What time did the air attack on Pearl Harbor occur Hi all, it’s a simple question, and a simple answer, Sunday 7th December at 07.48. But when you ask what time that was in say, London, oh my it gets interesting, and then ask what the time was in Australia, Hong Kong or Singapore, and you have a head ache. This is all due to the use of Daylight Saving Time (DST) which was in use in various parts of the globe at the time, and pre dated the use of the Universal Time Clock (UTC) The little I can understand is London was using a version of DST that was two hours ahead of GMT Singapore was plus 7.30 hours on GMT which I think was British winter time Hong Kong was plus 8.30 hours on GMT Australia had/has three time zones, but I’m unsure of them Does anyone know of a website where this is all worked out, or are sure they know the answer? Regards Fatboy Coxy
First Air Attack started a 0755......I’ll post some documents shortly Source: Page 25 WWII War Diaries - Fold3
In chronological order the Japanese launched attacks first on Malaya, then Pearl Harbor, then Hong Kong and finally the Philippines. Tim
IIRC the British official history - War Against Japan Vol I - has a table of relative times. The landing at Kota Bharu kicked off before the airstrike at Pearl Harbor but the first shot honour has gone from 3/17 Dogra's 18-pr to the USS Ward after the sub they'd claimed to have engaged turned up a few years ago. There is also the Catalina that was shot down a day or two earlier to consider.
Actually it was the US Coast Guard CONDOR that made first contact on the 7 Dec outside of Pearl Harbour, with the USS Ward being dispatched to investigate the target and subsequent sinking (and was the “first shots” fired by US Forces in the Pacific War)..........Just answering part of the original question of “what time” did the first Japanese aircraft attack at Pearl Harbour...... Photo of USCG Condor
If you can figure it out you are a better man than me. The Extreme Daylight Savings Time of World War II
Clearly I'm not a better man than you Dave55, I'm as confused as hell. I picked the Peal Harbor air attack as an excellent point of reference for what time was it, as everyone must have noted the time, but reading the posts above, even that confused people. I am wondering if some writers might have simply converted the time using UTC, and no have been away of all the variations in the tie zones.
Confusing isn’t it? I found a site that was some help. Time Zone & Clock Changes 1925-1949 in Hong Kong, Hong Kong You can search for historical data on some cities. Best I can work it out for Pearl Harbor attack is as follows in each of the cities stated:- 0748 7th Dec Hawaiian Time (GMT -10.5 hrs) (we’ll ignore the arguments over a few minutes difference in some accounts) 1318 7th Dec Washington DC (GMT -5 hrs) 1818 7th Dec London GMT or 1918 local (being BST of GMT +1hr) 0148 8th Dec Singapore (GMT +7.5 hrs or some 18 hrs ahead of Hawaii) (the Japanese landed in Malaya around 0030 local) 0248 8th Dec Hong Kong (GMT +8.5 hrs) (the Japanese invasion here started 0800 local) 0218 8th Dec Manila (GMT +8 hrs) Re London time, while Double Summer Time had been introduced in 1941, the clocks went back in Oct so that local was at GMT +1 hrs in Dec 1941.
