From: smittie@beach.csulb.edu (Smittie)
Newsgroups: soc.history
Subject: Re: Relativity and Pearl Harbor
Date: 24 Jul 92 17:15:58 GMT
	<SMITTIE.92Jul22125147@lark.csulb.edu>
	<1992Jul23.155441.13034@rayssd.ssd.ray.com>
Organization: Cal State Long Beach

m1b@rayssd.ssd.ray.com (Barone) wrote:
>The blame that Pearl wasn't a greater victory for Japan rests squarely on
>Nagumo's shoulders.  After the last Japanese planes returned, Nagumo was
>urged to launch a second attack.  The battleships were sunk (in shallow
>water), but the vital tank farms and dry docks were intact. More important,
>the US carriers were still at large.  In fact, the Enterprise was only 200
>miles away and one of its scout planes had actually been shot down before
>the attack.  Because the dry docks were intact, he would again see four of
>the "sunk" battleships at Saipan.
 
>Nagumo had opposed the plan from the outset (from a military POV, not
>moral) and had done the job assigned to him.  He did not wish to push his
>luck.  So, 20/20 hindsight is not the issue -- Nagumo was just too timid
>for the job.
 
American losses at Pearl Harbor:
2403 dead		1178 wounded
188 aircraft destroyed on the ground
159 aircraft damaged
6 battleships, 1 heavy cruiser, 2 Oilers were sunk
2 battleships, 1 heavy cruiser, 6 light cruisers,
3 destroyers, 3 Auxiliary vessels were seriously damaged
 
Japanese losses at Pearl Harbor:
8 fighter aircraft, 15 dive bombers, 5 bombers lost
74 aircraft holed
1 submarine and 5 midget submarines failed to return.
 
Most of the naval commanders that I worked with would consider this a
definite success for the Japanese, to inflict so much damage at such low
cost. Pearl Harbor was most definitely a tactical success.
 
To say "Nagumo was just too timid for the job" and to imply that had he
made the decision to send a second and third strike he would have been
equally successful is a conclusion based on hindsight and speculation.
 
Through hindsight we can see that the US Navy's aircraft carriers were
operating near Wake Island and posed no threat to Nagumo. But he had no way
of knowing that. Secondly, American defensive measures at Pearl Harbor were
far better than the Japanese expected. American forces were pulling guns
from damaged aircraft and mounting them on workbenchs and where ever else
they could. Crew members of damaged ships remained on station at the
Anti-Air batteries. We do not know that Nagumo's second strike would not
have taken severe losses to now better prepared defenses on Pearl Harbor.
To say that it would have been successful is speculation.
 
Nagumo's own reasons were set forth as follows:
 
1) The first attack had inflicted all the damage we had hoped for, and
another attack could not be expected to greatly increase the extent of that
damage.
 
2) Enemy return fire had been surprisingly prompt even though we took them
by surprise; another attack would meet stronger opposition and our losses
would certainly be disproportionate to the additional destruction that
might be inflicted.
 
3) Intercepted enemy messages indicated at least fifty large planes still
operational, and we did not know the whereabouts of the enemy's carriers,
cruisers, and submarines.
 
4) To remain within range of enemy land-based planes was distinctly to our
disadvantage, especially since the effectiveness of our air reconnaissance
was extremely limited.
 
Pearl Harbor was a tactical success. To say that it would have been a
greater success if Nagumo had launched a second and third attack is, at
least at this moment, speculation. We do not know how things would have
developed.
 
Historians who's specialty is the study of what might have happened could
tell us more about the probable outcome had Nagumo launched second and
third attacks. But even if it is determined that those attacks would have
been successful this does nothing to change the fact that Nagumo's one
attack was very successful. The Japanese enjoyed the benefits of the damage
imposed on the US fleet for quite some time.

smittie
--
___________________________________________________________________________
GEnie, MCI, AOL:Smittie | If all of us were as smart as we think we are the
smittie@beach.csulb.edu |  current world problems would be yesterday's news.
________________________|___________________________________________________

-- 
___________________________________________________________________________
GEnie, MCI, AOL:Smittie | If all of us were as smart as we think we are the
smittie@beach.csulb.edu |  current world problems would be yesterday's news.
________________________|___________________________________________________
Newsgroups: soc.history