OT: Air Raid Pearl Harbor

Just finished watching a good documentary about the Pearl Harbor attack on the History channel.

Lots of good B & W footage that I had not before seen.

Dean
 
Has been brought up tons of times and I tend to agree. The higher ups
knew darn well it was comming. Needed a way to get us into the war in
Europe. Lots of micromanagement problems, old fashioned thinking, and
a dash or two of stupidity. Never mind the guy in the Philippines. As
Yamamoto knew what was going to happen when they woke up the sleeping
giant. With Pearl, who in their right mind doesn't send in the third
wave to blow up all of the service and fuel facilities? There was a
documentary on TV that had footage and it was stablized and digitized
so the clarity was doubled and rock solid image. The Arizona didn't
stand a chance. Have heard that the Japanese didn't have bombs good
enough to penitrate, the deck armor down into the ship from low level
bombing. So they took some of the big 18 inch shells that were for the
battleship Yamato and stuck fins on them. In life the Yamato never got
to sink any US Battleship but it's shells did. Hope I have all of my
facts correct. This discussion could go on for hours guys! By the way,
this years ceremony at the Arizona there were no surviving crew
members present. There are four guys left but are too fragile to
travel.
 
I tend to disagree. In this day and age with all the information available to them the 'higher ups' still manage to screw up half the time and somehow we're supposed to think that back then they should have known better? You know what they say about hindsight. When the Japanese saw that their main target, the carriers, were not there they had an understandable fear that those carriers could be near and looking for them. A third strike to finish a nonexistent target made no sense. Even so,both sides can make mistakes.
 
The dry docks and fuel depots, both VERY valuable targets, more valuable in the long term than the battleships, both remained undamaged after the second strike.

Lt. Cmd. Fuchida advocated strongly for a third strike to take them out but Admiral Nagumo, believing that he had accomplished his primary mission, and worrying about the position of the US carriers, chose to not do so.

The Japanese had the resources for a third strike and, in retrospect, not doing so was a strategic mistake.

Dean
 
Agreed - the fuel tank farm was a vary valuable target. The pacific fleet had a 2 year War Supply of fuel oil stored at the tank farm. Even some strafing runs with the 20 MM cannon on the Zero would have been a massive amount of damage to the tank farm. The fuel storage was the most valuable target at Pearl Harbor since the carriers were not there.
 
My wife and I visited Pearl Harbor in May of this year. Before going out to the Arizona Memorial we were taken in to a theater and watched a documentary on the bombing by the Japanese. It contained footage from the Japanese planes, footage that can only be seen at the Pearl Harbor theater. There was hardly a dry eye and there was total silence when we were leaving the theater.
 
And I know it's hard to find anything completely made in the USA and most of the foreign cars and trucks have plants in the US but the profits go back across the waters everyone is free to spend their money as they wish as for me you will never see me driving a tractor or car or truck with a foreign nameplate since 1959 I have owned 21 GM products and 2 Fords and 2 Mopars.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top