Chapter II: Historical Record
(continued)

Japanese Naval Aircraft at Pearl Harbor

At 7:05 a.m. the six aircraft carriers of the Japanese strike force swung eastward into the wind and increased speed. Packed on their decks were the finest carrier aircraft in the world in 1941, the famed Zero (fighter), the Kate (torpedo/horizontal bomber) and the Val (dive bomber).

A majority of the pilots were combat veterans from missions flown in China. Japan offered its best ships, planes and pilots to guarantee a successful attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor. The world that day would witness a new type of weapon that would change history. It was the dawn of large-scale carrier warfare.

Three hundred and fifty aircraft had roared off the decks of their pitching carriers toward Hawaii. Two separate waves of aircraft would make up the strike force launched at two intervals. By noon 321 had returned, 29 planes and 55 airmen having been lost.

The amazing military achievement was not a random piece of luck. Many years of research and development of the planes were paid off in Japan's success at Pearl Harbor. On that day, the Japanese utilized the most modern types of carrier aircraft. Five plane types were used in the "Hawaii Operation": The float plane (scouting), fighter, dive bomber, torpedo plane, and the horizontal bomber.

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