Pearl Harbor Attack At 82
Through the courtesy Karissa Greathouse of the Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources, the Southwest Collection/Special Collection Library had the opportunity to examine handwritten letters of a family member who experienced the attack on Pearl Harbor while ferrying B-17 bombers to Hickam Field She said—
1st. Lt. William F.B. Morris was an Army Air Corps navigator for B-17s, the “Flying Fortress.” From these letters you’ll see that he was part of a ferrying mission to bring a large group of B-17s to Honolulu, and then on to the South Pacific. His plane, Flying Fortress ‘Skipper’ #40-2049, was shot down at Pearl Harbor, but with minimal injuries. In 1942 he was deployed to the Philippines, where he was killed in action on September 8, 1942.
A little bit about the letters written to Ida Morris Van Dyke, William’s older sister:
Letter, 1941-11-25 – This letter talks about how the B-17 38th Squadron was about to start ferrying B-17s from Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque to Honolulu with a stop in San Francisco. Their plan was to eventually be working the South Pacific.
Letter, 1941-12-06 – This letter was written during their stop at San Francisco. Note the last line of the letter “There are 40 flying fortresses waiting here to take off.” That must have been quite a sight! This is what my sister-in-law wrote: Just before midnight, December 6, 1941, Lt. William F.B. Morris wrote this letter to his family in Pueblo, Colorado. He was in a hurry…. Flying Fortress ‘Skipper’ #40-2049 was ready for take-off along with 39 other FF B-17 aircraft on an unarmed ferrying mission to Hickam Field in Oahu, Hawaii. Hours later, on the morning of December 7, as they approached Hawaii, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was underway. Earlier that morning the incoming Japanese warplanes had been detected by US radar……..but were dismissed as the expected flight of the B-17’s.
Letter, 1941-12-12 – This letter was written sometime in the five days after Pearl Harbor. The postmark was Dec. 12th. It’s a short letter, and our family has laughed at how nonchalant he sounds after living through Pearl Harbor. This is the letter where he says that their plane was the first one shot down of the war. I included an image of the plane (see the 49 on the tail) and several newspaper clippings about the crew and the plane.
To say the least, these letters are a breathtaking and private glimpse of a global war about to unfold. The SWC/SCL is grateful to Ms. Greathouse to have had the opportunity to see and read these letters.
This year, America will recognize the 82nd anniversary of the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor. The considerable loss of life and the substantial damage inflicted on the U.S. Pacific Fleet stirred the U.S. to declare war in response to the unprovoked attack. Through hundreds of books, films, and documentaries, Americans are universally familiar with the Pearl Harbor attack. Much of the research is based upon the work of history archives throughout the country that have been actively collecting oral histories, letters, reports and other materials. The Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library (SWC/SCL) at Texas Tech University is one those archives.
In previous years, the SWC/SCL posted in TechAnnounce the text of a handwritten letter providing a first-hand account of the attack. While numerous Pearl Harbor eyewitness accounts have been filed in military after-action reports, researchers rarely find first-hand descriptions written by a military spouse who was at home during the attack. Though the author wrote the letter nearly a year later (Nov 16, 1942), it nonetheless is a significant “snapshot” of a significant historical event.
Tai Kreidler, Ph. D.
Southwest Collection/
Special Collections Library
