![]() ![]() Twenty-four of the forty Japanese torpedo planes were assigned to attack "Battleship Row", and five more diverted to that side of Ford Island when they found no battleships in their intended target areas. Clearly a worrisome threat to Japanese plans for Pacific Ocean dominance, they were the Japanese raiders' priority target. Together, these ships were one short of equalling Japan's active battlefleet. The ninth, USS Colorado, was undergoing overhaul on the west coast. The Fleet flagship, Pennsylvania, was also in Pearl Harbor, drydocked at the nearby Navy Yard. These seven battleships, ranging in age from eighteen to twenty-five years, represented all but two of those available to the Pacific Fleet. Last in line was USS Nevada, by herself at quay F-8. Astern of Tennessee lay Arizona, which had the repair ship Vestal alongside. ![]() Then came two pairs, moored side by side: Maryland with Oklahoma outboard, and Tennessee with West Virginia outboard. Northeastward, Battle Force flagship California was next, moored at F-3. Quay F-2, the southernmost, which usually hosted an aircraft carrier, was empty. Before dawn on 7 December 1941, the American strategic center of gravity in the Pacific reposed in the seven battleships then moored along "Battleship Row", the six pairs of interrupted quays located along Ford Island's eastern side. ![]()
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