This country is at war with Germany.

We shall go on to the end.

I remember the sheets of plane that came up and almost blinded us for my guns.

Hello and welcome to another episode of the World War Two podcast.

I'm Angus Wallace.

This episode is being released in December 2021, 80 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor

that brought the United States of America into the Second World War.

On the morning of the 7th of December 1941, just before 8am in the morning, the Japanese launched their attack on the US naval base of Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The attack was planned as a first strike to cripple the US fleet in the Pacific and prevent America from intervening in other Japanese Pacific operations.

From six Imperial Japanese aircraft carriers, over 350 planes flying in two waves attacked Pearl Harbor.

Eight US Navy battleships will be damaged, four sunk along with other cruisers and destroyers, but one element of the US Pacific fleet escaped this preemptive strike.

The Pacific fleet's aircraft carriers were all absent from Pearl Harbor on the day of the attack.

Roosevelt will proclaim the 7th of December 1941 as a dead that would live in infamy.

Joining me to discuss the attack on Pearl Harbor is Mark Stilly. Mark is a naval historian who is prolific in his studies on the naval war in the Pacific.

He's written Torah, Torah, Torah, Pearl Harbor 1941 from Osprey and has two new books out looking at the whole of the US naval campaign in the Pacific.

United States Navy in World War II from Pearl Harbor to Okinawa and Pacific carrier war, carrier combat from Pearl Harbor to Okinawa.

Now, this podcast is brought to you with the kind contributions of fellow listeners.

If you think there is a vast machine at work in the background with assistance, research as an audio engineer is all beaveringware,

paired for by a philanthropic and millionaire, you will be wrong. It's just me.

But I could use your help. It all costs me and it's not just my time. Software, research, material is all an ongoing cost.

But how can I help? I hear you cry. Well, if each one of you tossed a checkle in my virtual tip jar at patreon.com slash www.podcast,

I would have a pretty good monthly salary, but I appreciate not everyone has a luxury of spare change.

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