Dear Sir:

I found your web site when I was doing some research on my late father's autobiography.  In part, he wrote the following:

 

After a while the attack seemed to stop.  I went back to the barracks to see if I could find anyone and inspect the damage.  All the screens were blown out and the lockers were blown about.  Some the mattresses were on fire and I threw them out.  I stepped outside and seen about six dead airmen who had guns and ammunition.  I helped myself to the guns and ammunition and headed for the flight line to see what was doing there.  Soon after I got there a second attack occurred.  Most of the action was again over Pearl Harbor with the airplanes circling back to Hickam Field.  Most of our airplanes had already been destroyed but a few appeared to be undamaged.  One Japanese airplane lined up toward me and I wondered what he was going to shoot at.  I felt safe since I was in a door way behind a thick cement wall.  The airplane began shooting and seen he was shooting at something to my right.  I also realized that the wind was drifting his plane over me and that he would have to pull up or he would run into the hangar.  I waited until he was close enough that he couldn’t see me and I stepped out and began firing my rifle.  I first shot for the engine and seen a cylinder pop off.  Then he had to pull up and turn and I pumped bullets where the pilot was located and kept shooting as he was going away.  The airplane never did gain any altitude and was headed toward Fort Kamehameha.  I heard later that a Japanese plane crashed at Fort Kamehameha and the pilot was killed.

 

Since you have done so much research, I think you can judge if his account has any credit.  Please excuse his grammar.

Yours truly,

Charles Hummer

 

Charles,

Thank you very much for the comment and the quote.  Primary sources like the one from you father are valuable documents and I'm pleased that you forwarded his quote.  With your permission, I will include it on the site with his name and unit (if you have that information).

As for the Kam Zero itself, it flew in the first wave.  The theory was that it stuck the ground during its attack run, damaging its propeller.  That doesn't mean that your father's Zero wasn't shot down or damaged as well, as there were 28 or so Japanese planes lost in the attack altogether.

Best,

John Lillard

 

Dear John Lillard:

Thank you for the information and interest, even though it seems that circumstantial evidence indicates that my father didn't down the Kam Zero.  As you pointed out, Kam Zero was in the first wave and not the second.  Also, I found that some one is selling reproductions of the side panel from Kam Zero, which show four holes made by a large caliber bullet and not a field rifle.  I don't know, however, if these bullet holes are evidential or theatrical.

If you still would like to post my fathers quote, let me send you a slightly longer version with corrected grammar.  I will include his name, rank, serial number and assignment.

Yours truly,

Charles Hummer

 

I truly appreciate the material and information forwarded, and will use it to update the site.

John,

I enjoyed your research very much.  I lived in quarters #32 Worcester Ave. between 1956 and 1959 when I was about 8yrs old.  Your maps and diagrams brought back many childhood memories.  I recall playing in the concrete bunkers and climbing a ladder to a look out near Selfridge.  I had no idea then why all that concrete was there.  The old barracks and gym/stadium was our playground.  It might be of interest to you that I recall there being a corroded aircraft fusalage on the beach near Selfridge.  It had apparently been dredged up during the excavation and construction of the runway that is now HWI.  Comparing my memory with what I know now it certainly could have been a Zero.

Thanks for the memories.

 

Regards,

Carr Bruton