7, 1941,day, december a date which will live in infamy. >> to mark the 75th anniversary of the attack on pearl harbor, we visited the national archives in college park, maryland, to see a collection of five u.s. navy deck logs of that day. they are written records of activities on naval ships, but they were anything but routine on the day of infamy. >> i am chris carter. i am an archivist at the

national archives in college park, maryland. today we are going to look at the deck logs of the various ships located at pearl harbor during the attack. log is a recording of all the activities that occurred on the ship during a 24-hour period. this could be injuries to sailors, sailors coming on and off the ship. in this instance, the attack on pearl harbor. we will look at the uss chu, the destroyer of the battle. it is a world war i-era destroyer meaning that had a 4 a littleks and was slower than the contemporary destroyers of the time. after the attack was primarily used in an escort role for convoys, things of that

nature. this is what the officers on board wrote on december 7. starting at around 6:00 in the morning, they actually received 10 gallons of milk and 4.5 gallons of ice cream, which was recorded on board, and they brought this on board. interestingly enough, the next ,ntry located on this deck log "suffered surprise attack by japanese torpedo and bomber planes. sounded general quarters and manned antiaircraft battery." niceck to position -- juxtaposition between peacetime and war breaking out. at 8:11, they mention the continued attack by japanese bombers and dive bombers. guns scoredircraft

a direct hit on a dive bomber, demolishing in midair. 2 other probable hits were scored, when intel assembly of the dive bomber." --h a efrin this that day? with a have written this that day? most likely not. most of those revelations would have occurred after they were recalling the incidents that were occurring. they were a little preoccupied at the time trying to fight back and things like that. for a lot of these records, a lot of these were recorded after the fact. some deck logs -- this one not included -- will write down the number of casualties, who was killed, who was wounded. those would not be collected until the end of the attack. >> do you know whose job it was to write these things down? >> yes. the officer on watch is

typically the one who does this. ensign orit is an lieutenant, depending on the type of ship, typically the one who is responsible for writing the entries in deck log. this is the uss all in, one of the more modern destroyers at the time of the attack. this ship is notable because it set sail with only four officers on board. ensigns.icers were and the most experienced of them had only relate months experience -- had only 8 months experience. they set sail without any pilots on board to set sail, and they managed to make it out of the harbor, and were patrolling for a day or two until they came back in the harbor.

the deck log about is it mentions a captain was trying to catch up to the ship as it set sail. -- accordingorders to the orders of the commander of the squadron, they were not to pick up any passengers when setting sail. he boarded another ship and attempted to board and ultimately was not able to until a day or two later. , it does of note here mention that there was some damage because of the attack. the deckaccording to "bomb exploded on four quarter, throwing the stern against a buoy." not able to set sail because they were outside the trolling looking for any japanese -- summer infant

might've attack. >> do they have any mentions of the attack? ,> according to the deck log they "shot down one plane in the usswhich fell on curtis." they will mention the arizona burning or blowing up. for instance, in here, it , "the arizona seen burning from stem to stern following the explosion." atthe next ship we will look monahan.s .imilar to the aylwin the monahan is notable because during the time of the attack

can one of the japanese midgets was able to successfully penetrate pearl harbor. it was cited by the monahan, which proceeded to ram the submarine and drop numeral to 2 depthges -- drop charges to sink the submarine. >> where were they located physically? >> the destroyers we mentioned so far were located in the northeastern portion of the harbor itself, because that is where they stored, for dr. most of these destroyers. the battleships were, as most people know, along ford island. they were on the southeastern section of the harbor itself. >> and in general, why were all these ships in hawaii? >> all these ships were in hawaii itself because there were warnings. we were aware that more likely than not we were going to end up fighting the japanese. as a way to convince him not to

attack us we had our ford elements of the pacific fleet stationed in pearl harbor itself . the main portion of the fleet. 8 battleships and three aircraft carriers were based in pearl harbor at the time. us, ourately for aircraft carriers were out and about doing various missions at the time of the attack and were not present during the time of the attack. ate we have the deck log 8:39. "sighted coming to our. simmering, dropped 2 depth charges which exploded at 30 feet depth. serve one torpedo truck passing about 50 yards on star board be am."

unfortunately for them, but backed engines emergency, and they do record a little bit of the damage that occurred to the ship. they were, in spite of the damage, were able to get out of the way. another destroyer stationed at pearl harbor against any simmering attack. -- submarine attack. each officer is in charge of the want of the time block. the one we were just reading w. gilden, an ensign in the u.s. navy. n, they did nota make it to the end of the war. it-in 1944 and unfortunately sunk somewhere in the pacific ocean. ,he other 2 ships, the uss chew

that have been used for convoy action. was also used in the pacific ocean, but as more of kind of -- they were stationed with the fleet itself and served as protection from submarines and aircraft attack. so next we will move to the uss maryland. battleship located in pearl harbor at the time of the attack. the maryland was lucky in that it did not suffer a lot of damage during the attack. part of the reason for that is they work in board of the uss oklahoma, meaning the only way the japanese could hit the uss maryland was via areal bombs. whereas oklahoma suffered aerial bombardment and torpedo attack. so luckily for the maryland, the oklahoma soak up most of the

torpedoes and was actually one of the 2 battleships we ultimately lost during the course of the battle, it is the oklahoma ended up -- because the oklahoma ended up capsizing. if you see any images of the whole of the ship during pearl harbor, that is the ship. >> if people are watching this and wondering why we are not reading the deck logs from oklahoma and arizona -- >> unfortunately, we do not have the deck logs for the uss oklahoma and arizona. they suck at the time of the battle. for the arizona -- they sunk at the time of the battle. for the arizona commit most likely blew up at the time of the attack. whereas the oklahoma, as it flipped over they were not able to recover the deck log itself, because at the time they were concerned with saving as many men as they could. it is actually the same thing with the west virginia as well.

west virginia, even a we ultimately raise the ship from the bottom, at the time of the nextk, since it was docked the uss arizona, a lot of the oil went down and there was a lot of flame rising up around the west virginia, which led to it being abandoned until we were able to quench the flames and go back and re-float the ship. the notable thing about the deck log for the uss maryland is at the time, it appears a lot of these radio transmissions went through the uss maryland. meeting a lot of these transmissions were recorded in the deck log itself. what that ultimately means is a lot of the confusion that was occurring at the time of the -- notably, we have no idea where the japanese were at the time or what they were planning to do next --is from the deck log itself. " 12:01, it is recorded that

parachute troops reported landing at barbers point." as most people know, that was not the case. but at the time they weren't sure if this air attack was a prelude to something bigger, if they were going to launch an invasion of oahu itself and knocked out the naval base. as we know, that wasn't the case. another entry of note is at 11:43, as part of further continuation of the confusion, -- "reportd report received enemy troops wearing blue coveralls with red emblems." not only did we know they were attacking, we know what they dressed alike. confusion at the time, they had an idea what was going on. they were trying to send out place to find out where the

enemy carriers were. unfortunately, the japanese major to destroy as many as the planes as they could -- made sure to destroy as many of the planes as they could. ultimately, we figured out where the japanese carriers were. we ended up going 100 degrees in the wrong direction, because apparently with radio contacts, when you receive it, it is either one way or the exact opposite. we assumed instead of them being to the northwest, they were to the southeast. we sent one of our carriers that way to find their carriers. of course, they were in their we didn't fight -- they weren't there, we didn't find them, which ultimately was a good thing because we would've been outnumbered could that would not have ended well for midway because we needed all the carriers we had. >> what is the first indicator on this log that something is

going wrong? >> let's see here. according to this deck log, at 7:50, "japanese planes to men's bombing attack on your, dive bombers -- on yard, dive bombers." shortly thereafter, the maryland was hitthat, "oklahoma by unknown number of torpedoes." as i mentioned, they arrange the deck logs in four-hour time chunks. the next time chunk is when the main attack itself is located. 0800-1200 chunk. commanding officer is restored. 5, they opened fire with one one-inch battery and the 50

caliber machine gun. they were trying as hard as they could to get to the attack, as it was a surprise attack. uss oklahoma lying on side. 8:38, they stood by all lines. at 8:39, already boxes refilled. ready boxes were the boxes they put the ammunition in. this was considered the ready ammunition they could use for the weapons they had on board. receive report that an and me -- an enemy submarine was inside pearl harbor. presumably that was the submarine that the monaghan saw and ultimately that the charged -- depth charged.

they should not have been able to physically see that. 57, of the next entries is 8: the uss nevada getting underway. the first battleship and ultimately the only battleship that got underway during the time of the attack. at 8:58, we have the uss west virginia "settling, fire appeared on or near uss tennessee." "open fire with remaining antiaircraft batteries. 9:09, "received one and on midgetsbomb hits line. 9:14, "receive report of large enemy bombers over pearl."

fort 5 andure on 25-caliber battery. burning enemy plane come fell on uss curtis. 9:28, slight fire on forecastle and single bridge out. receive report that rear admiral ."s. anderson at 9:40, "uss west virginia abandoning ship. 50 caliber magazines flooded." it -- turretn three covered with flames from burning oil on water." "received command that

all ships remain until further orders." 9:50, "one of the ships sinking alongside the 1010dock." at 9.55, "fire under control along quarterdeck." at 10:09, "commenced firing on enemy aircraft," which probably wasn't the case because all the enemy aircraft of time work on. that was probably a phantom signing -- enemy aircraft at the time were gone. it was probably a phantom signing. 10:29, "report of casualties, including one officer debt, one enlisted man dead, one enlisted

man wounded." "parachute troops reported near barbers point." 10:39, "uss cummings underway." at 10:40, "explosion on uss west virginia." "enemy submarine cite sighted." page. 11:37, "parachute troops report lending on north shore." "enemy troops wearing blue coveralls with red emblems" s ighted. at 11:45, "cold away fire and rescue party to assist." >> said parachute was just some

-- so the parachute was just some -- >> most likely, as during sleep we were able to get some planes into the air. historians believe we were able to get some planes in the air. most likely that is what it was, but for certain their japanese troops landed at the time of the attack -- no japanese troops landed at the time of the attack. next we will look at the uss nevada, the only battleship of the attack that was able to get underway. part of the reason for that is the officer on watch had ordered a second boiler to come online to make it a little easier to do the transition between having one boiler online -- he was exited just doing it for efficiency's sake -- actually just doing it for efficiency's sake. thehe uss nevada was one of

older battleships that we had at the time. it had been built initially around world war i, and it had been modernized once or twice in the ensuing period. as i mentioned, the uss nevada had gotten underway, but as the second air attack was coming in, the only large vessel underway, japanese planes tended to focus on that ship in particular. there were near misses from actual hits, and it looks like the ship could have gone down. the admirals at the time decided instead of having this ship blocked the entrance to the harbor, thereby preventing other ships from getting out -- we :05, recorded in here, at 9 "receive the battle force not to

proceed out of harbor." they make preparations to anchor and they stopped engines. 9:07 was an instance where they recorded "received a bomb hit on forecastle," killing an individual by the name of hill, who was blown overboard. at 9:10, there were recorded as "bow of should intentionally between floating drydock and channel buoy 24." reported as grounding on even keel. the captain actually returned on board. this whole time the captain was not on board issuing orders, which was actually typical of kids at the time. most of the senior officers were on leave. it was sunday, a time of peace.

everyone at the time was expecting nothing to occur, and if it were to occur, they were expecting it to happen in the philippines. andas closer than japan more of a threat. as we know, that didn't happen. they ended up attacking the r 8 hours laterlr and secure that in 1942. at the time of the attack, they were raising morning colors. as this was one of the larger ships, they had a whole band playing the national anthem. at the time of the attack, japanese planes were coming in asing to strafe the band they were playing the song, and they played the song throughout the start of the attack, and it wasn't until they were done with a song that they went and manned their stations.

some of this is kind of reflected in the log itself as at 0800, then made morning colors "with guard of the day and bugle." at 8:01, "japanese aircraft commenced surprise attack on u.s. pacific fleet, pearl harbor." so it slightly submerged took time to get to it. in february 1942, repair crews floated the ship. they were able to do minor repairs to it, basically enough to have it sail out, and they sent it to the west coast to get finalize repairs and to kind of a baby armament -- kind of update the armament, mostly including antiaircraft batteries from things of that nature. it was ultimately stationed in the atlantic ocean to serve a support role. its most notable role is

conserved in d-day -- is it served in d-day and provided fire support, with some shells sent 17 miles in land. >> how many ship logs do we have from pearl harbor? >> approximately 90. i believe there are around 90 ships at the time, including combat and auxiliaries. theoretically we should have all of their deck logs, unless of course, the ship was destroyed, and we do not have the deck logs of the uss arizona, oklahoma, west virginia, and several destroyers destroyed at the summit attack. >> from your point of view, what is the value of preserving documents like this? >> it is valuable just for the first time accounts we received. from the uss nevada and especially from the uss maryland, you can see at the time the chaos that was occurring.

we kind of get ideas of what some people were thinking at the time, what the ships were doing at the time, how we were responding to the attack, and other things of that nature. it is a veryians, useful tool to give an idea of command assistance, -- give an idea of, in this instance, what was happening at pearl harbor. here, force, on nevada, pretty much the last entry they have is that 11:30 at night, they lighted fires under boiler number six "upon completion of overhaul, warming up slowly." for the -- that is the last one they have for that day. >> can you tell us how they were

saved and where you find them? >> of course. they are arranged in 5- or 10-year stacks. come here to our research room and ask, we would like a certain month for a certain ship. if we have that log, we will be able to find it for you. >> how far back in history do these things go, and do they still do them now? >> the ones we have here at the national archives in college park, we have 1941 deck logs on it. 1983ntly we have 1941 to deck logs. downtown washington, d.c., we have the deck logs prior to 1941. the navy is currently creating deck logs for the foreseeable future. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016]

[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] 10, 11:00y, december a.m. eastern time, we will be live to take your calls and tweets for the author of "pacific crucible." that is live next saturday here on american history tv. >> sunday on american history tv on c-span3, at 1:00 p.m. eastern, a symposium on world war ii spies and codebreakers, the fbi and the nazis firing in new york city, and american family who aided the french resistance in nazi-occupied paris. >> she had a husband, and she had a 15-year-old son. avenue asg to use 11 a place where the resistance could meet, and where intelligence was dropped, she was risking not only her life,

but her husband and sons life. american and out -- the tie in american anarchists -- the china market anarchists americand -- italian anarchists were tried for murder. a law professor discusses the case with introductions by ruth bader ginsburg. p.m., sacco and venzetti were transmitted to the death house. the boston press declare the case closed. presidency,on the historian george nash talks about herbert hoover's humanitarian efforts during world war i and ii. >> hoover, working voluntarily and without pay, became an international hero, the