- [Jared] The USS Arizona.
This was the famous battleship that was sunk
at Pearl Harbor at the beginning of World War II.
Today, it's a memorial in Hawaii
that you can go see up close.
In this video, we'll learn about the ship
and what's on the inside,
and then we'll talk about the surprise attack
and what happened to the Arizona.
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The attack on Pearl Harbor
is the event that brought the United States
into World War II.
World War I started in 1914
and World War II happened about 20 years later
and it lasted for six years.
The United States did not enter the war
until the end of 1941.
Here as the United States
and back then there was growing tensions
with the country of Japan.
And in response, the United States Navy
started putting more ships at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
So here's Hawaii,
and it's made up of several smaller islands.
This island is called O'ahu
and it has the capital city of Honolulu.
Right next to it is Pearl Harbor.
It is a major naval base for the United States Navy.
In late 1941, there were quite a few ships positioned
at Pearl Harbor as a protective measure.
This is Ford Island
and right next to it was called Battleship Row.
Some of the strongest ships
in the United States Navy were positioned here.
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The Japanese took several days to sail their fleet
just north of O'ahu.
On the morning of December 7th, 1941,
they launched over 300 planes for the surprise attack
on Pearl Harbor.
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Over the next two hours,
many of these battleships were either damaged or sunk.
The most well-known is the USS Arizona.
At the time, the Arizona had a crew of
over 1500 men during the attack, most of them were killed.
If we now look at all of the deaths at Pearl Harbor
you can see that nearly half of them were from the Arizona.
This is why the ship has remembered so well.
Let's learn a little more about the ship.
The Arizona was commissioned in the year 1916
right in the middle of World War I.
It served as a training ship during the war
never actually seeing any of the combat.
The Arizona was one of two ships
that were built to the same specifications.
They called these Pennsylvania Class Battleships.
The Arizona was built in Brooklyn, New York.
Over the next 25 years,
it would travel to many places around the world.
It would even get a chance to carry the president
of the United States.
Starting in 1929, the ship received a major modernization
which means the ship was upgraded.
The older style cage masks were replaced
with much stronger tripod mast.
This had more space
for the various platforms that were needed.
The modernization also had many improvements
to the ship's, armor,
weapons, and machinery underneath.
At the front of the ship is the bow.
The back of the ship is called the stern.
The very bottom of the ship is called the keel
and then the four propellers to move the ship forward
and the rudder to steer the ship.
The part that overhangs in the back of the ship
they would often call this the fan tail.
In the front, you'll see some chains.
These connect to anchors on the side.
The Arizona obviously was not an aircraft carrier
but it did have some planes.
These would be launched on the ship's catapults.
The planes were not meant for combat.
They were sometimes called spotter planes.
They would get up in the air
and then radio back positions for the gunners to shoot at.
When it was time to come back,
they would make a water landing next to the ship.
Then the airplane handling crane would carefully
lift it back on board.
On top of the ship is the four mast and the main mast.
They were often called tripod mast
because they were held up by three legs on both mast.
There were several rooms called the battery
control stations.
They were used to help direct the ship's guns.
This is the Searchlight platform
which would've been very helpful at night.
A lot of these rooms in the front
were used to control the ship.
This is the Conning Tower,
a heavily armored control room
where you'll find the commanding officer.
They can still see out
in the front of the ship through tiny holes
but will hopefully be protected in a battle.
You'll notice we have several smaller boats on board
often used to carry men to and from the ship.
These boats could be launched by one
of the boat cranes on either side of the ship.
Up at the very top here is the machine gun platform
with the smaller anti-aircraft machine guns.
Down here, you'll find the larger anti-aircraft guns.
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And below that,
are the guns that are designed to hit targets
in the water, such as enemy ships or torpedo boats.
Of course, the major weapons on board
are the four triple turrets making a total
of 12, 14 inch guns.
They can swivel in just about any direction
and they can be tilted up to 30 degrees.
They can hit a target up to 19 miles away.
The turrets extends several decks below.
It takes more than 80 men
to operate a single one of these turrets.
When the turret rotates,
the inside rotates as well.
It's placed inside of a barbette,
which is the armored housing
of the turret that does not move.
These are the cylindrical bearings that allow
the turret to rotate.
Inside the turret,
there are a few different levels.
These are the projectiles or shells.
Basically the massive bullets that will be fired
out of the gun.
Below each turret are the handling rooms
and then close by are the powder magazines
which stores the powder bags filled with gunpowder.
These are needed to fire the massive guns.
Moving these powder bags requires a lot of manual labor.
They had to be carried to one of the powder hoists
which would then lift them all the way up to the top.
These projectile hoists are used to carry up the ammunition.
Then at the top, there was a lot more work to do.
The platform trays had to be pulled
into position ready for loading.
A mechanical rammer pushed the shells all the way
up into the barrel of the gun.
Then four powder bags are manually loaded into each gun
for a total of 12 bags.
Each gun had a breach block.
These were now rotated up to close the breach
or the opening in the back of the gun.
On some battleships, the guns were angled separately.
But on the Arizona,
all three guns were elevated to the same angle.
There is a lot of men that must do their job correctly
for this to work.
I can only imagine what this would've been like
in the middle of a battle.
The USS Arizona had a total of eight decks.
On the outside, we have the super structured deck
and the upper deck, and then six more decks on the inside.
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Most of the living areas are in the higher decks.
On the main deck, you've got a lot of areas
for the crew to sleep on hammocks.
But in the morning,
they would put away the hammocks
and that same space could be used
for other activities like eating a meal.
On the second deck, you've got more space for the crew
and then on the other side,
are the nicer accommodations.
The officer state rooms
the captain's cabin and the admirals cabin.
On the third deck, you start to see a lot
of machinery, storage spaces, repair shops,
and there's also more officer state rooms
at the very end.
The bottom three decks are
for most of the ship's machinery and equipment.
On the first platform, you'll find the handling rooms
right below the turrets and the powder magazines
right next to it.
We saw this earlier in the video.
The second platform had plenty of storage rooms
and the hold is the bottom deck.
It has the engines for the ship.
If you're familiar with the Titanic,
you'll notice some similarities here between the two ships.
They were built around the same time
so the technology was similar.
The Arizona had six boilers used to burn oil
and create steam.
Some of that steam is used to create electricity
for the ship, but the rest of it travels
through pipes back to the ship's turbine engines.
These turn the propeller shafts out the back
which moves the ship forward.
Now, the Titanic used coal to power the ship.
It was stored in these bunkers on the bottom of the ship.
The Arizona however, used oil.
And it actually kept the oil in several different places.
There are tanks here and here
but a lot of the oil is stored next to the bulkheads
towards the outside of the ship
making use of any extra space that they could.
The attack on Pearl Harbor happened on December 7th, 1941.
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Japanese planes flew over top
and dropped bombs onto Battleship Row.
This was one of the main targets of the attack.
The USS Arizona received several of these bombs.
One of them landed right by turret number two
penetrating several decks probably landing
in one of the powder magazines.
This created a massive explosion
which killed most of the men on board.
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Within minutes, the ship sank to the bottom of the harbor.
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In the weeks and months following the attack,
many of these battleships were put back
into service so that they could fight in World War II
but for other ships, the damage was catastrophic.
On the USS Arizona, most of the victims were left
in their final resting place right where they died.
They cut off parts of the ship
and they were also able to salvage some of the guns
and equipment on board.
But the rest of the ship was left
in the harbor right where it sank.
Today, there is a memorial constructed
on top of the Arizona.
It opened to the public in 1962.
Millions of people still come to see this every year.
You'll notice that the shape
of the memorial droops down in the middle.
This represents the initial defeat
of the war and then moving back
up to the high point as victory was achieved.
There are seven windows on each side
and also seven windows on top.
This represents the date of the attack.
December 7th, 1941.
If you want to visit the memorial,
you'll start over here
at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial.
There's plenty of things to keep you busy
lots of museum exhibits to walk through.
There's a World War II submarine
that you can actually go inside
and then you can take a bus across a bridge
over to Ford Island and then explore Battleship Missouri.
The Japanese surrendered on the deck
of this battleship in Tokyo Bay.
This officially ended World War II.
The Arizona Memorial is right next to the battleship.
To get to the memorial,
you have to take the ferry boat across the waters.
The ferry boat leaves from here.
There's room for up to 145 people
and it takes just a few minutes to get there.
White buoys mark the position
of the stern and bow of the Arizona.
You'll get off the boat here
climb up the ramp and enter the memorial.
To many people, this is considered sacred ground.
There are three parts to the memorial
the entry room, the assembly room,
and the shrine.
The entry room can serve
as a gathering place for ceremonies,
but for the most part,
you'll move through to the assembly room.
You can learn more about the Arizona
on these center displays
and then look off either side to see down onto the ship.
There's a large hole in the middle of the floor
so that visitors can look down directly
onto the deck of the ship.
The last room is the shrine.
It has a large marble wall showing the names
of all those that were killed on the Arizona.
It's a long list.
The sunlight can shine
through some openings in the side walls.
This design is called the Tree of Life
and it's a universal symbol of renewal and peace.
The tree of Life is
on the other side of the memorial as well.
There's only a few parts of the Arizona
that still stick above the water.
The largest is the Barbette from turret number three
and then one of the legs to the main mast.
There's a flagpole attached here.
If you look closely
you can see oil still leaking from the ship.
This is often referred to as black tears.
It's almost as if the ship is still grieving
over what happened.
Some survivors of the Arizona have decided
that when they die, they'll have their ashes placed
inside the ship to join their crew mates.
My name's Jared.
I'm the guy that makes these videos.
And wow, it takes a lot of work.
If you wanna see more animations like this
click one of the cards on screen.
Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time.
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