A
strategic attack on the Panama Canal would probably have succeeded in getting there, but a direct strike against the lock(s) as with the dam buster raid on the Elbe in Germany, is a tough objective to hit tactically. Moreover, the large two-ocean US Navy, with facilities on both coasts for ship construction and repair, obviated the strategic concern regarding the inter ocean exchange between the Atlantic and Pacific fleets through Panama with the unbombable Magellan Straight always in reserve; a week's difference in time perhaps,( but that never stopped the
49ers!
) It would have amounted to a morale wake up call, at best on par with the Doolittle Raid.
