Cub Driver wrote:
Nobody dreamed Pearl would have been the target.

Nonsense. Ever hear of Billy Mitchell?


Numerous people envisioned an attack on Pearl Harbor. Claire Chennault
was part of war games in the early 1930s that gamed such an attack.

Of course, people also envisioned an attack on the Panama Canal and
New York City. After the attack, whether it's Pearl Harbor or the
World Trade Center, the conspiracy buffs trot out the clear trail of
warning that *any fool* would have noticed.

Your straw man is hopelessly lame. There's no need to allege conspiracy
here, MacArthur, Kimmel and Short were asleep at the switch. They
ignored one warning after another. They should have hanged the lot of
them.

It seems very obvious to
us now that the Japanese would attack Hawaii. It didn't seem obvious
in December 1941.

Then why was Pearl surrounded with gun emplacements? Were they figuring
to flock shoot pheasants? Why did they have interceptors based in
Hawaii? What were they going to intercept? How big would a P40's drop
tanks have to be to attack Tokyo and return? Do you think Hawaii was a
training base? Cheaper than Texas? Why base interceptors where you
don't expect an attack? What, if anything, are the Kimmel/Short
apologists thinking of?


(What was obvious was that they would attack Malaya, Indonesia, and
the Philippines.

Don't forget Singapore. That surrender made Churchill pull the covers
up over his head. About 30,000 Japanese on bicycles rolled up a UK
garrison of 88,000. Turns out that the Gibraltar of the east was the
Tobruk of Asia times two.

Nobody there was prepared, either.

It wasn't because of lack of supply or other support from the states.
If they'd had twice the resources the Japanese would have had twice as
many targets. The problem was a lack of leadership. If you'd have
swapped Allied generals and admirals with those of the Japanese, the
outcomes would have been reversed.

And if somebody
was, little good it did him.)

The notion that resistance to the Japanese was hopeless is what made it
hopeless. If the Allied heroes had gathered their wits and acted like
leaders instead of pathetic old geezers, the second week of December 41
could have turned out far differently.

Cheers

--mike




all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

The Warbird's Forum www.warbirdforum.com
Expedition sailboat charters www.expeditionsail.com