During Pearl Harbor what were most boats sunk with?

Question

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Answer 1

The Japanese sent three types of planes - fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo bombers.  The most effective of these was the torpedo bomber.  These were fairly large single engine planes, carrying one torpedo beneath, like a big bomb.  They had to fly in very low over the water - the lower the better, 50 feet was good.  You pointed the plane at the ship, and dropped the torpedo.  The torpedoes were very heavy, they weighed about a ton, and had a large explosive charge.  These were the same type of torpedo fired by submarines.

There were seven US battleships tied up on "Battleship Row" in two double lines - one inboard, one outboard.  The USS Arizona had a smaller ship tied up outboard of her.  All the outboard battleships took multiple torpedo hits, all on the same side.  The USS Oklahoma flooded so fast it capsized - turned over.  The West Virginia would have done the same, but a quick thinking sailor counterflooded the other side of the ship, so it sank, but on an even keel and was much easier to raise and repair.

Some of the Japanese torpedo bombers also were used in a new and unique way.  They were used as high level bombers.  Their bombs were actually armor piercing battleship shells, fitted with fins, and dropped from several thousand feet, using a crude bombsight.  This was high enough that these one ton shells would smash through the deck armor and explode inside the ship, just as if they were fired from a battleship's guns.  It was a hit from one of these that caused the USS Arizona's magazines to explode, and killed about half the men lost at Pearl Harbor.

In many places where battleships tied up, they protected themselves with torpedo nets - heavy woven steel cables, suspended from floats, many yards away from the side of the ships.  They did not use these at Pearl Harbor because the harbor is only about 40 feet deep, and it was conventional wisdom that you had to have at least 75 feet of water to use torpedo bombers.  When dropped, the torpedoes go very deep, then rise to run at their preset depth.  This was true for everybody's torpedo bombers, but the Japanese knew the depth of the water, found a similar harbor in Japan, and practiced until they could accomplish what was previously thought impossible.

One US battleship, the Pennsylvania, was in drydock and was hit by two 500 pound bombs, but they caused only minor damage.  Another ship, the Utah, had once been a battleship.  But it was old and had been converted into a target ship, used for practice dive bombing.  It had been covered over with a flat heavy wooden deck, and the Japanese thought it was an aircraft carrier.  It took many bomb hits and was sunk, on the other side of Ford Island from Battleship Row.  The Utah and the Arizona are the only ships sunk in the attack still on the bottom in Pearl.  The Oklahoma, which had capsized, was eventually refloated in 1947, but sank while under tow to the mainland.

All the others were raised, repaired and modernized and fought throughout the war.

There were about 17 total ships sunk, but most were small.  The main damage done was to the battleships, and this was mainly inflicted by the torpedoes, and by the torpedo bomber dropping a shell as a bomb.