December 6,1941

"Paul J. Adam" wrote in message
...
In message , John Keeney
writes
Catalinas for patrol, nobody was going to attack Pearl at night in '41:
that would have required night carrier ops.

Taranto was a night raid... it could be done, it _had_ been done.

But that wasn't Pearl. But I concede your point that I'm applying
my own prejudices in a tactically unsound way.

BOB URZ wrote:

I have often wondered. Given a 24 hour advanced notice that an attack
was eminent in 72 hours or less, what would have been the outcome at
Pearl Harbor? Say on dec 6, Pearl was given intel that an attack would
come anytime in the next 72 hours.
....snipped...
It would make an interesting movie.....

BOB

Assumption:
- They really believed the warning and took it seriously.

They could have sortied all naval vessels out of Pearl Harbor and
dispersed them out to sea. Perhaps the individual ships would have been
more vulnerable (if they were found), but I don't know if the Japanese,
on finding Pearl empty, had the fuel or the interest in doing an open
ocean search or just going back.

However, because they concentrated on bombing the ships, the critical
repair, maintenance and logistics facilities and stores were left
virtually untouched. If they got to Pearl and found no ships, would they
have seriously hit those other facilities and caused even more damage
than they did?

We also could have had a serious CAP up and assumed the unknown
incomings on radar were hostile instead of just... unknown. What
difference would this have made? Unknown.

More importantly, on a strategic level, if we had known about the attack
in advance, would the US have reacted as strongly and been as committed
to the war? Morale is always a critical (but often overlooked) factor.
Without "a day that will live in infamy", what would have been the US's
reaction? Would we have been as committed?

"No Spam!" wrote in message
...
BOB URZ wrote:



More importantly, on a strategic level, if we had known about the attack
in advance, would the US have reacted as strongly and been as committed
to the war?

Hell Yes , an attack on its major bases could hardly be overlooked
and the losses in the Phillipines would have been just as great.
It would still have been a day of infamy.

Keith

On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 16:57:14 -0600, BOB URZ
wrote:

I have often wondered. Given a 24 hour advanced notice that an attack
was eminent in 72 hours or less, what would have been the outcome at
Pearl Harbor? Say on dec 6, Pearl was given intel that an attack would
come anytime in the next 72 hours.

If Japanese found out Americans were ready three days before the
attack was scheduled, Nagumo was under order to abort the mission.


Drax