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Old 2015-03-19, 07:42   Link #90
Ithekro
Gamilas Falls
 
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Republic of California
Age: 46
I wonder if the American reaction would really be any different if the declaration of war was given basically moments before the bombs fall in Hawaii. Sure they announce, "hey were are going to attack you" but then quite obviously have been moving toward Pearl Harbor before that. It would depend on the spin of the papers, but I can still see if being called a sneak attack if there basically wasn't time to get warning to Hawaii from Washington, D.C..

As for everything else. There wasn't enough planes and fuel to do all that. They had fuel for just the two strikes. There was no plan for a third strike at Pearl. They needed the fuel for other things. The pilots being a little zealous about ships is understandible. Large battleships are nice targets. It has been noted that they did tend to keep attacking the same things. The carriers were not there. That was one failure that Yamamoto had hoped to avoid. The rest of it was mentality.

Japanese submarines...with their proven long range Long Lance torpedoes...sank so little of the American forces. They had submarines off the coast of California for a bit and yet did not spot any targets. How do you not spot a target of opportunity at the mouth of a mayor bay and trade route (San Francisco)? It seems the sub commanders thought th ships were out of range, or were only going after warships. Ths another mentality error for the Japanese.
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