Kenneth Taylor, Pearl Harbor Pilot-- Part 2: Two Warhawks Vs. the Japanese

On December 6, 1941, his squadron was temporarily detached to Haleiwa Field, about 11 miles from Wheeler, for gunnery practice.  Kenneth Taylor spent the night and morning playing cards at the officers' club with a fellow second lieutenant and close friend, George Welch of Delaware.

They were awakened at 8 am on the 7th by machine gun fire and explosions.  Taylor called ahead to Haleiwa Field and  and ordered two P-40 Warhawks to be armed and fueled, then he and Welch, still clad in their tuxedo trousers from the night before, raced in Taylor's car to Haleiwa and were strafed along the way.  (These are the two people the movie "Pearl Harbor" based their two main characters on.)

They got to Haleiwa unharmed and got airborne without incident.  The first planes they spotted were the inbound formation of unarmed B-17s flying in from the mainland.  But as they approached the Marine Corps airfield at Ewa, they encountered Japanese planes.

Despite being vastly outnumbered and outgunned, they immediately attacked the Japanese.  Taylor said, "We just got in line with them and started shooting them down, and ultimately ran out of ammunition."

--GreGen