Yamamoto's fleet off Pearl spotted

[I'm goin' down]

Originally Posted by peabody

BUT if you want to get technical, we sank a minisub outside the harbor BEFORE the war started, so we fired the first shot. Now that doesn't declare war but we certainly didn't wait for them to declare war before we started shooting to the attacking planes either.
The other point is we would have know about their intentions before the attack if the Ambassador had delivered the message on time. Not soon enough to attack them but at least we may have gotten our planes off the ground.

But some feel that we were better off not believing they were going to attack. If we had known and actually left Pearl and found the attack force, we most likely would have lost more ships and men, and in deep water where they could not be repaired. And we may have lost our two carriers (the third was in the US for repairs.) which may have made a big difference in other battles such as Midway. And because they could not sink in the shallow harbor all but 2 of the BBs were back in action during the war.

5 of the Battleships that were "sunk" were on duty when the Japanese came up Surigao Strait in the Philippines. If we had attack at sea they probably would not have been since we were so outnumbered in the Pearl Harbor attack.

The above posts, prior to this, by armistead, fred, and the great peabody are great stuff. I do not know if someone can modify RSRDC to launch planes and route them to battleship row. It would take some work to set up the ships in Pearl Harbor if that has not already been done. Plus, I do not know if lurker's mod can be modified, if necessary, so RSRDC shows the actual attack. That would be one heck of a start to the game!

As for getting technical (see above), I, IGD, in all modesty, claim that I started the war when I sank the the 32,000 ton BB at 0733 hrs. The mini sub was not a confirmed kill prior to the start of hostilities, but nobody, and I mean "NOBODY," can deny that a war did not start when the SS Barbarinna finished off the BB with seven or eight torpedoes in a sustained attack that started at 0618 hrs and lasted over an hour!! The American public does not know about it because Washington thought it would hurt the war effort if people knew we started the war (anti war sentiment was strong), and the Japanese command did not know we sank it because the first torpedo salvo knocked out its wireless and radio transmitters, and all hands went down with the ship, which had fallen well behind the rest of the TF. More importantly, I beat armistead to it. Where RSRDC is concerned, he is usually first, and sits atop the pantheon of heroes.

I am negotiating the movie rights, right now. It will be called "Untold history-The True Story of the SS Barbarinna on December 7th," starring Matt Damon (playing IGD) and Barak Obama (as FDR), Nisgeis (as the radar man) and Rockin Robbins (as Admiral Yamamoto.) The gal whose pic is on the captain's is his love interest, and will be played by Chelsea Handler or Mila Kunis (my choice.)

(I think it is time to visit my shrink.)