Late 1941 – the United States is tense, as mainland Europe is controlled by Germany, and Britain shaky under a withering German air assault. On the other side of the world, over the Pacific, news is also grim: Japan had invaded China, prompting the U.S. to impose economic sanctions.

On this day, December 7, in 1941, the American naval base at Pearl Habor, with the entire American battleship fleet at anchor, suddenly found itself under attack by squadrons of Japanese warplanes with deadly aim. Within a matter of hours, the USS Arizona lays destroyed at the bottom of the harbor, with most of the rest of the ships badly damaged. By sheer luck, the centerpieces of the American fleet, the aircraft carriers, were on patrol far from the base at the time.

The attacks on September 2001 are often compared to the one on Pearl Harbor, and the similarities do not just end with the suddenness and devastation of the event. Both were brought about partly by missed warning signs. In the case of Pearl Harbor, the approaching Japanese squadrons were picked up by radar before they reached the base, but were mistaken by the radar men for a flight of American B-17 bombers due in from the mainland.