Attack

Shortly after midnight local time on 6th December, the five midget submarines parted
company with their parents about eight miles from the harbor entrance. They moved
independently since there was no way to maintain a formation, aiming for Battleship Row.
Japanese intelligence before the attacks was excellent and the Ko-Hyoteki crews received
final information while still on board the parent submarines informing them that five
battleships, three light cruisers and sixteen destroyers had entered the harbor. This was
actually incorrect (there were eight battleships, eight cruisers, 30 destroyers, 4 submarines
and 50 other ships) but this was much better intelligence than most other midget submarines
and frogmen would receive before attacks. Each crew also had a very decent map of the
harbor with depths (soundings) marked on it.

One of the Ko-Hyoteki immediately started to experience problems with its trim and gyro,
and had to make the attack with its periscope raised. At 0357hrs one of three Bird class
minesweepers patrolling the entrance, Condor, spotted a ‘stick-like’ object near the harbor
buoy heading towards Barber’s Point, which is some way off to the west of the harbor. This
object was almost certainly one of the midget submarines, although it is not clear if it was
lost or simply tracking west to go around the buoy or patrol vessels. Condor raised the alarm
to the better equipped USS Ward nearby which closed in to conduct a sonar sweep. Nothing
was found