Pearl Harbor was one of the greatest sea and air battles of the history. For many years, it's been said that the Japanese soldiers attacked first and that they were. Unsolved History (2002–) 7.2 / 10.
Pearl Harbor Day 2. WASHINGTON . In the United States, the name alone means surprise, defeat, and the rise of common purpose from ashes. Seventy years on, the Japanese surprise attack on US forces assembled in Hawaii remains one of the American people. US personnel who died that day, and the generation of ordinary citizens which picked up Pearl Harbor. More specifically, it remains an event that has produced some of the great unanswered questions of military history. Why did the Japanese attack a nation whose industrial might was an order of magnitude larger?
Who in the US chain of command was most responsible for American unpreparedness? Today, historians continue to debate many of Pearl Harbor. Here are just a few of those continued conundrums.
Unsolved History: Myths of Pearl Harbor. Searching for the Roots of 9/11. Miracle on the Hudson. The Fight for Baghdad. Wings: Evolution of Air Power. History; Pearl Harbor Education. The Torpedoes for Pearl Harbor. Attack on Pearl Harbor: Strategy, Combat, Myths, Deceptions.
Why weren't US bases on alert? The first wave of Japanese aircraft hit Pearl Harbor at about 8 a. Within hours, Japanese forces also struck the Philippines, Wake Island, Guam, and other Pacific targets.
US units everywhere were taken by surprise. Hastings dismisses claims that President Franklin Roosevelt allowed Pearl Harbor to be attacked to draw the US into war.
1941 the morning the Japanese Imperial Navy launched a massive attack on Pearl Harbor. The Myths of Pearl Harbour.
But he says it is nonetheless . Among its conclusions were that Army forces were so focused on training they lost sight of possible attack . The Navy did not maintain aircraft patrols at sea due to lack of equipment . Michael Wenger argue that an overlooked answer to the question of why the US was surprised is that US commanders did not understand how quickly aircraft carrier warfare was evolving.
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The Pearl Harbor strike plan involved the melding of planes from many carriers into a hornet swarm of attackers. That was a skill the US did not know the Japanese military possessed. Parshall and Wenger. Why didn't the Japanese press their advantage?
After two waves of aircraft devastated Pearl Harbor. Chuichi Nagumo then led a discussion on whether another attack was feasible. Many air commanders supported such a follow- up, believing that fuel dumps, repair shops, and other US logistical sites were now vulnerable. A cautious commander, Nagumo decided against more action.
It would have required reloading aircraft on deck at sea at a time when the location of US carriers and submarines was unknown. Japanese forces had already won a spectacular victory. For decades, some historians have argued that Nagumo missed an opportunity that maybe, just maybe, could have turned the course of the war. However in his book, . Hastings writes. What would have happened if the US had won the battle?
How would the world have been different if US forces had been on alert that Sunday morning in December? After all, it would have taken only a few hours' early warning to perhaps reverse the battle. US fighters would have been aloft and anti- aircraft batteries alerted. They could have taken a large toll on Japan. Many of the ships destroyed at Pearl were refloated and rebuilt for later fights. Most important, a US public that had been divided over entry into the war became united at a stroke. Whether US civilians would have universally supported such a move in the absence of a surprise attack is a great historical unknown.
As to what might have happened if the Pacific Fleet had repulsed its attackers, it. Kimmel, would have launched his battleships and carriers out on a mission to catch and destroy the Japanese, writes Ohio State University military historian Mark Grimsley. Kimmel was an offensive- minded commander who dreamed of replicating the victories of the great British admirals of the past. Within several weeks he could have gathered US naval power near Wake Island for a possibly decisive encounter. Both sides would have had eight battleships available for a fight, writes Mr. The Japanese would have had a slight edge in aircraft carriers, but the US would have benefited from land- based planes from Wake Island bases.
The outcome would have been impossible to predict. A US victory could have greatly shortened the Pacific War.