For some, seeing or hearing the words  " December 7th " does not require an explanation.

The number of people who experienced this day first hand,
from either near or far, is gradually decreasing.

I was born a year after this Day of Infamy and feel a responsibility
to remember and honor both those men who died as well as the survivors.

Remembering the Helena at Pearl Harbor is dedicated to them.

Doug Graff Comella
1 December 2021

In the Aftermath section are larger photos of those at the top of this page.

Included is a letter dated 11 December 1941 to
the Officers and Crew of the Helena
from Captain Robert H English

You will encounter overlaps and intentional duplication within this site.

CONVERSATIONS WITH MIKE WENGER, PEARL HARBOR HISTORIAN

During October and November 2021, I spoke with Mike about Pearl Harbor and the Helena.

There is a map in the Attack section drawn by Lt Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, Commander of all aircraft.

Five torpedoes were aimed at the Helena.
Four missed.

One of these misses hit the 1010 dock and caused it to collapse.

In reports you will see mention of four near misses by bombs.

A question that Mike is pursuing is whether or not the near miss
on the 1010 Dock was from a bomb or
from one of the torpedos that missed the Helena.

Mike is in the process of writing a book about Pearl Harbor from
the Japanese perspective. Current publication date is October 2022.

One of the sections is titled

THE 33

Within are the names of the men from the Helena who died as a result of the attack.

Included is a list of the 100 casualties.



For the most part, the USS Helena CL-50, hereafter referred to as the Helena,

is never at the top of the list of anything concerning Pearl Harbor.

Much of the attention is focused on the battleships.

The Helena was one of the first two ships to be attacked by
Japanese torpedo planes in the opening minutes of the attack.

The other ship was the Utah berthed on the west side of Ford Island.

In the

Orientation and Attack sections

are maps, photos, and diagrams .

They Were There

has six stories from men who were on the Helena that day
as well as photos from the Albert Lawrence Lucchetti Collection

The Report Section

has official reports from December 1941 .

There are similarities and duplication among these reports.

A few concern the attack while the others focus on
Engineering and Battle Damage Control.

Pearl Harbor Navy Yard

covers December 1941.

The Helena was berthed at the 1010 Dock which is part of the Navy Yard.
She was waiting for her spot in the Dry Dock to open up.

The attack delayed her getting into the Dry Dock until 10 December 1941.

The complete

Nimitz GrayBook

has 8 volumes with 3,548 pages.

Five of the pages dated 7 - 10 December 1941
are in this section.

On Monday, December 8th, 1941,
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
delivered a speech to the Congress of the United States.

Below are the three pages of his first draft of this speech.