PEARL HARBOR'S REVENGE: How the Devastated U.S. Battleships Returned to War

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After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the US suffered eight battleships, three light cruisers, three destroyers, a training ship, and other smaller vessels sunk or damaged. Hundreds of US aircraft had been damaged or destroyed and 2,403 Americans had been killed.

Within a week of the Japanese attack, a great salvage organization had been formed. Very quickly the lightly damaged battleships Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Tennessee had been repaired in naval yards and put back into service to protect the west coast of the USA.

Of the eight battleships attacked, all but the Arizona were raised, temporarily patched-up and sent back to naval yards on the west coast of America for final repair and modernization. Main battery guns and ordnance were recovered from the wrecked Arizona, which would then be left to rest on the bottom of the harbor for eternity - as a memorial to the events of that fateful December day. USS Nevada was lifted off the bottom in February 1942, California in March 1942, and West Virginia in June 1942. The capsized Oklahoma, while eventually parbuckled and raised, was found to be too badly damaged to be fully rebuilt. This is the story of the six of the eight battleships that were repaired and returned to service.