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Originally Posted by CCIP
My favourite response to this kind of thing is that real historians hate what-ifs 
The real question is just how they would know that much operational detail about the way the Japanese would carry out the Pearl attack. It's one thing to know that the Japanese might attack, another thing to know the exact composition of the task force and attack plan and tactics, and being able to find the ships without the Japanese putting up necessary precautions. And radar during that time didn't really have a great deal of precision, or at least I don't think there was quite that much operational experience in its use. So, that's quite the gamble. I don't think there would be enough confidence in this working.
Something like this would be basically threading the eye of the needle - sure, maybe, but it's one of those things where a whole bunch of things would conveniently have to turn out precisely right for the Americans to pull it off, against an already-wary Japanese task force (they themselves knew they were running big risks, which is why they got out of there fast instead of sending another wave of attacks). Considering this would all be happening while their planes were bombing American soil, I don't think this kind of plan would be approved. Too many things that could go wrong at too high a cost. |
But at the same time the rewards would be extraordinary. Think about how different the Pacific war would go if in one swoop not only is Pearl saved(Remember the moment the radar station confirms it's the Japanese coming in Peal goes to full alert) or not heavily damaged and the majority of Japan's carriers are wiped out. Also Midway was a threading the needle type situation and it worked perfectly then and is this case you'd have nearly the same scenario.