The attack would start with air raids, these were from Japanese island bases in Kwajalein to south, and the invasion fleet for the amphibious assault was also being assembled.

Just the previous day, Major Devereux ordered a practice drill for his Marines, which happened to be the first one done because of the great need to focus on the island's defenses.

The drill went well enough that Major Devereux commanded the men to rest on the Sabbath and take their time relaxing, doing laundry, writing letters, thinking, cleaning, or doing whatever they wished.

Early in the morning of 8 December, a Pan-American Martin M-130 had left and was on its way to Guam with passengers, when it received a radio message about the attack on Pearl Harbor, and was told to return to Wake.

[13] The Philippine Clipper took three take-off attempts to get airborne and then flew to Midway, then Honolulu, and finally San Francisco over three days, and the passengers provided first-hand accounts of the attack.

[25] After an unsuccessful Japanese landing attempt on 11 December, there would be air raids most days by G3M "Nells" and/or flying boats, with the F4F Wildcats and anti-aircraft batteries trying to defend.

The Japanese invasion fleet for the 11 December assault included the light cruisers Yūbari, Tenryū, and Tatsuta; the older Mutsuki and Kamikaze-class destroyers Yayoi, Mutsuki, Kisaragi, Hayate, Mochizuki and Oite, submarine tender Jingei, two armed merchantmen (Kinryu Maru and Kongō Maru), and two Momi-class destroyers converted to patrol boats that were reconfigured in 1941 to launch a landing craft over a stern ramp (Patrol Boat No.

[28] "Battery L", on Peale islet, sank Hayate at a distance of 4,000 yd (3,700 m) with at least two direct hits to her magazines, causing her to explode and sink within two minutes, in full view of the defenders on shore.

In fact, Cunningham sent a long list of critical equipment—including gunsights, spare parts, and fire-control radar—to his immediate superior: Commandant, 14th Naval District.

Bayler was withdrawn because he was one of the few Marine Corps officers that had experience establishing air-ground communications networks and had knowledge of the still top-secret US radar program.

There was an additional air raid later that day, with 33 G3M2 Nells striking Wake, and this killed a platoon sergeant and wounded several others; these came from the Japanese base on Roi.

They had advanced quite inland, until they were met with a strong US counterattack led by Captain Platt, which inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese and forced them to retreat back to their landing area.

With communications disrupted by SNLF men cutting American field phone lines, Major Devereux assumed that most of his strongpoints on Wake’s south shore had been overrun.

The only Marine to escape capture or death on Wake Island was Lieutenant Colonel Walter Bayler who departed on a United States Navy PBY Catalina on 20 December.

[43] Ro-60, a Japanese submarine that had participated in the battle but was damaged by an air attack and could no longer submerge, crashed on a reef going back to base on December 29, 1941.

En route, the Japanese commander of the guard contingent, Lieutenant Toshio Saito, picked five men at random and ordered them topside.

[49] At 21:00 on 22 December, after receiving information indicating the presence of two IJN carriers and two fast battleships (which were actually heavy cruisers) near Wake Island, Vice Admiral William S. Pye—the Acting Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet—ordered TF 14 to return to Pearl Harbor.

The ship arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 29 December 1941 and Fletcher was replaced as commander of Task Force 14 by Rear Admiral Herbert F. Leary the following day.

[58] Assigned to Submarine Division 62,[59] Triton made a training cruise to Midway from 30 August to 15 September, then participated in local and fleet operations in the Hawaiian area.

When the Japanese ship slowed astern, the submarine came to 120 feet (37 m) and fired four stern torpedoes—the first American torpedoes shot during World War II—on sonar bearings.

The USS Tambor was one of the USN's new fleet submarines when it was commissioned in June 1940, and was on a peacetime patrol near Wake Island when war broke out.

[63] It was able to observe the Japanese invasion fleet on 10 December 1941, bombarding Wake and its subsequent withdrawal south; however, the Tambor did not pursue them as this was in Triton's patrol area so it headed north.

[71] The three submarines were placed on "standby alert" that day as United States Marine Corps forces on Wake Island threw back the first Japanese attempt to invade the atoll.

[71] Pounded by high surf, Ro-60 incurred additional damage and took on such a heavy list that her crew destroyed her secret documents and abandoned ship.

[79] The allies had a surprising victory in the Battle of Midway in June 1942; however, the war dragged on for several more years as the Japanese had heavily defended islands throughout the Pacific and a large number of vessels.

One of the prisoners (whose name has never been discovered) escaped, apparently returning to the site to carve the message "98 US PW 5-10-43" on a large coral rock near where the victims had been hastily buried in a mass grave.

[87] The Pacific war finally drew to a close starting in August 1945, and the Emperor of Japan announced the surrender to the Japanese people and the agreement was formally signed by September 2, 1945.

[88] On 4 September 1945, the remaining Japanese garrison surrendered to a detachment of United States Marines under the command of Brigadier General Lawson H. M. Sanderson, with the handover being officially conducted in a brief ceremony aboard the destroyer escort Levy.

[89] Earlier, the garrison received news that Imperial Japan's defeat was imminent, so the mass grave was quickly exhumed and the bones were moved to the U.S. cemetery that had been established on Peacock Point after the invasion, with wooden crosses erected in preparation for the expected arrival of U.S. forces.

[92] The remains of the murdered civilians were exhumed and reburied at Section G of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, commonly known as Punchbowl Crater, on Honolulu.