The end of the USS Arizona as a battleship came within the first 15 minutes of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

At roughly 8:10 a.m., a Japanese “Kate” bomber dropped a 1,760-pound bomb that penetrated the deck and likely ignited gunpowder magazines, setting off a tremendous explosion that witnesses said lifted the battleship up out of the water.

One witness, Alexander W. Ross, a submariner with the USS Narwhal, described watching the bombing from the submarine barracks. He wrote that he “saw three bombs dropping and went out of sight in the area of the stacks. A second later, a ball of flame, the length of the Arizona, appeared. The windows vibrated and then no Arizona.”

But the Arizona’s men continued fighting through the fires, smoke and chaos that consumed the sinking ship.

“The personnel of the anti-aircraft and machine gun batteries on the ­Arizona lived up to the best traditions of the Navy. I could hear guns firing on the ship long after the boat deck was a mass of flames,” Lt. Cmdr. Samuel G. Fuqua, the Arizona’s senior surviving officer, wrote in his report on the attack.

Fuqua himself had been knocked out by one of the initial bomb blasts to the Arizona. Still, after regaining consciousness, he returned to lead the crew.

“He recovered to direct the fighting of the fires and the rescue of wounded and injured personnel. He stayed on deck through the continuous bombing and strafing, leading in a calm and cool manner that resulted in the saving of many lives,” according to his Medal of Honor citation.

Arizona survivor Marine Sgt. John M. Baker said Fuqua’s calmness “gave me courage, and I looked around to see if I could help.”

Of the three Medal of Honor recipients from the Arizona, Fuqua was the sole survivor.

The other two — Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd and Capt. Franklin Van Valkenburgh — were honored posthumously for staying on the bridge to direct efforts until it suffered a direct hit that killed them both.

They were but two of the 1,177 men killed on the Arizona — out of crew of 1,512 on board at the time.

The list of the dead included a father and son serving on the ship, 23 sets of brothers, and all 21 members of the USS Arizona band.

While the Arizona was destroyed in the opening minutes of the attack, it served as an inspiration throughout World War II for a public outraged by a sneak attack that came before a formal declaration of war.

After the war, the Arizona became the inspiration for keeping alive the memory of the ultimate sacrifice of Dec. 7, 1941.

Sources include Naval History and Heritage Center, National Park Service, Honolulu Advertiser.