At the commencement of the raid on Pearl Harbor at 0750 on December 7, 1941, the Dale was moored with ships of Destroyer Division Two at Berth X-14. The order of ships in the nest, from starboard to port, was as follows: USS Aylwin, USS Farragut, the Dale, and USS Monaghan. The ship's head was 030, and boiler number three was in use for auxiliary purposes. The deck officer and acting commanding officer, Ensign F.M. Radel, saw the first plane attack the USS Utah from westward. General Quarters was immediately sounded, and orders were given to set material condition Affirm and light all boilers. At 0810, fire was opened on Japanese planes using the after .50-caliber machine guns, followed shortly thereafter by the after five-inch anti-aircraft guns. The ships on either side of the Dale prevented the use of the forward guns, and the forward searchlight made it impossible to bring the director to bear in the direction of the level bombing attacks. The 5-inch guns operated in local control against a squadron of level bombers flying at about 10,000 feet above the battleships, but results were poor, with shots bursting well behind and short of the targets. At 0815, an enemy dive bomber attacking the USS Raleigh from westward came under severe machine gun fire from all the ships in the nest, was struck, and crashed into the harbor.