Seem to have been forgotten at least one time ...
Posted on 12/07/2016 7:14:54 AM PST by Kaslin
Seventy-five years ago, on December 7, 1941, the American Navy suffered the worst defeat in its history when a force led by six Japanese fleet carriers launched a surprise attack at the battleships at Pearl Harbor. Two of the eight battleships, Arizona and Oklahoma, were destroyed, and the other six were knocked out of action for many months. The Army Air Corps fields were attacked with great loss, and other smaller naval vessels were attacked as well.
The American carriers were at sea. Had those carriers been at Pearl Harbor, the whole course of the Pacific War would have been very different. During the first year of that conflict, only the carriers were able to slow down the Japanese advance. Battleships proved too vulnerable to air attack to fight major fleet actions alone. American submarines, which eventually would prove an incredibly potent force in the Pacific, were plagued by multiple problems with torpedoes which made them almost useless for many months.
The Japanese still might have inflicted crippling damage even with the carriers gone. The fuel depots for the American Fleet were at Pearl Harbor and so were major repair and maintenance facilities. Without these, the American Fleet could have had to operate out of San Diego, thousands of miles east.
The Japanese could also have utterly destroyed all the battleships, instead of just Arizona and Oklahoma, and these other battleships in two years were refitted and fighting the Japanese Navy. There were a number of other, smaller naval vessels at Pearl Harbor, which would be desperately needed in the first six months of 1942 and which follow-up attacks by the Japanese would have damaged or sunk.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
lessons after 75 years, silly
Lesson #1 - don’t trust diplomats.
“on December 7, 1941, the American Navy suffered the worst defeat in its history”
We shouldn’t think of it as having been a “defeat” when as luck would have it, the Japs missed out on destroying our carriers and as the Japs realized later, they could have come back again to finished off what was left of Pearl Harbor but they didn’t. They failed to destroy the dry docks and oil in storage, which turned out to be a big mistake and it probably made a difference in the progression of the war.
the surprise attack at Pearl was in accordance with the Samurai code, the Bushido - strike the killing blow first. Those movies that show extended sword battles between samurai warriors are bogus, and unrealistic. The action of drawing the sword and striking the killing blow is all one motion.
The attack at Pearl was supposed to be the surprise killing blow. It wasn’t.
Lesson#2 Trust Uniformed Military Intell.
The Japanese were hoping for a brokered peace agreement from the US after Pearl harbor. That was never going to happen, no matter what the damage at Pearl Harbor. They underestimated the resolve of the the American people.
Lesson #3 State Dept Pukes LIE!!!!
The lesson? Don’t trust Progressives and Democrat leaders
Most of the country knew war was coming, and FDR certainly knew the Japanese would attack somewhere - Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, and especially Pearl Harbor all at the top of the list. Turns out they attacked all of these places.
Lesson #4: Torpedo Nets!
Lesson #5: If you fear sabotage, post additional guards (especially at night). Don’t clump all your warplanes in the middle of the airfield, during daylight hours.
Lesson #4. Do not line up all the Capital ships and make post cards of the photo that can be sent to Japan. AKA, DON’T TELL THE ENEMY WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO DO!
That's kind of like calling being a victim of the "knockout game" losing a fight. Being clobbered by a sneak attack on a Sunday morning should not be classified as a defeat. The ability to fight back was severely limited.
The admiral and general in charge of American forces were punished, deservedly, for the lack of preparedness.
Had Naval Intelligence passed on what they knew to the Admiral in charge of PH in a timely fashion, instead of 8 hours after the attack began, it would have been a different story and possibly a resounding defeat for Japan.
It was not their fault - Navel Intelligence did not tell them that the Japs were breaking off diplomatic relations at precisely 1 pm Hawaii time, and that the communication sent to both the Admiral in charge and the Army General did NOT include PH as a possible Jap target - so both carried on as usual.
Kimmil was made a scapegoat by Navel Intel which did not want to reveal that the Jap codes had been broken for years and they knew something was coming and most likely PH would be the target and deliberately withheld the info - later Kimmil testified before Congress on what had actually happened. Unfortunately, the Intel boys were watching the wrong people; they watched the Diplomats not the military because they did not know the Jap military distrusted the diplomatic core and only revealed bits and pieces.
Both Kimmil and Short were grievously faulted for a failure of Intelligence to communicate what they knew. BTW: Kimmil received the “rush” message via Western Union bicycle courier.
It's never to late to learn from a disaster like Pearl Harbor. We are still committing some of the same mistakes now.
1) Underestimating our enemy's abilities to damage us because we are separated from them by oceans.
2) Assuming our enemies will fight on our terms and assuming our technology is superior in all respects.
3) Assuming our strength in nuclear delivery systems and carrier battle groups is an effective deterrence to all forms of attack.
All these weaknesses point out that we are prepared to win the last war.
The Americans still largely viewed them as support ships for battleship based fleets at the time of Pearl Harbor. Yamamoto demonstrated foresight to view the carriers as an independent offensive weapon for many months before Dec 7th.
What benefitted the Americans most, was the inept leadership displayed by Nagumo. He blew his chance at Pearl Harbor and he lost his fleet at Midway. We were very fortunate that he was in command for both battles.
Short video of the USS Arizona as it exists now underwater.
At 2:53 you see a very small drop of oil escaping to the surface.
Even after 75 years, it is estimated that 8-9 quarts of oil escape from the hull each day.......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzF_ic_9Eac
The politicians took bribes from the Saudi’s.
Roger that!
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