On the morning of 7 December 1941, "West Virginia" and the rest of the fleet were moored at Battleship Row in Pearl Harbor; "West Virginia" was tied alongside "Tennessee". Japanese aircraft appeared over the harbor shortly before 08:00, beginning the surprise attack on the base. Torpedo bombers hit the ship with seven Type 91 torpedoes on her port side, while bombers hit her with a pair of armor-piercing shells that had been converted into bombs. The first bomb hit the port side and penetrated the superstructure deck, causing extensive damage to the casemates below. Secondary explosions of the ammunition stored in the casemates caused serious fires there and in the galley deck below them. The second bomb struck the rear superfiring turret roof; it penetrated but failed to explode. It nevertheless destroyed one of the guns, the OS2U Kingfisher floatplane on the catapult atop the turret, and knocked a second aircraft down to the main deck. That Kingfisher spilled gasoline on the deck that then caught on fire.