74 years ago today, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Among the ships hit hard was the battleship USS Oklahoma, quickly taking numerous torpedo hits and capsizing with heavy loss of life. As the Washington Post describes it (Charlotte Observer link here):

The Oklahoma’s loss of life at Pearl Harbor – a total of 429 sailors and Marines – was second only to the 1,100 lost on the USS Arizona, whose wreck remains a hallowed Pearl Harbor historic site.

Many Oklahoma sailors jumped overboard as the crippled battleship rolled over in about 50 feet of water. But hundreds were trapped below decks.

Thirty-two were rescued by intrepid crews who heard them banging for help, cut into the hull and made their way through a maze of darkened, flooded compartments to reach them.

Others managed to escape by swimming underwater to find their way out. Some trapped sailors tried to stem the in-rushing water with rags and even the board from a board game. One distraught man tried to drown himself.

A few managed to escape through tiny port holes – pushed by brave comrades who couldn’t fit or were determined to let others go first.

The Oklahoma was eventually salvaged, and the bodies of  dead removed from the ship. Few of those bodies were ever identified though. A new effort is now underway, using the latest technology,  — and, despite the passage of time, this nation very much owes its war dead that.