[jonascord]

Ever notice that the aircraft and ships that were bunched together on the airfields and anchoages were, for the most part, already considered obsolete?

P-40s, early B-17s, the battleships with the lattice style masts?

Just saying...

[Cheburashka]

It was 1941. All the B-17’s were early models. And only 155 out of about 12,000 built were delivered before 12/1/41.

If you knew anything about battleships you would know that the more modern (modern being admittedly a relative term in dealing with 20-year old battlewagons) battleships at Pearl Harbor had lattice masts, the older ones had been modernized in the Thirties with tripod masts, like the USS Arizona, and USS Oklahoma. The "newer" battleships lost their lattice masts after the war started when they were sent back to the States for repairs and upgrading.

[TonyInOhio]

Ever notice that the aircraft and ships that were bunched together on the airfields and anchoages were, for the most part, already considered obsolete? P-40s, early B-17s, the battleships with the lattice style masts?

The ships were obsolete, we know now, but were not considered as such at the time. And, in fact, the P-40 and the B-17s were state of the art at the time. What was really shocking, in retrospect, is how few of the B-17s we had in inventory at the time of Pearl harbor; those destroyed on December 7th, 1941 comprised a significant portion of all of the B-17s we possessed.