I’ve read that the biggest mistakes that made at Pearl Harbor was not destroying dry docks and the oil farm.
“I’ve read that the biggest mistakes that made at Pearl Harbor was not destroying dry docks and the oil farm.”
Their biggest mistake was not catching our aircraft carriers at dock at Pearl Harbor.
Upon hearing that no carriers were destroyed in his Pearl Harbor attack, Yamamoto said that Japan had just lost the war.
Destroying the dry docks and tank farm would have been a set back, but could not have changed the outcome. The biggest mistake of Pearl Harbor was not destroying the shipyards that turned out 24 Essex Class aircraft carriers.
The dry docks and tank farms would have been targeted by a third strike on Pearl Harbor. Younger Japanese commanders—specifically Fuchida and Genda—argued forcefully for such an attack, but Admiral Nagumo refused to go along, for several reasons.
First, he was concerned about his ships’ fuel state, and lingering in Hawaiian waters would exacerbate that issue. Secondly, the accuracy of U.S. AAA fire improved remarkably during the second wave, and Nagumo feared additional losses. Third, the location of our carriers was still unknown, and the Japanese were worried about a surprise attack against their flattops while the strike force was over Pearl.
Having won a great victory, Nagumo decided against risking another strike on Pearl and headed home. Tactically, it was the right thing to do, but strategically, it was a costly blunder.
Had the tank farms and drydocks been destroyed,the U.S. would have been forced to evacuate what was left of the fleet from Pearl, and offensive ops in the Pacific would have been delayed until 1943—and Midway might have had a much different outcome, since the maintenance complex at Pearl was responsible for patching up USS Yorktown after Coral Sea (in only 48 hours) and sending her out to fight at Midway. Without that capability, we would almost have certainly lost Midway and the arc of the Pacific War would have been greatly changed.
That was the original plan: destroy the naval repair yards, the submarine pens and the massive fuel depots.
Did not accomplish one of those objectives.