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Men were trapped in dark compartments while they were being flooded. Just horrifying.

I’ve read that some managed to live until right before Christmas. Would-be rescuers had no way to get to them.

Years ago I read a story by a man who served aboard The Oklahoma that morning. His name kind of escapes me, I think it twas Robert De Long. His battle station was in an aft compartment I believe as engine room personnel. When the Oklahoma had taken I believe five torpedo hits it rolled starboard and everything not bolted down came crashing down and up was down and worse yet the electrical systems were knocked out and below decks was a dark nightmare. In rolling as it did the Oklahoma, a steel vessel was twisted and wracked out of trim so hatch ways and bulkheads were unable to close or be secured and others were unable to be opened for the same reason. And the compartments were flooding. Men would drown in total darkness and panic. And yet nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki were ''war crimes''.