Remember Pearl Harbor

[August]

Annual salute to our honored dead. May they rest in peace.

[Dread Knot]

Salute!

[BossMark]

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

Never forget.

[Jimbuna]

A date I'll never forget for two reasons...it is also the date of my fathers passing.

RIP to them all.

[fireftr18]

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

A date I'll never forget for two reasons...it is also the date of my fathers passing.

My daughter's birthday.

To the fallen, R.I.P.

[Bubblehead1980]

Went to a memorial service this morning with my grandfather.Cold morning and at 94, he still made it out.Seeing the few old vets there from various branches, always allows you to pick up on the emotion, quite moving.

[Red October1984]

Salute to all those who died and those who died in the war.

[Wolferz]

RIP

[Oberon]

One cannot help but be impressed at the level of planning and care that went into this attack, however ultimately it was a foolhardy endeavour. As Admiral Hara Tadaichi put it "We won a great tactical victory at Pearl Harbor and thereby lost the war."

A salute to the fallen.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Oberon

One cannot help but be impressed at the level of planning and care that went into this attack, however ultimately it was a foolhardy endeavour. As Admiral Hara Tadaichi put it "We won a great tactical victory at Pearl Harbor and thereby lost the war."

A salute to the fallen.

The attack would have been a much bigger success had the flat tops been there but that still wouldn't have changed the outcome of the war, maybe lengthen it a bit.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

The attack would have been a much bigger success had the flat tops been there but that still wouldn't have changed the outcome of the war, maybe lengthen it a bit.

A year or two at most I would wager, likewise any attack on the oil and repair facilities in a third wave (although any advantages of having destroyed the oil and repair facilities in a third wave would have been offset by the heavy loss of aircraft and experienced pilots now that the AAA crews were wide awake and very angry). Although to be honest, even if the flat-tops had been in Pearl, it's questionable how much priority would have been placed on them over the battleships by the Japanese Naval Command, since at that time it was believed that any major battle between the USN and IJN would be between battleships and the carrier and aircraft would play a secondary supportive role. The US was coming to terms with the growth of carrier operations when Pearl took place (thanks to General Billy Mitchell and his air power demonstration) and the loss of a chunk of their battleships, plus their slow speed, accelerated their carrier strategy which is still in place today to some extent.

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

Found this on YT: I remember that somewhere I had a cd with that song and a few others.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Although to be honest, even if the flat-tops had been in Pearl, it's questionable how much priority would have been placed on them over the battleships by the Japanese Naval Command, since at that time it was believed that any major battle between the USN and IJN would be between battleships and the carrier and aircraft would play a secondary supportive role.

An excellent point. Despite the British attack on Taranto the previous year, it was still assumed by both sides that battleships were the ultimate seagoing war machine, and seaborne aircraft were just a side show. It was Pearl Harbor that made the first step toward disproving that belief, so you could very well be right that the carriers may have been a low priority anyway.

On the other hand I've never studied the actual Japanese battle plan, so those documents may say otherwise.