Pearl Harbor 60 Years Later

Article taken from The Portsmouth Daily Times, December 7, 2001

He has bomb fragments from Japanese aircraft. And photographs to remember the wreckage and horror he watched in disbelief that fateful day 60 years ago.

Charley Knauff, of Portsmouth, was a mere 19 years old, serving in the Navy, Dec. 7, 1941. He was only 10 minutes from being relieved from his watch duty at Kaneohe Naval Air Station on Oahu, across the bay from Pearl Harbor.
“ My job was to check on the four posts, one in the hangar, other three on the ramp where planes were parked,” said Knauff, an Adams County native. "It was about 8-10 minutes or so when I was due to be relieved.”

The youngest officer, an ensign, pulled the night watch with Knauff. The ensing had a gasoline powered motor scooter, while Knauff used a bicycle to patrol.

" He and I were standing down at the far end away from the hangar when we heard planes coming," Knauff said.
The two of them questioned why the Army would be out on a Sunday.

" As they came closer we saw what they were," Knauff said.
One aircraft dived down at three planes that were tied up to buoys in the water.

" We saw the red ball," Knauff said. "He (ensign) took off for the hanger to sound the alarm. I think I beat him there on my bicycle."

He said the planes were flying less than 500 feet from the ground.
When Knauff got to the hangar, he pulled off his sidearm - a 45 automatic. He got in the doorway of one of the hangars and shot at the planes as they went by at less than 100 feet. Knauff suspects the Japanese ran out of ammunition during their first strafing attack, creating a lull of about an hour, at which time the Japanese returned with bombers.

It was a day he will always remember, said Knauff.

As will Lawrence Malone, of Minford, who had been living on Pearl Harbor since 1939. He had been stationed on the Indianapolis, which was in dry dock that fateful day.

“ I remember we were hosing down the deck, and the next thing I knew I was inside a barrell,” Malone said.
When he came out, everything was chaos.

Planes were flying everywhere, shooting, dropping bombs.
It was a sight he will never forget.

His duties then became to drag body bags, many containing those of buddies he’d made while living at Pearl Harbor.

“ God was looking out for me that day,” said 82-year-old Malone.

Not wanting to be made out to be a hero, Knauff, 80, said while everyone was caught unprepared, they performed their duties.

" You did what you were supposed to do," he said. "Don't make me out a hero, I was just one of the guys."