"John Carrier" wrote in message
...
Good points. A sortie to safety might have been best, but if they had
been
caught a lot of hardware and good men would have gone to the bottom. Any
attempt to engage with the battle line would have likely been disastrous.
Staying put, condition zebra set and GQ at 7:00 am with fighter cover may
well have proven best ... I doubt they would have imagined the need for
torpedo nets (a shame, had they been rigged, the damage would have been
far
less).


Thet didnt have to imagine the need, the FAA had shown at Taranto that
you COULD sir drop torpeddoes in shallow water.

OTOH, the devastating losses forced the US to abandon traditional
thinking.
The battle line was obsolete. The cargru was the wave of the future. It
all came to fruition at Midway.

I still think the Pearl Harbor strike was one of the most brilliantly
planned and executed tactical air strikes of all time. Strategically, it
was wrong. Geopolitically, it was dead wrong.


The whole decision to wage war on the USA was disastrous,
once that decision was made however the Japanese navy
had to make the most of the opportunity that they were
offered. Yamamoto knew he could not fight a long war
and the only possible chance, slim as it was, was to destroy
the US Pacific fleet as an offensive unit while other forces
seized the Phillipines and NEI.

Keith