Details
DAY OF INFAMY
by Anthony Saunders
Pearl Harbor – Sunday December 7, 1941
Overall Print Size: 36½" x 19⅝"
Edition Size: 350
December 7, 1941 was a quiet Sunday morning and breakfast had been served. On the deck of the battleship California the duty watch was at ease whilst others just relaxed, enjoying the warm, gentle breeze that blew lazily through the towering superstructure of their ship, once flagship of US Pacific Fleet. It was a similar scene on board the six other battleships moored quietly on the eastern side of Ford Island at Pear1 Harbor, the Navy’s vast and seemingly impregnable anchorage on the Pacific island of Oahu, Hawaii.
Few observers that morning even noticed the tiny specks that had appeared in the distant sky, and those that did were merely curious because America, unlike the countries of Europe, was still at peace. But the Japanese had more sinister ambitions than to maintain peace in the Pacific. And when, on that fateful Sunday morning they unleashed their infamous, unprovoked attack, surprise was complete. Within a few terrifying minutes, carrier-borne Aichi D-3A Val dive-bombers had ripped apart the neatly parked ranks of American fighters at airfields over the island. As the frantic call went out “Air raid, Pearl Harbor - this is no drill”, the Japanese torpedo planes had already begun their attack on the fleet.
The torpedoes quickly found their main targets, the battleships along ‘Battleship Row’. As bombers joined the attack from above, the California and West Virginia were sunk, the Oklahoma capsized, and the Nevada badly damaged. The forward magazines of the Arizona, detonated by an armor-piercing bomb, erupted in a one gigantic, concussive fireball sending over a thousand sailors to their deaths. The attack lasted for two hours and when it was over more than 2,400 Americans lay dead, nearly 1,200 were wounded. Eighteen ships, including the battleships, had been sunk or damaged, and over 300 aircraft damaged or destroyed. The war had come to America.
Anthony Saunders’ evocative “DAY OF INFAMY” recreates the scene as the stricken California comes under sustained attack from an Aichi D-3A Val dive-bomber. A lone P-40 Warhawk, heavily out-numbered and one of only a handful to get airborne from the shattered airfields, has stormed into the attack in a valiant attempt to stem the tide of destruction.
Seventy years ago the world stood open-mouthed in shock as it learnt of the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor. This dramatic new edition is released in tribute to all those that took part in the actions on December 7 1941. Of the many thousand US soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen that witnessed the dreadful spectacle on December 7, only a handful are still with us today. In addition to the artist this print was individually signed in pencil by TWO of the last surviving veterans of Pearl Harbor, both of whom were in action on Battleship Row that fateful morning aboard the USS Tennessee, sister ship of the California:
Chief Petty Officer CLARENCE E. LUX (USN)
Chief Boatsman EDWARD WISE (USN)
Comes with a Certificate of Authenticity.
