The First Encounter in Attack of Pearl Harbor

choi

Michael M Phillips, Sailor Involved in First WWII Shot Honored; Alan Sanford and other crewmen fired at a Japanese sub entering Pearl Harbor. Wall Street Journal, May 21, 2015.
www.wsj.com/articles/gunner-whos ... s-buried-1432158790
(He died in January at 91, and was interred Wednesday--May 20--at Arlington National Cemetery)

Quote:

"At 6:37 am on Dec. 7, 1941, Seaman First Class Sanford, an 18-year-old gunner from St Paul, Minn, was aboard the USS Ward, which was guarding the entrance to Pearl Harbor. Just over an hour before the Japanese aerial attack began, crewmen on the destroyer spotted a Japanese mini-submarine [manned by two men] trying to sneak into port on the trail of another US ship. * * * The sailors described it as cylindrical, about 80 feet long, with an oval-shaped conning tower.