The gallant sortie of the battleship USS Nevada was only one case of the many acts of heroism that occurred at Pearl Harbor on Sun, December 7, 1941. A handful of American pilots also put upwards a spirited defense against the Japanese and became the first American heroes of Earth War Two.

George S. Welch and Kenneth Taylor, both 2nd lieutenants in the U.Southward. Army Air Corps, had spent Sabbatum evening at a dance at the Wheeler Field officers club, followed by an all-nighttime card game some distance away from their home base at Haleiwa. They heard distant gunfire equally the pair was discussing the merits of taking an early morning time swim and the winner of the terminal manus was gathering his money. The lieutenants phoned alee to take their Curtiss P-forty Tomahawk fighters armed and fueled, and so hopped into Taylor's machine with machine-gun bullets from planes of the second wave of Japanese attackers kicking up dust effectually them. They reached speeds of 100 mph during the nuance to Haleiwa.

Once aloft, the airmen were ordered to patrol in the vicinity of Barbers Point, and they shot down several Japanese planes before returning to the airfield for more fuel and ammunition. Welch recalled: "Nosotros had to debate with some of the basis coiffure. They wanted united states of america to disperse the airplanes and we wanted to fight."

One of Welch's machine guns had jammed. Taylor had been wounded in the arm and leg and was brash not to go back in the air that twenty-four hours. Even so, the two pilots prepared to climb dorsum into the sky. Journalist Blake Clark recounted: "Before Welch's guns could exist unlocked or Taylor's wound receive commencement aid, a second moving ridge of xv Japanese planes swept in….but he and Welch took off immediately."

The Japanese pilots soon zeroed in on Taylor'due south Tomahawk. "Welch, behind them, dived on the one most dangerous to his partner, letting fly with all his guns," Clark later wrote. "The enemy plane burst into flames and crashed; Taylor escaped. Welch followed another plane seaward, caught it 5 miles offshore and gave its two-man team an ocean grave."

A total of five Air Corps pilots managed to become their planes off the ground and requite boxing that morning time. One of them, a lieutenant named Sanders, led a group of planes through overcast skies at six,000 anxiety. When a formation of six Japanese bombers was spotted attacking an airfield, the group chased them off. Sanders picked out the Japanese leader and sent the smoking enemy plane spiraling into the sea.

Sanders and so spotted a comrade in problem. Lieutenant James Sterling had closed with an enemy bomber, merely another Japanese aeroplane had gotten on his tail and was pouring burn into him. Sanders pulled in behind Sterling's attacker, and all iv planes went into a steep dive. Sanders was the only one to come out. Sterling lost his life, and both Japanese shipping went down.

One group of Japanese planes, their cargoes of bombs expended, turned to strafe Hickam and Ewa airfields and the naval installations at Ford Island. One of those Japanese pilots saw in the altitude an aerial melee that very likely included Welch and Taylor. The Japanese flier reported seeing several of his comrades' planes falling from the sky in flames. In his definitive business relationship of the Pearl Harbor assail, At Dawn We Slept, Gordon W. Prange noted that the single American airfield to emerge from the boxing undamaged was Haleiwa. Some speculated that this was considering the Japanese did not know of its beingness. More probable, information technology was because Welch and Taylor aggressively drove off the attackers.

Taylor later recalled: "We went downward and got in the traffic pattern and shot down several planes there. I know for certain I shot down two planes or peradventure more than; I don't know." A total of 29 Japanese planes were shot down during the attack, and Welch and Taylor were officially credited with 7 of them, four in their beginning sortie and iii in the 2nd. Taylor later explained his part during the Pearl Harbor strike in testimony earlier a Congressional articulation committee investigating the Japanese assault.

Welch was recommended for the Medal of Laurels for his heroism, but it was denied him considering his commanding officer said he had taken off without orders. He went on to serve in New Guinea, and one twelvemonth to the day afterwards Pearl Harbor, he shot down iii more Japanese shipping while flying a Bell P-39 Airacobra. Then on September 2, 1943, flight a Lockheed P-38 Lightning, he shot down four more than.

Welch finished the war with 16 victories. He was killed on Oct 11, 1954, while examination-flying the F-100 Super Sabre fighter jet.