"Denyav" wrote in message
...
Indeed they had penetrated Purple , the diplomatic cipher
and a number of other codes, but not JN-25

But Mr.Churchill clearly stated "..military and diplomatic.." which
includes
JN25 too.


He didnt say 'ALL military' so it clearly does not


Quite so , an attack of the Phillipines and Malaya
was expected and all Pacific commands had been
issued a war warning.

So called War Warning was designed not to warn Pearl Harbor but to draw
attention away from Pearl Harbor,even though US learned on Nov.25 that the
Pearl Harbor was the target.

The message sent to Kimmel started thus

"This dispatch is to be considered a war warning. Negotiations with Japan
looking
toward stabilization of conditions in the Pacific have ceased and an
aggressive
move by Japan is expected within the next few days"

This cannot be construed as anything but an alert against
possible attack. The fact that it named other locations
as 'likely' targets hardly ruled out Hawaii.


That was the reason why Naval Court of Inqury exonarated Kimmel.


It didnt, rather it found that his failings were not sufficient basis for
a court martial on the grounds of dereliction of duty. In practical terms
the Naval court blamed the army.

The naval command staff were less charitable. As Admiral King
put it

" The derelictions on the part of Admiral Stark and Admiral Kimmel were
faults of omission rather than faults of commission. In the case in
question they indicate lack of the superior judgment necessary for
exercising command commensurate with their rank and their assigned
duties, rather than culpable inefficiency.

Since trial by general court martial is not warranted by the
evidence adduced, appropriate administrative action would appear to be
the relegation of both of these officers to positions in which lack of
superior judgment may not result in future errors."

In short he was fired, hardly an exoneration !

Note further that the court stated clearly that there was
NO information suggesting an attack on Hawaii

Quote
Based on Finding XII, the Court is of the opinion that, as no
information of any sort was at any time either forwarded or received
from any source which would indicate that Japanese carriers or other
Japanese ships were on their way to Hawaii during November or December,
1941, the attack of 7 December at Pearl Harbor, delivered under the
circumstances then existing, was unpreventable and that when it would
take place was unpredictable.
/Quote


Keith