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Pearl Harbour- The Japanese Attack

Discussion in 'The War at Sea' started by Mic von Krate, Aug 7, 2006.

  1. Lone Wolf

    Lone Wolf New Member

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    There is an interview with a Japanese officer somewhere in the supremely excellent The World At War documentary series in which he cites the British attack on a Taranto as "a valuable lesson in shallow water launching" of airborne torpedoes which was very important to their success (albeit short lived) at Pearl Harbor.

    :(
     
  2. majorwoody10

    majorwoody10 New Member

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    he shoulda launched the second wave,,the drydocks ,fuel oil tanks ,and sub pens coulda been wasted in another hour of work....the japanese prolly coulda taken oahu altogether with a few battalions of marines..such was the state of anarchy on dec 7,41
     
  3. Tiornu

    Tiornu Member

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    No, no, much more than another hour of work. In fact, it might have taken until the next day. Japanese flight operations were geared toward precision and coordination, not toward speed, which was the American way--fast and uncoordinated.
     
  4. canambridge

    canambridge Member

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    I don't think the American way was fast and uncoordinated. Coordianted strikes were attempted at both Coral Sea (fairly successful) and Midway (fairly disastarous). During he Guadalcanal campaign the USN felt the most important lesson they had learned from the previous battles was to hit first, leading to fairly uncoordianted and unsuccessful strikes. Plus the losses from earlier battles just meant the skill to do it wasn't there.
    As the new planes and Essex and Independence carriers came on line the US strikes became massive and coordinated, and fairly precise.
    The range of the strikes at the Phillipine Sea resulted in a level of uncoordination, but this wasn't USN doctrine, it was necessity.
     
  5. Tiornu

    Tiornu Member

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    American strikes were relatively uncoordinated, right to war's end. The best example was probably at Santa Cruz. This was an inescapable consequence of accepting the priority of speed. For the Americans, everything was focused on getting in the first big punch. This determined not only their strike plans, but their search plans as well--the Japanese used floatplanes for search duty so their carrier planes could be kept together to maximum effect. The Americans used armed scout bombers, SBDs just like the divebomb squadrons, so that a search plane would not only find the enemy but also put a hurt on him. When I say the Americans were uncoordinated, it's not really a criticism; it looks to me that the Pacific War showed this system as superior. Midway leaps to mind. The underlying theory is that carriers effectively negated the old N-Squared Law, which stated that the larger fleet was exponentially more powerful than its opponent. In contrast, it was felt that even a single carrier could, with luck, disable (not sink) multiple enemy carriers. Once this was accomplished, you had a whole new ball game. So the essence of carrier warfare, in USN eyes, was to get their "fustest" even if not with the "mostest."
     
  6. canambridge

    canambridge Member

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    Tiornu,

    I don't think USN strikes were uncoordinated right up the war's end, Santa Cruz was in 1942 after all, when the objective was definietely get in the first blow, no matter how weak (Kinkaid's doctrine). I think it was more circumstances that caused some many USN strikes to end up uncoordinated. Massed coordinated strikes were tried at both Coral Sea and Midway, and later on at Phillipine Sea and Sibuyan Sea.
    As you say, it all largely academic why, because in the end the waves of weak strikes ultimately had the greater success.
     

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