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Very interesting facts there MAJ(P) Stephen Conway. I'd never heard of that convergence before at least not the Navy planes only our bombers

Snoopy the Red Baron is the most famous

Thank you for sharing my friend LTC (Join to see). Those of us who very interested in Military History, especially WWII, are familiar that some aircraft were able to take off and fight the attacking Japanese Aircraft on December 7, 1941 from Wheeler Army Airfield and Haleiwa Auxiliary Airfield.
Thankfully the US Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers were deployed away from home port on December 7, 1941.
Thankfully the U.S. Navy Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers that took off from the aircraft carrier Enterprise 200 miles west on a training mission collided with a real enemy formation of Japanese aircraft. The over sea dogfight

The Army Air Corps behaved heroically on December 7, 1941.
"Pearl Harbor: The Army Air Forces Fight Back
BY ROBERT F. DORR - DECEMBER 7, 2011
P-40 Tomahawks P-40Bs of the 6th Pursuit Squadron, 18th Pursuit Group, in August 1941. P-40s were inferior to the Japanese Zero in many aspects of performance, but were rugged, well armed, and deadly when flown properly. Robert F. Dorr Collection photo
WELCH AND TAYLOR
As pilots scrambled to find aircraft that were fueled and armed, confusion reigned. The first takeoffs by American pilots occurred at Haleiwa Auxiliary Airfield. 2nd Lts. Kenneth M. Taylor and George Welch made their way by car from Wheeler Field to Haleiwa. Their 47th Fighter Squadron had been deployed there for gunnery practice and the attackers had not yet struck the field, so Taylor and Welch were able to grab a pair of P-40B Tomahawks and take off.
As reported in an official history, ground control directed Taylor and Welch to head for the southern tip of the island where Japanese aircraft from the first wave were strafing the Marine base at Ewa. The pilots spotted a group of Japanese aircraft arrayed in a long line. They dove into the midst of this line and began shooting. Each P-40 pilot was credited with two confirmed aerial victories in those rushed moments, and Taylor fired on a third aircraft but did not see it go down. Having exhausted their ammunition and running low on fuel, Taylor and Welch landed at Wheeler Field to rearm and refuel.
The P-36 was no match for the Zero, or even for the P-40, but it was the assigned aircraft and the only thing readily available.
At Wheeler Field, 2nd Lt. Philip M. Rasmussen was attired in purple pajamas, struggling with fellow pilots to arm and fuel Curtiss P-36 Hawk fighters of the 15th Pursuit Group. With bombs falling around them, four pilots got into the air just as the second wave of Japanese warplanes approached Kaneohe Bay. The P-36 was no match for the Zero, or even for the P-40, but it was the assigned aircraft and the only thing readily available.
“We climbed to 9,000 feet and spotted Val dive bombers,” Rasmussen remembered later. “We dived to attack them.”

Pearl Harbor
P-36s and P-40s (left center) still undamaged at burning Wheeler Field during the early phase of the attack. National Archives photo
Led by 1st Lt. Lewis M. Sanders and Rasmussen among the four pilots, the P-36s engaged the Japanese aircraft. Sanders got on the tail of one and shot it down. Moments later, 2nd Lt. Gordon H. Sterling, Jr., downed a Japanese aircraft but then was downed at sea and lost his life. Just before witnessing Sterling’s death, Rasmussen charged his guns only to have them start firing on their own.
While the pajama-clad pilot struggled to stop his guns from firing, a Japanese aircraft passed directly in front of him and exploded. Shaking off two Zeros on his tail, Rasmussen got his guns under control, raked another Japanese aircraft with gunfire, then felt himself taking hits from a Japanese fighter. “There was a lot of noise,” he said. “He shot my canopy off.” Rasmussen lost control of the P-36 as it tumbled into clouds, its hydraulic lines severed, the tail wheel shot off. He did not know it yet, but two cannon shells had buried themselves in a radio behind his pilot’s seat. The bulky radio had saved his life."
https://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/pearl-harbor-the-army-air-forces-fight-back/2/

"Scant attention has been paid to the drama of swirling air-to-air combat over Oahu on December 7--until now.
by Warfare History Network
The night before, Lt. Col. Clay Hoppaugh, signal officer for the Hawaiian Air Force, had contacted Welby Edwards, manager of KGMB, and asked that the station remain on all night so a flight of Army Air Corps Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers flying from California could home in on the station’s signal. Actually, it was a less than well-kept secret that whenever the station played music all night, aircraft flew in from the mainland the next morning.
Being nondirectional, however, that same music also drifted into the radio receivers in the operations rooms of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo’s six Japanese aircraft carriers, Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku, and Zuikaku, located roughly 300 miles north of Oahu. Nagumo’s task force monitored the station throughout the night for any hint of a military alert on Oahu, and at approximately 7 am on Sunday Lt. Cmdr. Mitsuo Fuchida, leading his formation toward Oahu, also tuned in KGMB to guide his 183 aircraft to their destination. While Fuchida homed in on KGMB’s signal, 18 U.S. Navy Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers took off from the aircraft carrier Enterprise 200 miles west of Oahu and tuned in radio station KGU to get some homing practice of their own. Shortly after 8 am, the three converging formations, each tracking inbound on the same innocent radio beams, collided in brutal and deadly aerial combat that would plunge the United States into World War II. The date was December 7, 1941.

The story of the Japanese surprise attack on Perl Harbor is, of course, much broader and more nuanced than just the events surrounding the devastating strike against the United States Navy’s Pacific Fleet. In the over 70 years since the attack, there has been no shortage of books and articles detailing events on the “Day of Infamy,” yet most accounts focus almost exclusively on what happened to the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor.
How the U.S. Assassinated the Japanese Admiral Who Planned Pearl Harbor
Incongruously, scant attention has been paid to the drama of swirling air-to-air combat over Oahu on December 7. For the most part, the aerial battles and dogfights are relegated to footnotes or to a few obscure paragraphs scattered among dozens of sources. Yet the clashes in the air are as compelling, electrifying, and powerful as any actions at Pearl Harbor. Although new sources, American and Japanese, have clarified and in some cases altered the facts about a few iconic episodes, the handful of airmen who fought, and in some cases died, that Sunday morning were truly American heroes who willingly flew to the sound of battle and carried the fight to a determined enemy. Their fight adds a vital missing dimension to the long-established Pearl Harbor story.
“Tora! Tora! Tora!”
The aerial saga began at approximately 6:15 am on December 7, as Commander Minoru Genda, principal planner of the Pearl Harbor attack, watched anxiously aboard the carrier Akagi as his close friend and Eta Jima Naval Academy classmate Mitsuo Fuchida led the first wave of aircraft into the gray dawn. Both men were seasoned carrier pilots and combat veterans from China. Genda had also served a tour in London in 1940 as assistant naval attaché. He had been extremely impressed by the British carrier-based torpedo plane attack that sank or damaged several ships of the Italian Navy’s Mediterranean fleet at the harbor of Taranto, so he felt confident that Fuchida would accomplish a similar feat at Pearl Harbor.
Confidence also permeated the thoughts of the strike commander. As he flew south in his Nakajima B5N2 Kate bomber, a flamboyant Fuchida wore red underwear and a red shirt, reasoning that blood would not show if he were wounded and therefore would not demoralize the other fliers. So it was in that frame of mind as he approached Oahu’s North Shore that Fuchida observed a tranquil, peaceful panorama before him; his first wave had achieved complete surprise. He gave the attack order at 7:40 am, unleashing 43 Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighters , 49 high-level Kate bombers, 51 Aichi D3A1 Val dive bombers, and 40 Kate torpedo bombers into battle. Then, at 7:53 he sent his infamous message confirming total strategic and tactical surprise: “Tora! Tora! Tora!”

The first-wave fighters wasted no time. Ironically, the opening aerial combat of the Pearl Harbor attack involved a civilian aircraft. One minute after Fuchida’s “Tora!” message, several Zeros from the carrier Akagi stumbled across a Piper Cub flown by solo student Marcus F. Poston. Unable to resist the temptation, the Zeros opened fire with their two 20mm cannon and two 7.7mm machine guns, ripping the Cub’s engine from its mount. The startled but lucky student pilot leaped unhurt from his plane for his first and only parachute jump. Zero pilots Takeshi Hirano and Shinaji Iwama shared the kill." …. Pages onward

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