Pearl Harbor Aboard the Maryland and Oklahoma: Through the Collections
Of the eleven battleships, all making a starboard turn while steaming in column, USS Maryland is at left, closest to the camera
On 6 December 1941, the USS Maryland nestled beside the USS Oklahoma in Hawaii. In 1940, these ships–along with the rest of the Pacific Fleet–deployed to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii as a response to rising tensions between the United States of America and the Empire of Japan. The Oklahoma sat facing the harbor, and outside of the Maryland, a ship around five years her junior.
USS Oklahoma, ca 1917, painted with experimental camouflage. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.
Aboard the USS Maryland was Gordon Sage, a sailor and U.S. Marine. Born in extreme poverty, Sage had made his way to a Navy recruiting station by hitchhiking. He humorously recalls an instance where he fell short on cash and had to subsist for a day on a watermelon shared with his driver.
Things had since improved for Sage. He rose from a deckhand and guard to Admiral Anderson’s orderly, the commander of the Pacific Fleet battleships. Like many sailors, Sage went out on the town during liberty to dance, drink, and welcome the warm weather and hospitality offered on shore. But in the early morning of December 7th, a rumor had reached Sage that made the Sunday unusually tense:
...there was word that something had been sighted. They thought a submarine… the next morning the Officer of the Day would tell everybody, ‘when you’re going ashore… don’t say anything.'
This was not a rumor. Before dawn, at 03:57, the destroyer USS Ward was notified by the minesweeper USS Condor of a Japanese midget submarine. This submarine was part of a force prepared to torpedo American ships in between the waves of Japanese aircraft which, unbeknownst to the sailors aboard the Maryland and Oklahoma, would strike later that day. Taisuke Maruyama was amongst the Japanese airmen preparing for the attack. Born in Okaya, a central part of Japan, Maruyama accomplished the extraordinary feat of passing the Navy pilot exam before he was even 18. Having trained for a year, he was assigned to Hiryu, one of the six carriers assigned to the Japanese 1st Air Fleet for the air raid. He flew a Nakajima B5N “Kate” torpedo bomber. Maruyama was a scout on the plane and was accompanied by his pilot and radio man. The Japanese aircraft launched at around 6:00 AM, and Maruyama’s target was the USS Oklahoma.
He recalls his feelings as the aircraft flew off the deck: “My speech was very tight. I was excited. And I felt that I was going to fight for my nation.”
Japanese "Kate" attack plane, photographed from another Japanese aircraft. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.
Deno Petrucciani, a 19-year-old from Kalimar, Illinois awoke on the USS Maryland to explosions and shouting. He recalls:
I couldn’t find my clothes. I had a pair of shoes on. I went down to my battle station… I volunteered to go up topside and boy! …There was oil on fire… there was blood and oil. That was bad. You could hear them hollering for help... We tried to get them out. They were hollering until they burned up and it was quiet.
Earl H. Selover was a New Jerseyite and former ham radio operator who now served aboard the Maryland as the Chief Radioman. He had joined the Navy because of the opportunities it offered, the old dress blues that were gifted to him by a family friend in the 8th grade, and movies that showed impressive columns of battleships. Now, from the shore, Selover watched in disbelief as those awe-inspiring battleships were struck by the Japanese air raid:
We got wakened by some people in the court. They had a court with some cottages right alongside this place. The guy hollered up to me… They were party people. I said, ‘you better go back to your party.’ He said, ‘no, turn on your radio.’ I turned on the radio and it was evident we were in deep trouble… I couldn’t believe what I saw, this massive smoke billowing down through over the battle line.
Efforts to rescue sailors, extinguish flames, and return fire began immediately.
The sailors aboard the Maryland rushed to the guns. Gordon Sage may have been an admiral’s orderly but, during the attack, he became an anti-aircraft gun loader:
...I was in shock; didn’t know what to do, and so I walked on down to the next gun compartment wondering, you know, what...what am I suppose to do because I didn’t have an assignment...for like...general quarters or anything like that.; the First Sergeant come...down...the gun compartment and he says, “Get out on the...on the...ammunition line!” And, you know, I’m a kid...just so I said, “I don’t have a helmet…” He said, “Get out there!" So, that’s what I did.
Many sailors' efforts to get the guns operational were slowed by locked ammunition stores. John Land, a gunner’s mate from Fredericksburg, Texas, recalls the desperate situation:
“You couldn’t find the people with the keys to the ammunition lockers. They were locked up and you couldn’t find anybody that had the keys so we had to literally break the locks with hammers to get ammunition. When we got the ammunition out, then we could start shooting back at them. We did manage to shoot some Japanese planes down.”
USS Maryland alongside capsized USS Oklahoma. USS West Virginia burning in background. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.
While Maryland made a desperate effort to defend itself and the harbor, the USS Oklahoma acted as a shield for oncoming torpedoes, one of which was from Maruyama’s aircraft.[ Harold Johnson, a fisherman who joined the Navy at 17 years old to help his struggling family, recalls the feeling as the torpedoes struck:
“...it felt like the ship was jumping out of the water… It’s not a loud number, it’s just a concussion…”
The ship began to list severely; the USS Oklahoma was turning over. The lights on the boat had failed, and in pitch darkness, Johnson scrambled to find his way to the deck:
“Finally I seen a dim light up above where the sun was shining in through the underneath hatch.”
He climbed out the hatch and into the water, thick with a layer of oil. As he was swimming the oil caught fire, but Johnson out-swam the flames and found safety in a nearby submarine base. From the base he looked back:
It was totally rolled over… one thing I really remember is that night, that’s when it really hit you. And what you went through and you can look out and see all these ships burning and you just couldn’t hardly believe it, what happened.
USS Oklahoma righted to about 30 degrees during salvage at Pearl Harbor, March 1943. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.
Those trapped in the hull of the Oklahoma would later be rescued through holes cut in the ship.
As damage control and rescue operations continued throughout the night, an enormous tension settled over Pearl Harbor. It was unclear if a Japanese invasion was imminent, and the available intelligence was piecemeal for those at Pearl Harbor. Selover, the radioman aboard the USS Maryland, recalls the confusion aboard the ship:
'There was a fire… we need help right away.’ They might start to send somebody over there and find out it was a false report… a couple, three times, they announced… Japanese Paratroopers… are landing at Ewa Field… Then, at 9:00 pm they announced that the Japanese troop transports were unloading troops at Waikiki Beach. My wife was sitting two blocks from there.
No Japanese invasion ever came. Still, many men slept by the guns, with life jackets, and on the decks of their ships.
By the end of the attack, after receiving two bomb hits, the USS Maryland staggered its way to the Puget Sound Naval Yard for repairs. The USS Oklahoma was completely overturned, having been struck by a total of nine torpedoes. The Maryland suffered 31 casualties, while the Oklahoma suffered 427.
After a titanic effort, the Oklahoma would be righted and used for salvage. The Maryland would become the flagship for Rear Adm. Harry W. Hill’s Southern Attack Force after being modernized and repaired in the Puget Sound Naval Yard. She would go on to serve in the invasions of Tarawa, Saipan, Leyte Gulf, and the Battles of Kwajalein, and Okinawa.
USS Maryland off Puget Sound Navy Yard after final wartime overhaul, August 1945. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.
Selover, Johnson, Sage, Petrucciani, and Maruyama would continue to serve their countries after Pearl Harbor. Johnson served in the Korean War and refused to assume the same battle station he was assigned before Pearl Harbor. After his service, Johnson married a Canadian woman and had two sons and a daughter. Petrucciani was discharged in 1946, married a woman from Illinois, and had two sons. After his service in the Navy, Sage entered the United States Air Force. Later, he taught in public schools as an art teacher. Sage would marry and have one daughter. Land would return to Fredericksburg, Texas and meet his wife, and would have two daughters. Maruyama would be one of the few Japanese pilots to survive the war. Selover would serve on carriers before he retired and moved to the Philadelphia area where he lived with his wife, son, and daughter. Pearl Harbor was a pivotal historical event which brought the United States into the Second World War and was unforgettable for those who witnessed it. It remained a source of inspiration for servicemen and women on both sides and shows through the stories of those aboard the Maryland and Oklahoma, the rapid response and courage with which Americans met the devastating attack.
Hear the complete stories of all the individuals featured in this article, in their own words, here:
Contributor
Alton Krueger, Guest Author
