12-07-2011, 11:29 AM
December 7th was a tragedy that should have never happen..
But,we just had to move our fleet closer to Japan and we reinforced Wake Island and Midway-all could have been seen as acts of aggression and would be today.We embargoed steel to Japan due to their invasion of China
We knew the combine fleet with all of their main battle carriers departed their home waters destination unknown.
We know at At 0645 The Ward fired on and depth charged a submarine and sent a report saying:
"We have attacked, fired upon, and dropped depth charges on a submarine operating in defensive sea areas." This report went unheeded.
At 0702 the Oahu radar station reported a large inbound flight that was disregarded as inbound B17s that was to be use in patrol duty.
At 0757 The attack began.
As long as I've studied the events prior to the attack I found lots of mistakes made by us.Just one officer contacting both base commender's could have saved lives.
The Japanese attack didn't go as planned either.The torpedo plans was to attack first followed by the dive bombers.
Fuchida was to use a single flare to indicate "surprise" two flares indicated "Surprise lost"
When Fuchida used a flare to signal "surprise" he seen the torpedo plans moved into their attack position but, the dive bombers wasn't moving to their position behind the torpedo plans he fired the second flare and the dive bombers saw the flair and thought that was the signal for "surprise lost" so,you now you have the torpedo planes and dive bombers hurling into Pearl.
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There's no doubt chaos reign supreme on December 7th,1941 from supply Sargent's not issuing ammo without the proper paper work to the wrong type of ammo being issued..
There was tragedy on the ships too..A antiaircraft gun crew cut down several sailors and gun crews on the ship moored along side. 5" Antiaircraft shells landed in Honolulu killing several civilians.Antiaircraft guns fire on U.S plans shooting down several killing some of the pilots.
But,we just had to move our fleet closer to Japan and we reinforced Wake Island and Midway-all could have been seen as acts of aggression and would be today.We embargoed steel to Japan due to their invasion of China
We knew the combine fleet with all of their main battle carriers departed their home waters destination unknown.
We know at At 0645 The Ward fired on and depth charged a submarine and sent a report saying:
"We have attacked, fired upon, and dropped depth charges on a submarine operating in defensive sea areas." This report went unheeded.
At 0702 the Oahu radar station reported a large inbound flight that was disregarded as inbound B17s that was to be use in patrol duty.
At 0757 The attack began.
As long as I've studied the events prior to the attack I found lots of mistakes made by us.Just one officer contacting both base commender's could have saved lives.
The Japanese attack didn't go as planned either.The torpedo plans was to attack first followed by the dive bombers.
Fuchida was to use a single flare to indicate "surprise" two flares indicated "Surprise lost"
When Fuchida used a flare to signal "surprise" he seen the torpedo plans moved into their attack position but, the dive bombers wasn't moving to their position behind the torpedo plans he fired the second flare and the dive bombers saw the flair and thought that was the signal for "surprise lost" so,you now you have the torpedo planes and dive bombers hurling into Pearl.
-----------------------
There's no doubt chaos reign supreme on December 7th,1941 from supply Sargent's not issuing ammo without the proper paper work to the wrong type of ammo being issued..
There was tragedy on the ships too..A antiaircraft gun crew cut down several sailors and gun crews on the ship moored along side. 5" Antiaircraft shells landed in Honolulu killing several civilians.Antiaircraft guns fire on U.S plans shooting down several killing some of the pilots.
Larry
Engineman
Summerset Ry
Make Safety your first thought, Not your last! Safety First!
Engineman
Summerset Ry
Make Safety your first thought, Not your last! Safety First!