight of valdive bombers and started after them in the minutes that followed Harry Brown succeeded in shooting down two of the bombers making him one of the only Pilots to take down multiple Japanese aircraft during the attack following this he would land and survive going on to serve in the Pacific later in the war he would finish the war with seven kills and was a highly decorated Ace at the final two spots for this list we will actually have a pair of American aviators that would make history on December 7th of 1941 with one of the most incredible stories of the entire War this would be none other than George Welch and Kenneth Taylor this pair of young Pilots were two commanders in the 47th Pursuit Squadron through some good fortune their unit had just been moved to Haleiwa Airfield for Gunnery practice this allowed their planes to still be intact instead of being destroyed at the larger airfields of wheeler and Hickam after attending a dance the night before the two were awoken by explosions in the harbor and immediately began to race for their Airfield still in their tuxedo pants from the night before they jumped into their p40s and began down the runway shortly after taking off they came under intense fire but were able to evade and engage being in the P-40 instead of the outdated p-36 Welch and Taylor had a substantially better chance to take down the Japanese during this first mission the two pilots destroyed no less than three planes and possibly four after exhausting their ammo they came back in to refuel and re-arm their p40s for another sorting once they were on the ground however they were reprimanded by senior officers who ordered them to stay out of the air however as the second wave came back into attack it scattered the crowd at the runway and Welch and Taylor used the chaos to hop back into their planes once again in this second mission the two p-40s scored three more victories bringing their likely total to seven kills between them in this Taylor was also hit by a bullet in his cockpit but was fortunately not seriously wounded they would land again and survive the attack both Welch and Taylor would receive the Silver Star and Welch was even nominated for the Medal of Honor but it was reportedly denied after superiors maintained that he took off without proper authorization both Pilots would serve in the Pacific and survive the war if you enjoyed the stories in this video make sure to give a big thank you to the volunteers with the non-profit initiative stories behind the stars please comment what story I should cover next and please consider subscribing

Channel: TJ3 History

Views: 230,456

Keywords: Pearl Harbor, Pearl Harbor Attack, Attack on Pearl Harbor, Kate Torpedo Bomber, pearl harbour, Japanese Zero, Val Dive Bomber, Day of Infamy, Pearl Harbor War Thunder, december 7 1941, Philip Rasmussen, Kenneth Taylor, Pacific World War II, George Welch, Flight Sim, World War II Flight Sim, War Thunder, History Channel Dogfights, Historic, Documentary, Mark Felton, Yarnhub, TJ3 Gaming, Dark Skies, wW2 Air Combat, P-36, P-36 Fighter, P-40, P-40 Pearl Harbor, P-36 War Thunder

Id: 3PD5HNXJJfo

Length: 14min 10sec (850 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 09 2022