| UNITED STATES PACIFIC FLEET AIRCRAFT, BATTLE FORCE BOMBING SQUADRON SIX | |||
| U. S. S. ENTERPRISE, At sea, 12 December 1941. | |||
| From: | Ensign F. T. Weber, A-V(N), U.S.N.R. |
| To: | Commander, Bombing Squadron SIX. |
| Subject: | Resume of Events - Sunday, 7 December 1941. |
- On subject date I scouted on a track of 049 to a distance of 150 miles from Lat. 21-15, Long. 161-58. This track took me to the North and past Kauai and the second leg was to Ford Island. I was flying wing on Ensign M. Gonzalez, who was pilot of 6-B-3.
- Nothing was sighted on our first leg and when about 20 miles past Kauai we turned to a heading toward Oahu. When we were about 25 miles from Oahu, I sighted a large group of planes milling around between 3000 and 4000 feet. At first I thought that they were Army planes and watched them for a few minutes. I had been flying about 500 yards on the starboard and 500 feet above Ensign Gonzalez; and when I looked for him after watching the other planes, he could not be seen anywhere. I immediately made a large circle attempting to pick him up again and then made 4 or 5 "S" turns over the spot I had last seen him. At this time I saw a plane ahead of me at the same altitude and course that we had been flying, so I tried to catch up with him thinking that it was Ensign Gonzalez. When I was about 2000 yards aft of this plane it made a 180° turn towards me and thinking that Ensign Gonzalez was making this turn to help me join up on him, I started an easy turn towards him. When the plane was on my starboard bow, he made a flipper turn towards me and when doing so, I saw the large red circle on his port wing. On seeing this, I realized that it was an enemy plane so I down down to about 25 feet off the water and applied throttle. No attempt was made to follow me.
- These events all occurred between 0810 and 0830, and at this time I would judge that there were about 40 or 50 Japanese planes circling around.
- When I reached Barber's Point, I joined up on 6-S-10 and circled with him until it seemed that the field was clear for landing. During the time that we were circling around off Barber's Point, we could see sections of these enemy planes rendezvousing apparently after having made further attacks.
- About 1000, we attempted to land at Ewa Field; but the Marines did not want out planes there for fear of further attack. We then attempted to land at Ford Island but were fired upon from all directions by our own shore battery, so we returned to Ewa.
- At Ewa Field our planes were rearmed with 500 pound bombs and serviced and we were told to stand by and await orders. After waiting there for a half hour, we took off for Ford Island and were fired at again on our first pass but were able to get in on our second attempt.
- While on our leg from Kauai to Oahu, I had instructed my Radioman to shift to radio statio KGU frequency to take bearings and get some homing practice. While I was doing this, Ensign Gonzalez must have made his transmission in regards to being shot at.
- As soon as I got away from the enemy planes, I had my radio receiver shifted back to ship's frequency. When this was done, I heard the reports that the Japanese had attacked Oahu.
- The enemy planes that I saw were of the German "Stuka" type and a low wing monoplane type, with retractable landing gear.
| (Signed) F. T. WEBER |