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Originally Posted by Falcon Jun
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Now my question is this: What if the fighters at Pearl were scrambled on time? Was there still time to actually have the US pilots man their planes and take off to meet the Japanese attack?
If the Japanese attack had been interdicted by US planes, could the Japanese with their escorting Zero fighters fight their way through and carry on with their bombing and torpedo runs?
The key, I think, to this hypothetical aerial fight is the number of fighters the US could've scrambled in the limited time they had left before the Japanese planes made their actual attack. Was there actually enough time left to scramble the fighters? In 1940, How long does the US Army Air Corps take to scramble planes once a raid had been spotted?
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Looks like a lot more than one question to me.
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What if the fighters at Pearl were scrambled on time?
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If they were scrambled in time to intercept the first raid I believe the Japanese plan was not to strike with the second wave. So that alone would have had a considerable impact. If they had intercepted the Japanese the US would probably have lost about the same or fewer fighters than they did historically but quite a few more pilots. The Japanese would likely have lost considerably more bombers and the raid would have been far less effective (a good part of this being due to all the defences being on altert)
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Originally Posted by Falcon Jun
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Was there still time to actually have the US pilots man their planes and take off to meet the Japanese attack?
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A fair number would likely have gotten off some of them might have been able to intercept the Japanese in particular the torpedo bombers and low level attackers. However in some cases ammo and fuel were not immediatly available. One of the defenders that did get airborne for instance didn't have any 50 cal ammo. This alternative probably decreases by a significant amount the loss of US aircraft as some will get in the air and out of the way and others will be moved so that they aren't ideal targets. US proably looses additional pilots over the historical case but the Japanese will loose some more planes too. The torpedo bombers may be significantly less effective.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Falcon Jun
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If the Japanese attack had been interdicted by US planes, could the Japanese with their escorting Zero fighters fight their way through and carry on with their bombing and torpedo runs?
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Yes they could have and probably would have. However there was a marked tendency during Midway for the Japanese fighters to mob US fighter. If, as is likely, the US intercept is piecemeal this may result in the intial interceptors being very badly handled but the latter ones getting at least a couple of passes at the bombers before they also have to deal with the Zeros. Net result is the raid looses bombers on the way in and is less coordinated. With the AA defences on higher alert and the ships water tight less damage to the fleet is very probable.
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Originally Posted by Falcon Jun
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Was there actually enough time left to scramble the fighters? ....
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Since some actually got air born historically the answer is clearly yes. However there probably wouldn't have been a intercept of the level bombers prior to them completing their bombing runs and a good chance not even then. The torpedo bombers might have been however. The dive bombers would also likely be intercepted but probably not until they dropped. The Zeros would likely have gotten a fair amount more of attention particularly those that were assigned to strafe airfields as some of the fighters would likely end up trying to protect additional planes trying to get in the air.
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Originally Posted by Falcon Jun
... In 1940, How long does the US Army Air Corps take to scramble planes once a raid had been spotted?
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I'm not even sure there is a good answer to this. A lot of it will be unit dependent. As mentioned ammo, pilots, and fuel were at varrying levels of availabilty. Also consider that some of the pilots that did get in the air almost got court martialed afterwards for taking off without permission.