Quote:
Originally Posted by WernherVonTrapp
I'm not saying the Bristish didn't believe they were out of range. I'm asking, how could they believe they were out of range? Maybe something as simple as deprecation of the enemy and/or his capabilities?  |
Again, we are talking about things that happened in a 24-hour time frame, 48 at the best. This "they should know better" pondering is not taking into account the fact that the japanese attacked the far east in december 8th (in the other side of the time/date line, so in the US it would be the 7th) and the bombings you are mentioning happened around one day previous to the sinking of the BBs (10th dec), so it is fair to say they were unaware of the danger.
Of course, unless someone here has any evidence that they were aware of the fighting and decided to sail without an umbrella anyway, that's another thing. But I don't think we can drag and admiral's name in the mud (the fellows' name is Tom Phillips) like that.