[LS]

The "war warning" was extremely generic, and everybody and his BROTHER thought it was meant for the Philippines, which in itself damns MacArthur, who failed to prepare adequately for the attack everyone thought was coming. It's as if we "knew" the 9/11 terrorists were going to strike Disney World, and a month after 9/11, they did and Disney World was still unprepared.

Most important, no one . . . NO ONE . . . thought a Japanese fleet would dare cross the ocean to engage the 7th fleet head on. Remember, they firmly believed the carriers would be there right up until the very last intel came in from a spy saying the carriers were out. Such a fight against the ships in harbor, PLUS the three carriers, would have been incredibly damaging for the Japanese. Which is why it worked---it was so phenomenally audacious that no one ever expected it.

[Mr. Silverback]

100% dead on.

Of course, that’s why you get paid to do history. :-)