Seventy years ago, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise aerial attack on Pearl Harbor. The surprise was complete. The attacking planes came in two waves; the first hit its target at 7:53 A.M.; the second at 8:55. By 9:55 it was all over. By 1:00 P.M. the carriers that launched the planes from 274 miles off the coast of Oahu were heading back to Japan.
    Behind them they left chaos, 2,403 dead, 1,178 wounded, 188 destroyed planes, 159 damaged planes and a crippled Pacific Fleet that included eight sunk or damaged battleships. In one stroke the Japanese action silenced the debate that had divided Americans ever since the German defeat of France left England alone in the fight against Nazi Germany.
    When the attack ended, U.S. forces on the island of Oahu had paid a fearful price. Twenty-one ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet were sunk or damaged: the battleships  Arizona, California, Maryland, Nevada,  Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia; cruisers Helena, Honolulu and Raleigh; the destroyers Cassin,  Downes, Helm and Shaw; seaplane tender Curtiss; target ship (ex-battleship) Utah; repair ship Vestal; minelayer Oglala; tug Sotoyomo; and Floating Drydock Number 2.
    Japanese losses were comparatively light. Twenty-nine planes - less than 10 percent of the attacking force - failed to return to their carriers. Five midget submarines were either sunk or failed to return to their mother submarines for unknown reasons. Only 55 Japanese were lost in the operation.
    Although stunned by the attack at Pearl Harbor, the Pacific Fleet's aircraft carriers, submarines and, most important, its fuel oil storage facilities emerged unscathed. These assets formed the foundation for the American response that led to victory at the Battle of Midway the following June and ultimately to the total destruction of the Japanese Empire four years later. American technological skill raised and repaired all but three of the ships sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor: the Arizona, considered too badly damaged to be salvaged; the Oklahoma, raised and considered too old to be worth repairing; and the obsolete Utah, considered not worth the effort. Most importantly, the shock and anger caused by the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor united a divided nation and was translated into a wholehearted commitment to victory in World War II.
    Approximately three hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese planes began a daylong attack on American facilities in the Philippines. Because the islands are located across the International Dateline, the local Philippine time was just after 5:00 A.M. on December 8. On the same day the Japanese 14th Army began its invasion of the Philippines with a landing on Batan Island (not to be confused with Bataan Peninsula), 120 miles off the north coast of Luzon. Further to the west, the Japanese struck at Hong Kong, Malaya, Burma and Thailand in a coordinated attempt to use surprise in order to inflict as much damage as quickly as possible to Allied strategic targets.
    Eight hours after receiving the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor the American air bases on the Philippines were attacked by the Japanese and most of the American air power destroyed on the ground. At the end of the day's action it was apparent that the Japanese had won a major victory. The effective striking power of U.S. Far East Air Force had been destroyed, the fighter strength had been seriously reduced, most B-17 bombers, and maintenance facilities had been demolished, and about 90 men had been killed.
    The Battle of Malaya began when the 25th Japanese Army invaded Malaya on 8 December 1941. Japanese troops launched an amphibious assault on the northern coast of Malaya at Kota Bharu and started advancing down the eastern coast of Malaya toward Singapore.
    Off the coast of Malaya, the Royal Navy battleship Prince of Wales and the battle cruiser Repulse were sent to intercept the Japanese invasion force. Both ships had been sent to Singapore in December 1941, to serve as a deterrent to Japanese aggression, which had been demonstrated in the invasion of French Indochina.
    With the Japanese threatening to overrun Malaya, British Admiral Sir Thomas Philips was pressed to use his capital ships in an offensive role and he assembled his flotilla to intercept and destroy Japanese invasion convoys in the South China Sea. Admiral Phillips did not appreciate the effectiveness of modern air power as applied against warships.
    Just after 11:00 A.M., on December 10, 1941, the British flotilla was attacked by Japanese land-based bombers and torpedo planes. By 1:20 P.M. both British capital ships and Admiral Phillips had been lost.
    On 3 December, 1941, a few days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Italian submarine Scirè departed La Spezia, Italy with three manned torpedoes, heading for the British naval base at Alexandria, Egypt. On 19 December, at the depth of 49 feet and at about 1.3 miles from Alexandria, the three torpedoes were launched. The three 2-man teams snuck  through the entrance of the harbor as three British destroyers passed through.
    One of the Italian human torpedoes was able to place a limpet mine under the hull of the battleship HMS Valiant, but the two frogmen riding it were discovered, captured, and brought aboard the British battleship. Fifteen minutes prior to the mine exploding, team commander, Luigi Durand de la Penne, told Valiant's commanding officer, Captain Charles Morgan, of the imminent explosion, but refused to divulge further information. As the mine exploded and sank the battleship, the two Italians were only slightly injured.
    After the other limpet mines were detonated, the other two teams were also captured. As a result of the raid, British battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth was also sunk and the Norwegian tanker Sagona and the British destroyer HMS Jervis were damaged. The loss of the two British battleships resulted in a temporary naval superiority for the Italians in the Mediterranean. The attack on Alexandria Harbor accomplished one of the most effective naval victories of World War II without killing anyone.
    After the war, two of the Italian frogmen that participated in the raid, who had switched sides, following their country which switched sides, received the Gold Medal for Military Valor. It was pinned to their chests by the Valiant's former captain, Vice-Admiral Charles Morgan, chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet.
    In the span of two weeks in December 1941, the Allies suffered one of the greatest naval and air losses in modern history. Twelve American and British battleships and battle cruisers were sunk or heavily damaged, hundreds of airplanes destroyed on the ground, two dozen other warships sunk or damaged, and more than 3000 men killed. Within a few months, the Philippine Islands, Malaya, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, Hong Kong, Guam and Wake Island would all be under Japanese control. Japan came very close to accomplishing its dream of establishing “The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.”
    Halfway around the globe, events were unfolding that gave the Allies a ray of hope. On December 6, the Red Army under General Georgi Zhukov launched a massive counterattack in front of Moscow. With attacks along a wide front, it would eventually push Germany’s Army Group Center 150 miles away from Moscow. The German Army would never come close to Moscow again for the rest of the war. For Germany the writing was on the wall.