Pearl Harbor also united an outraged American nation behind President Roosevelt and behind the war against Japan, and failed to destroy the major US ships , the aircraft carriers.
“....Japan...failed to destroy the major US ships , the aircraft carriers.”
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Who then turned around and scored an historically decisive victory, just 6 months later off Midway Island, against the SAME Jap carriers that had led the Pearl Harbor attacks.
A young Lt. Commander named Tom Moorer got his PBY flying boat bomber off the ground and tracked the Japanese fleet for 72 hours until back at Pearl they were convinced it was not headed for our carriers and told him to return.
He never forgot all the details of those several days as he rose to hold more high commands than anyone in our military history. And he never lost the gift that he had with Churchill of listening to people with better ideas, no matter who they were, and when they were good, as with the sidewinder, seeing that they were implemented despite the likes of Robert Strange McNamara.