Pinned post for Q&A :)

Ya know, Nobody ever highlights the efforts and accomplishments of the Salvage teams of Pearl Harbor after 07 DEC. YOUR segment is the only thing I have ever seen over so many years. THANK YOU.

My Dad served on the Yorktown CV-5 from Norfolk to Midway (he was 17 at the time). He is still with us at 96 years old. After surviving the sinking of the Yorktown and being transported back to Pearl, he worked on the West Virginia down in the engine room cleaning up, still body parts to remove etc. I can't even fathom what those brave men and women went through.

My Great Uncle Harold Carmack was one of the men trapped inside and tapping on the underside of the Arizona. He worked in the boiler rooms in the bottom of the ship. May he rest in peace and be remembered.

The salvage works carried out at Pearl Harbour were nothing short of bloody heroic ! As a retired Diver I offer my respects.

My father had just returned from breakfast on the West Virginia (BB-48) when the attack started. At 19 years old, he ended up swimming, badly burned and blinded he spent over a year in the hospital. He regained his eyesight, and numerous skin grafts. Plagued by bad nightmares at times. Retired in 1961.

When I was in graduate school, I had the honor of doing oral history interviews of Pearl Harbor survivors. The first one was a man who was the 'primer' man for a main gun of the Nevada. His story about the day was fascinating to hear. Most of the crew stayed with the ship during the salvage and recovery phase, and did any task asked of them. Another man I interviewed was in the fire control center of the Tennessee, which is deep in the ship. They could feel explosions from outside, but until they came on deck they had no idea what had gone on outside. I have held in my own hand a piece of bomb shrapnel he picked up from the deck of the Tennessee. It was a great pleasure to interview these men. Those oral histories are archived at Youngstown State University, Maag Library, Youngstown Ohio.

retired US Navy... My first time in Pearl Harbor, I flew in... had to undergo medical exams and further Clearance interviews... My first time passing the Arizona was leaving port and while doing maintenance on the Flight deck of Kilauea, AE-26... The Air Det chief came out and saw us all standing in place facing starboard. He immediately started yelling at us to get back to work...to which a very Cheeky Po3 responded, "Stand at Attention, chucklehead" I have been in and out of Pearl Harbor 19 times...yet I had no idea of the gruesome details of the recovery. They were the greatest generation and it becomes more and more aparent with each story told.

The salvage teams deserve the utmost respect. They were doing things that had never been done before in the worst of conditions, surrounded by their dead colleagues.

The sheer effort to salvage the battleships and then those same battleships getting their sweet revenge sinking Japanese ships later on in the war is quite amazing

Amazing footage. No time wasted in recovering ships. A differnt breed of people back then.

The Battle of the Pacific was won by a logistics and production effort that is unparalleled in history. Admiral Yamamoto was so very correct in understanding the economic potential of the US and the true failure of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. Viewed almost 80 years later, the tenacity, speed, and skill of the recovery effort at Pearl is still an astounding achievement. It turned shock and defeat into an unsung victory that laid the foundation for VJ Day. Lest we Forget.

I've once read the memoirs of a US Navy salvage diver who worked in the wreck of the USS Arizona, dragging a heavy suit with air, electricity and telephone cables, in pitch black dark, through destroyed compartments and hundreds of decomposing bodies floating around. I cannot imagine a tougher job.

Less than 10 minutes in, and I’m extremely impressed by the quantity and quality of color footage you’ve found.

Hearing about those poor men who died in the dark air pockets has got to be the most depressing and dark thing out of this affair. It's bad enough to die in combat, but to survive, have hope of being rescued, only to slowly suffocate... that's just all kinds of fscked up.

Love seeing the bits of the West Virginia. My Great Grandpa Donald Branson was on the WV during Pearl Harbor. I don't just mean stationed on her, but ON DECK. A dud bomb landed 10ft from him & he dove overboard. They tried to ship him back to the states because he was "shell shocked" (now known as PTSD), but he kept on & was shortly transferred to the USS Salt Lake City. The Salt Lake city was a Pensacola class cruiser which was one of the most highly decorated ships where he served primarily as a coxwain until the end of the war.

Never underestimate the power of lessons learned and a shrinking patient list.

Great video! My Dad was one of the salvage divers that dove on the Nevada, California, & West Virginia. He never talked much about it, but he did mention what a terrible job it was to recover the bodies on the California. One thing he did talk about was how rewarding it was when some of the ships were afloat again & how pleased he was when they were able to roll the Oklahoma back over again before reflecting it. This is the first time I have ever seen any of the photos of them actually working on the ships.

My grandfather was there during that time as a crane operator during the racing and salvaging of the stricken ships. He said that the job was something he would never forget, even as he was able to remember and forget other jobs he did after the war, but the work at pearl harbour when removing pieces of steel and other parts of the raising and salvaging of ships, was when they started rising or ships being dug and lifted from inside coffer dams, became the unforgettable site and smell of the sailors remains being exposed to the air. Even with all the horrible sites from being at different areas of combat during the remainder of the war, he still had nightmares and couldn't get the remembering of the sight and especially the smell of the bodies that were discovered and found during the work of reflecting or salvaging of the ships. He told of how the smell covered the air in the harbour and never smelled anything else like it in his life. So after hearing the stories he told me, it became clearer and clearer why the anger against the Japanese was so great, even though I knew there is death everywhere during war, but the bombing and sinking, killing of Navy ships and personnel along with civilians from the unprovoked of war from Japan while the Navy men and women lay asleep .

When you pause the video for a moment and think about some of the statistics involved coupled with the limited resources and the fact that it was even accomplished at all is staggering, let alone on the timeline it was done in. Here is a salute to all of the unsung heroes that worked in some of the worst conditions imaginable to refloat these ships. A truly forgotten piece of history. Smart video, thank you.

Vastly underreported piece of history. Thnx for righting this wrong.

most who have not served in the military or in heavy industrial and construction jobs think that warfare is mostly about being a billy badass and shooting up the enemy. Nope. Warfare is mostly about maintaining, repairing, and caring for the complex systems that allow billy badass to even exist. The work done by mechanics, repairers, construction and metal workers, and technicians is really what wins wars.

I'm glad someone is covering what was done at Pearl. The salvage was hurculean and impressive to say the least.

Getting the Nevada etc refloated and moving was an amazing effort..............great archive footage and narration ))

I'd known that the Americans had carried out some truly herculean feats of repair and recovery after Pearl Harbour, but its quite interesting to hear the details of how it was done. It's fascinating on the level of "amateurs study tactics, but professionals study logistics" kind of way. Thanks!

I shall never again complain about a task involving "too much effort". Having taking part in a few minor salvage operations, I can attest to the remarkable nastiness of the interior of a sunken vessel. Since oil floats on water, as the water is pumped out, whatever oil is floating around inside the hull, will be perfectly distributed over every suface of the interior as the water level sinks. The oil binds any dirt and grime floting in the water, so every surface, nook and crannie will be covered i muck. The bilge of a ship or boat is often like a sewer. Any water, including condensation that enters the ship will catch dirt and grime, bread crumbs, toenail clippings, grease and anything a person might disgard, and flush it down into the bilge. Under normal circumstances there is never enough water in the bilge to actually flush out all the dirt and residue, so over time cakes of foulness will build up in all inacessible parts of the interior. Just imagine the state of your house, if there were hidden compartments all under the furniture and floors, where noone ever had a chance to reach with any mop or vacuum cleaner. Now, when a ship sinks, all those years of built up grime and dirt will dissolve in the water. Add oil or diesel, and why not the content of the septic tank and whatever food stores you had on board to the mixture, and you will have one very nasty soup filling upp your boat. I thankfully never had to deal with neither live ammunition nor the remains of human beings in any salvage. I can not even begin to imagine what that must be like.

Excellent series! My Dad- Charles K. Anderson- was a USN medical corpsman stationed at the Dispensary (Building 72, I believe...which is still there, preserved) on Ford Island in 12/7/41 directly next to the USS California. He witnessed and, of course, participated in the entire event first hand. He also received personal hand-signed commendation letters from Nimitz and Forrestal for a rescue of crewman from a PBY seaplane which crashed near Ford island after the attack. I have those letters in original copy. Dad later sailed on the tanker Neosho (which was docked on Battleship Row that day) , a 175' PC boat, and a rocket-launching assault craft in the South Pacific war. He survived and rarely spoke about the war.

The famous quote from the repair crews at Pearl: "The difficult we do right away; the impossible takes a little longer."

"We missed the carriers, submarine pens, and fuel tanks. Meh, it'll be fine"

I once asked a WWII Veteran about his service and replied by saying; "we were just doing our job" and he meant every word of it !

I was stationed at PEARL HARBOR from 79 to 83, and I can tell you that the SLUDGE in that harbor is so DEEP and THICK that raising anything that sinks into it is beyond super-human, the word "Herculean" comes to mind. Things like this are why we, America the Beautiful are indeed a SUPERPOWER

Getting these ships up was a matter of national pride

Massive respect to those industrial strength divers...

The saddest part of this was the days and weeks after the attack. Hearing the multiple tappings coming from the ships slowly getting less and less. While watching one video about the attack on Pearl Harbor. A soldier who was stationed there recalled that. Hearing the hammering from inside those ships and as time went on becoming less and less because they couldn't be reached.

Met an old gentleman one time, who was wearing a USS Nevada cap. After thanking him for his service, I asked him if he was on it when it beached... He said , No, but I was on it when we refloated it! 😁

Great color video of divers and tenders working the West Virginia. Proud to say that's one of my jobs; being a dive tender for the RCSO Dive Team. Great stories, thanks for telling them.

Admiral Nagumo: "We wiped out their fleet at Pearl Harbor, all their battleships are dead!" Miracle Max the Wizard: "Turns out your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. See, mostly dead is still slightly alive."

I highly recommend, “Descent into Darkness: The Divers of Pearl Harbor”. “Descent into Darkness tells of the heartbreaking and nearly impossible work of the salvage divers of Pearl Harbor, men who literally had to swim through the aftermath of the December 7, 1941 attack. Told through Raymer’s experiences, the 1996 memoir tells of some of the unsung heroes of Pearl Harbor while providing readers with an inside look at one of the nation’s most devastating historical events.” It’s heroic, horrific and heartbreaking all at the same time.

Previous videos just skip the salvage efforts and go right to further battle narratives. This was an important look at the less glamorous but vitally important work to reclaim several key ships. Thanks, and thanks for correctly pronouncing Nevada.

I'm somewhat in awe of the fact that concrete was among the materials to refloat these battleships. Also, this is the most extensive footage of Pearl Harbor post-attack that I've seen.

My late father-in-law arrived within weeks of the bombing working throughout the war on Ford Island as an aviation machinist mate while all this work was proceeding within yards of his duty station. This is the most complete review of these events I have ever read or seen. Thank you. Jim

My uncle served in the Canadian Merchant Navy during the war and made his first visit to Pearl Harbour in 1944. He said it still looked like a disaster area and it was extremely difficult for him to explain the feeling he had but you can sense a great sense of loss. Probably a sentiment felt all through North America and the rest of the free world that Sunday December 7th. Before Sept 11, 2001 I would hear and watch the stories of the veterans talk about the attack. All sharing that perilous day which at the moment. Was a date of defeat and unimaginable loss. To which the later generations would never quite understand and less though as the greatest generation disappeared. But the we as part of a free world were given our own taste of Pearl Harbour, Sept 11, 2001. A date which everyone of age of memory and feeling. Knows where they were and exactly what they were doing. I just want to thank you for bringing to life that feeling I got from listening to those who have passed. The actual event of that Sunday. Reminding myself of that misery to which was a war that was as of November 11, 1918. Never to have happened. But did. Plunging an estimated 60 million to their deaths. This series certainly gives essence to those times of the disparity and struggle that must have been felt but yet at a hushed silence to not break the confidence or spirit of America resolve.

Been a warships buff an a Pearl Harbor nut for 50 years, but this is the best I ever saw! You out did your self, how the hell did you find this color footage, it's like a 70 year time machine! Well done! There's a book I read called "Journey into Darkness" about a 19 year old diver at Pearl, goes well with this. Can't wait till part 3, probably all about turning over the Oklahoma.

My grandfather shared a barracks overlooking pearl harbor with a bomb the ordnance guys hadn't gotten too in 42

Love the content, and your style is awesome. Thanks for the content. Salute to all those who went before us...

26:19 Drachism of the day: "...but now looked more like an angry velociraptor deity with C4-equipped claws had taken a swipe at the ship".

Honors and kudos to those sailors able and willing to wear those incredibly heavy dive suits and get all that work done.

Thank you for these videos, and accompanied comments, they are very interesting

Very well done, Drachinifel. These two Pearl Harbor Salvage videos have been fascinating.

This video is very well done and appreciated. When I was in high school I had a teacher his name was Russell Smith he was on the uss Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor his stories of the attack (he was on duty)and its aftermath were harrowing!He was an actual hero you could touch (or more importantly could touch you)!Somehow he convinced me to join the Navy straight out of school!I loved that man! what an awesome friend!

I was a Gunnersmate first class in the USCG. I was on several ships, including two fromWW2. I can say confidently that there ARE ghosts of those sailors still on their ships. I have met some.

This pair of videos may be some of your very best work. Thank you.

I remember an account of the salvage of West Virginia: when a diver made the first exploration of the hull he became confused when he couldn't find the ship even though he was sure he had been walking straight for it. He contacts his line tender to ask if he was near the ship, and the reply was that the diver's bubbles had already disappeared inside the hull. The diver then realized that the damage was so massive that he'd walked into the gaping maw of the blown-open hull without knowing it. He continued his walk, and went almost to the ship's mid-beam before encountering the first wreckage.

This is a most interesting series, as much is - justifiably - made of the BANG-BANG events. The salvage and repair is time consuming, dangerous, dirty and extreemly unpleasant. Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) is closely enough as toxic as Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN). It is however important to have this work documented - especially because it is so often overlooked.

The works revealed in this video are a testament to the skill, dedication and sweat of the Recover/Salvage teams. Respect.

I’m shocked by those huge massive pieces of wooden hull patches they used. I had never seen those before. The amount of craftsmanship and work that went into making those is astounding to me. Also, the cleanup of these areas that had been underwater must have been nightmarish. The smell is something that I doubt can be described in our vocabulary.

Two weeks of waiting for a rescue that never came, my God what a cruel way to die.

This is why I love this channel... As a naval history enthousiast I have seen lots of footage of the pacific war. But I have never seen this footage, and have never read anything so comprehensive concerning the pearl harbor savage effort. My hat's off to you good sir, love it!!!

As an American I've heard Nevada pronounced both ways. It has more to do with accent

My father was the hot shell man on one of the 5 inch guns on the Pennsylvania. I heard the stories many times - especially their sitting on the deck at night watching the torches cutting into the side of the Oklahoma to rescue sailors. The Helena was berthed where Pennsylvania, as flagship, was usually dockside. These are some of the best pictures I have seen. Thank you.

To all of men that served and gave life to make our country for what it is.. God Bless all of them.

According to my grandfather who was a ships wright in the Puget sound ship building yards in Washington State. Pearl Harbor was bombed the national guard took control of the docks and told all the ship builder's you are not enlisting in the military you are staying right here and rebuilding the navy. Have a great day naval history buffs/nerds and geeks.

What do we do with a sunken warship What do we do with a sunken warship What do we do with a sunken warship Sitting in Pearl Harbor?

The Utah is the forgotten wreck of Pearll Harbor. I stumbled on to her when I was on Ford Island in 2005. Nobody visits.

"Dead ships sail again. A fleet has arisen from Pearl Harbor." That line from Victory at Sea always chokes me up, and I keep thinking of it as I watch this series of videos.

"An angry velociraptor deity with C4-equipped claws had taken a swipe at the ship" What would i do without those lines, Drach?

While I knew ships were salvaged and returned to service, I did not know the timeline involved or the magnitude of the effort involved. This addressed both of those. Thanks!

My grandfather was a diver at Pearl Harbor. He worked on Arizona and Nevada.

Absolutely fascinating. My father was a WW2 navy veteran and I thought I knew a lot of this history but this presentation and it’s detailed information filled in a lot of unknowns. Tremendous job you have done! Thank you!

This is turning out to be one of my favourite you tube videos. I've been fascinated by marine salvage for 50 years and have read and seen endless pieces. This is right near the top. Thank you so much.

Echoing some of the previous comments, Fabulous!! Where did you find all that rare footage of each individual ship, IN COLOR (🇬🇧 colour)!!! Outstanding piece that truly recognizes all the effort and sacrifice of the men responsible for maintaining ships. Most people just hear about the fighting and not the efforts to salvage and/or maintain vessels. It's a lot of hard work 🛠️. Thanks again for a complete look at the Pearl Harbor salvage efforts! Nathan 😷 in Chicago 🇺🇸

Thank you for this tale. heroic efforts from men who were really unsung heroes. Us mechanics get little thanks for our life's work, fixing the machinery that does the work and moves our goods on a daily basis. These were the front line workers of that era

28:46 "We recovered part of a Japanese torpedo, should we see if we can learn anything from it?" "Nah...we have the Mk14. What more could we possibly ask for?"

Your attention to detail is greatly appreciated.

A wonderful piec of history detailed very well, Thank You so much for taking the time to share.

I was stationed in Oahu in the Army in 2003 for many years. Nobody has ever stated such extensive information. BRAVO 👏

Those hard hat divers... Unimaginable levels of bravery and risk. Thanks for posting this series Drach.I actually hadn't seen this footage till now...and I've seen a lot. Well done sir.

Thank you. I now have a greater appreciation for the salvage crews.

My grandpa was on the Nevada during the Pearl Harbor attack. I wish I could've shared this vid with him.

This is absolutely astounding this kind of real unfettered history about the lengthy process of recovering and salvaging as much as possible and recycling anything else. Thank you for all the time you put in to make this video. It has been a treat to watch as a bit of a history buff.

What these men went through. I'm humbled. Thanks for bringing this to light, I never would have known.

As a former Drydocks worker , I found this very interesting

A good point a poster raised: why do this at all? I contended that -it gave ship-less sailors work to keep them busy -it was good for morale -and of course the harbor had to be cleared It's really pretty masterful when you think about it.

my step grandfather was there in the thick of this, helping to rescue those he could, despite having a piece of shrapnel in his leg. sadly he lost his fight with colon cancer and heart problems on 13 November 2000. at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, he was a civilian working for the navy in forge shop 23. after the attack, he enlisted in the us army and was assigned to 4th inf. div. attached to the 100th inf. div. and went on to Normandy, Belgium, France, and Germany. He never considered himself a hero. he said "The real heroes are the ones that DIDN'T come back.".

Watching this, I found myself realizing that the two most hellish jobs of the salvage were diving around the hulks in those incredibly uncertain conditions...and cleaning the ships' interiors. I cannot imagine the mental toll that took on those men.

It’s the year 2021. I know it was along time ago. The morning of Dec 7, 1941 my grandmother drove my grandfather who was a boilermaker and worked on the ships, that morning just before the attack. My two uncles were just out of high school and attending the apprentice school. One in electrical and the other in welding. My mother was still in the car when the attack started. They took shelter near a warehouse. My mother was 17 years old then and still in school. She and my uncles never got over it being so young. Every anniversary of the attack was painful even when I was growing up. I heard about it. My grandmother Velma O. Sawyer went on to become the field director for the Red Cross. She had to deal with the dead and missing all the way through the war. By watching this recovery at Pearl Harbor I came to realize how they struggled in the recovery efforts. Day in and day out the dead would never leave us in this place. To me saving these ships to fight again took heroic efforts. It was very difficult to get through. But it was wartime. I know women came to be part of the work force that helped to repair the ships. These videos are very educational especially in today’s time. Today our big worry is North Korea China. Since. Hawaii could find itself going through the same disaster because of our location these historical films should be shown here. They don’t teach American history in the first 12 grades so it would have to be offered through the community colleges. Educate the public. I don’t automatically think that the youth living here in peacetime will step up and be as tough as the youth that suffered and went without during the martial law years of the war. Preparation is needed. You can give ships and men for defense and keep the navy strong for Pearl Harbor but your civilian population needs to be informed and feel confident that they could what their grandparents were forced to endure. It’s like getting emergency supplies during hurricane season just in case. An informed public is calmer and more confident. When you live on an island you can’t run away from problems. You learn to talk and compromise so we have learned to get along with many different cultures. When you add pressure things could go badly. Think about it. These films could change the mindset of generations who need to remember fragile peace really is for us all.

Thank you for covering this remarkable & massive effort.

As a U.S. Navy Veteran and historian, I commend you on 2 excellent, and very accurate videos, Seeing many here who are interested in this subject matter, I would recommend reading the book "Descent Into Darkness: Pearl Harbor, 1941: a Navy Diver's Memoir" By Cdr. Edward C. Raymer, USN (Ret.) who was of the aforementioned divers, who conducted hundreds of dives during these salvage operations, He was in fact, the diver that recovered the purser's safe from the U.S.S. ARIZONA. He details the work they did, and how they did it. Inventing procedures used to this day by Naval salvage divers all over the world.

i can't get over how hard these fellas worked to do all this in the time they did! nice work that crew and thanks!

I have rewatched this series on Pearl Harbour Salvage many times over the years and find it just as good to watch as my first viewing years ago. I have always been amazed at how quickly the U.S. Navy was able to recover the large majority of the severely damaged ships. Naturally the location being in Harbour was a major factor in the recovery process. There are some very sad finds during the recoveries. The West Virgina has some sad deaths with the poor Sailors who lasted two weeks plus in the Engine Room Lockers before the course of time took over. Over the total War, there must have been other cases where men were trapped below decks in ships and or submarines sinking in shallow waters of under 50 metres depth (Truk Lagoon plus countless other places) where crew members had to endure a similar slow wait for that final day. War is such a ~nice~ pass-time we Human's engage ourselves in. Yours truly, Byron

This is amazing information, very informative . Thank you for your work putting this together.

Last time I was this early, HMS Warspite referred to a sailing ship.

I was a HT in the Navy. For people that don't know. HT's are a combination of ship fitters, carpenter's, pipe fotters. That being said, I couldn't even begin to imagine what the old salts had to go through to get these ships ready to float into dry dock.

I love the colour footage shown in this video

Thank you very very much for bringing this wonderful documentary of an often forgotten key to VICTORY.

Every few months I learn something new about a topic I felt I was above-average in regards to a level of knowledge. This is an amazing story. Thanks.

It boggles the mind, the Herculean task set to these people who gave and gave. Day in day out, and for the most part unheralded. I salute them all.

Very well done, thank you!

We know so much about the battles that were fought in WWII, but little is known about the dedication, skill, and courage of the people who did this amazing job. Thank you so much for bringing this to light and to life. As I watched, I was so struck by the various skills required to wrestle with such huge ships that had been damaged so significantly. The creativity and imagination it took to figure out how to raise and repair these hulks - most of which played a material role in the war later - is almost impossible to comprehend. The Japanese significantly underestimated their foe when they decided to attack America.

Battleships; West Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, California, Pennsylvania, and the cruiser Phoenix were at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. In October 1944, these ships were at the Battle of Surigao Strait and engaged Japanese surface ships in a final battleship vs battleship duel.