U.S. Navy Firefighters Work on Blazing Battleship
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC09547.08 Author/Creator: U.S. Navy Place Written: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Type: Photograph Date: 07 December 1941 [1942] Pagination: 1 photograph : b&w ; 25.2 x 20.5 cm. Order a Copy
Official Navy photo on Pearl Harbor. Label on back of photograph: "US Sailors man boats at the side of the blazing USS West Virginia to fight flames started by the Japs." Taken during attack in 1941 and printed and released in 1942 for the one-year anniversary.
From Naval History and Heritage Command catalog: "Fighting fires on the sunken battleship West Virginia (BB-48), 7 December 1941. The garbage lighter YG-17 is at right, with her crewmen playing two fire hoses at the flames. Assisting or standing by are a motor launch and an officer's motorboat. USS Tennessee (BB-48) is inboard of West Virginia."
From Naval History and Heritage Command's catalog: "Sailors in a motor launch rescue a survivor from the water alongside the sunken USS West Virginia (BB-48) during or shortly after the Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor. USS Tennessee (BB-43) is inboard of the sunken battleship. Note extensive distortion of West Virginia's lower midships superstructure, caused by torpedoes that exploded below that location. Also note 5/25 gun, still partially covered with canvas, boat crane swung outboard and empty boat cradles near the smokestacks, and base of radar antenna atop West Virginia's foremast.."
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