How the Japanese managed to defeat the American fleet and why the attack was not as successful as it could have been.
Exactly 75 years ago, on December 7, 1941, aircraft from Japanese aircraft carriers struck at the ships of the American Pacific Fleet located in Pearl Harbor.
In connection with the unexpectedness of the attack, the ships, as well as the aircraft standing on the ground, suffered serious damage. American President Roosevelt called December 7 "a day of shame", and throughout the subsequent war one of the main American slogans was "Remember Pearl Harbor!"
The operation was competently planned and carried out by the Japanese side, although the significance of this attack is traditionally exaggerated, since the main goal - the destruction of aircraft carriers - the Japanese did not achieve. After the war, an alternative view of the events of December 7 appeared, since it turned out that the Japanese attack could have been warned in advance.
There were conspiracy theories that the American leadership deliberately exposed the ships to attack (especially since mostly outdated battleships were based in the bay) in order to have an irreproachable reason for entering the war.
After all, before this attack, such a step was not easy, given the opposition of Congress and the isolationist views of a large part of society. Life found out whether the Japanese attack could be considered successful and whether the Americans really were exposed to the Japanese attack, or whether the surprise of the attack was the result of gross errors of the military leadership.
Background
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By 1941, the American leadership was leaning toward entering the war. By this time, the world war had been going on for almost two years. Nevertheless, as in the years of the First World War, public opinion held isolationist views and did not approve of the outbreak of hostilities. Roosevelt clearly sympathized with Hitler's opponents, but did not dare to enter the war.
The Japanese, on the other hand, planned to use the war in order to create an empire in the Pacific Ocean, which had no equal in Asia. The Japanese already controlled a significant part of China, but the situation was somewhat complicated by the presence of European colonies in Southeast Asia, as well as the position of the United States, which was unhappy with the Japanese attempts to dominate this region. There was a situation when it was impossible to start conquering Asia without quarreling with all the great powers.
Preparing an attack Admiral Yamamoto
Photo: © ASSOCIATED PRESS / FOTOLINK
The Japanese, planning their operations, proceeded from the assumption that the Americans would intervene in any case if hostilities against the British began. There was heated debate in Japanese headquarters about whether to disperse forces and play with fire, attacking the Americans first, and whether it would not be better to focus all their efforts on capturing the resource-rich Asian regions, and the Americans to respond as needed.
In the end, the point of view of supporters of a preemptive strike on the American fleet won out. Admiral Yamamoto adhered to this position, who believed that the Americans would enter this war anyway, so it is better to strike first in order to inflict as much damage as possible.
In this case, the Japanese were mistaken at the very beginning, because they proceeded from erroneous ideas. The Americans physically could not prevent the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean, since the American fleet needed modernization and strengthening, and a rather long time would have passed before the United States entered the war. Even the original American plan in case of war called for an emergency evacuation of the Philippines (the main American outpost in the region) in the event of an attempt to capture them.
In planning the attack, the Japanese carefully studied the attack carried out by British carrier-based aircraft against the Italian naval base in Taranto, which took place in November 1940. This attack was unprecedented in terms of the ratio of the forces involved and the results achieved. Twenty British torpedo aircraft attacked the Italian battleships in the harbor, sinking three ships - exactly half of all battleships in the Italian fleet.
Also, the American exercises at Pearl Harbor, which simulated an air raid on ships in the harbor, were carefully considered. The exercises were carried out back in the mid-30s and even then showed that an attack by an air group could be very successful.
In addition to developing an attack plan, it was necessary to choose the optimal path by which the squadron was supposed to approach the American base. The entire success of the plan was based on the surprise and surprise of the attack, and this effect would have been impossible to achieve if the ships were discovered in advance. Meanwhile, the routes most convenient for approach were either in the area of operation of American reconnaissance aircraft, or passed along saturated trade routes. As a result, the most difficult route was chosen, where there was the least risk of collision with unwanted bystanders, but extremely unstable weather conditions, which significantly hampered refueling of ships and endangered the entire operation.
Much attention was paid to the training of pilots who will participate in the attack on the harbor. On one of the Pacific islands, a detailed model of the island of Oahu was built, where Pearl Harbor was located, which was supposed to be the target of the attack. Beginning in September 1941, torpedo bombers practiced skills in hitting targets with torpedoes, dive bombers trained in dropping bombs, and fighter pilots - to cover torpedo bombers and bombers, as well as to hit aircraft that had not yet managed to rise from airfields.
Preparing Americans
A still from the film "Pearl Harbor". © kinopoisk.ru
Relations between Japan and the United States in 1941 finally deteriorated. America imposed sanctions on the Japanese, stopping selling them the oil and steel they desperately needed. The embargo on the supply of strategically important goods pushed the Japanese to intensify their aggressive actions in the resource-rich Southeast Asia.
Nevertheless, the war with the Americans did not seem obvious to the Japanese. It was expected that the Americans would most likely enter the war in the event of further Japanese seizures of territories in Asia, but the strength of the American economy frightened the Japanese. Even despite the fact that they had a detailed plan of attack, the Japanese did not dare to take any action against the United States until the end of the year. Two weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor, US Secretary of State Cordell Hull sent the Japanese a note in which he issued an ultimatum demanding the withdrawal of Japanese troops from Indochina and China. This was taken by the Japanese as an ultimatum before the war, and only after that the emperor gave the go-ahead to attack Pearl Harbor.
The Americans were preparing for a completely different scenario. They believed that the main target for the attack would be the Philippine Islands, where several American bases were located. From the Philippines, the Americans could terrorize Japanese sea communications southward. At the same time, the Americans did not have the opportunity to protect the islands from a massive invasion at that time, and the original plans provided for the evacuation of specialists and the military. Only through the efforts of the commander of the American and Philippine forces, General MacArthur, the plan was changed, and the Americans decided to defend the island (which they managed for almost six months).
For this reason, the option of attacking Pearl Harbor was not even considered, the American headquarters were absolutely sure that the Japanese were not able to conduct two large-scale naval operations at once. As it turned out later, the Americans were cruelly mistaken.
Attack
Photo: © EAST NEWS
At the end of November 1941, a strike group of six aircraft carriers, 441 aircraft, two battleships, two heavy cruisers, 11 destroyers and a group of submarines, five of which were carrying midget submarines, left the base and moved towards the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
The squadron was ordered to sink any merchant ships it encountered belonging to Britain, Holland or the United States. The ships of all other countries were planned to be captured with the help of the boarding team. These actions were supposed to keep the squadron's campaign secret. If the squadron was discovered before December 6 inclusive, the strike on the American base was canceled. However, no one had to be drowned or captured, since the squadron was moving on the most unpopular route, which other ships rarely followed, and the campaign was kept secret until the very end.
The first to act were submarines, which dropped five midget submarines, whose task was to penetrate the harbor and torpedo the ships when the attack began. This mission failed, the fate of two boats remained unknown, one boat landed on the reef, two more managed to penetrate the harbor, taking advantage of someone's criminal negligence - the anti-torpedo network was not closed. However, they were destroyed in the harbor at night, a few hours before the attack. But due to incomprehensible delays and delays, the encryption of the night attack went to the headquarters only a few hours later, when only a few minutes remained before the attack.
Almost an hour before the attack began, a Hawaii radar spotted Japanese aircraft. However, senior officers did not react to information about unknown aircraft near the islands, probably mistaking them for American ones.
The timing for the attack was perfect. On Sunday morning, many sailors - airfield attendants, pilots, anti-aircraft gunners - were on leave. The fleet was virtually defenseless.
183 Japanese aircraft took part in the first wave of the attack: 100 bombers, 40 torpedo bombers and 43 cover fighters. Their main target was battleships - the largest and, as it was believed, the most dangerous enemy ships.
In the first minutes after the attack, confusion reigned, many people were not at the base, most of them at such an early hour were lifted from their beds and were now frantically rushing around the base, trying to do at least something. Realizing that there could be no question of any exercises and the fleet was attacked by the Japanese, Rear Admiral Furlong, who was at the base, ordered all ships to go to sea, where they would have room to maneuver.
But it was too late. Battleships, moored next to each other, were too easy targets for Japanese pilots who had practiced the situation many times in the exercises. Dive bombers and torpedo bombers attacked the ships, while high-altitude bombers and fighters struck two airfields containing several hundred American aircraft that did not have time to take off.
The most serious blow fell on the battleship Arizona, which, due to its location, turned out to be the most convenient target. The first bombs fell on him, even when the ship did not even have time to announce the alarm. As a result, it was simply riddled with hits from at least eight bombs and at least two torpedoes. Half of all the Americans who died that day fell on the battleship's crew - only 400 of the 1,500 crew members were saved.
Having expended ammunition, the first wave returned to the aircraft carriers. Next came the second, slightly less numerous. 163 aircraft performed in the second wave of the attack. This time, the torpedo bombers did not participate, since the main targets were two airfields.
American planes were in line, next to each other, and were completely defenseless. It would take so much time to prepare for the flight that the Japanese would have carried out a dozen attacks during this period. Therefore, the pilots and service personnel had to remove machine guns from aircraft and try to scare off Japanese aircraft with this fire right from the ground. Of course, they could not cause serious damage by such actions. Therefore, on the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor, American aviation suffered even greater losses than the fleet. Only at one of the airfields, several aircraft were able to take off.
The attack ended two hours later with an incredible Japanese success. They sank two battleships, three more ran aground. Almost 200 aircraft were destroyed on the ground, and another one and a half hundred were seriously damaged. 2,403 Americans were killed. At the same time, the losses of the Japanese forces amounted to only 29 aircraft and five midget submarines. The personnel losses were also much more modest - only 64 people.
Alternative version
Still from the film Attack on Pearl Harbor. © kinopoisk.ru
After the war, the version that the American leadership deliberately exposed part of the fleet under attack in order to persuade American public opinion to the need for war became quite popular. In those years, most Americans held isolationist views, and the United States entered World War I only after the Germans sank the passenger liner Lusitania.
Several facts speak in favor of this conspiracy theory:
- the absence at the time of the attack of aircraft carriers - the most formidable weapon, which was the goal of the Japanese fleet. A few days before the attack, the aircraft carriers were prudently withdrawn from the bay and sent to other locations. Only battleships, in fact, already obsolete and senseless ships, were attacked;
- the amazing self-complacency of Americans, bordering on criminal negligence and sabotage. The ultra-small submarines were able to get into the harbor because someone forgot to close the anti-torpedo nets. Ships hunting for submarines that had entered the base reported this with a great delay, and their encryption arrived at headquarters only in the morning, although depth charges were dropped at night;
- the data of the radar station was ignored, which detected the approaching aircraft 50 minutes before the attack. In the end, on the evening before the attack, American intelligence managed to intercept the Japanese encryption, from which it became clear that the Japanese would declare war on December 7. But even despite this, combat readiness was not declared at the main naval base in Pearl Harbor, leaves and holidays were not canceled, and she was simply not ready to repel the attack.
At the same time, all this can be explained not so much by the insidious intention of the leadership, who decided to expose the whole fleet under attack, as by its underestimation of the enemy. The entire American military leadership was absolutely convinced that the main target of the Japanese would be the Philippines, without which the Japanese would not be able to effectively operate in the Pacific Ocean. And since the Americans were confident that the Japanese would not be able to conduct two powerful offensive operations with the participation of the fleet at the same time, they firmly believed that the base on the Hawaiian Islands was not in danger.
Outcome
Photo: © ASSOCIATED PRESS / FOTOLINK
The American Pacific Fleet lost the ability to conduct serious operations for several months, which allowed the Japanese to launch a successful offensive in Asia. At first glance, it seems that the Japanese were able to achieve fantastic success, and the operation was successful. If we consider the attack on Pearl Harbor as a single battle, then it is: the Japanese achieved an undeniable and convincing victory. But more globally, the operation was not very successful.
The Japanese inflicted significant damage to battleships, but in the conditions of World War II, battleships without air support turned into an extremely vulnerable target and became essentially meaningless. Their century has passed, the era of aircraft carriers has come. But the Americans managed to save all their aircraft carriers, since on the day of the attack they were not in the harbor. Thus, the main strike force of the Americans was still functioning, and the task of crushing the fleet with one blow was not fulfilled.
In addition, the Japanese pilots concentrated all their forces on the attack of ships and airfields, completely forgetting about the oil depots. Pearl Harbor was one of the main bases for the Pacific Fleet, and large quantities of fuel were stored in local depots. The destruction of these stocks would cause even more damage to the fleet than the destruction of battleships, since ships without fuel cannot function. By that time, the Americans had not yet transferred the economy to a military track and were experiencing serious problems with the delivery of fuel to remote bases. The destruction of the oil tanks at the base would create for the Americans no less problems than the need to repair battleships. By the way, the Japanese also ignored the entire infrastructure of the base, not destroying it, which helped the Americans a lot.
Therefore, from a strategic point of view, the attack on Pearl Harbor was rather unsuccessful, albeit with some positive short-term effect. Instead of destroying the main base of the Pacific Fleet or making it impossible to operate for a long time, the Japanese focused their main attack on practically useless battleships. On the side of the Japanese was such an important factor as the surprise of the attack, and they could use this trump card with much greater benefit for themselves.
The Pearl Harbor effect lasted only for several months - already six months after the attack, the surviving American aircraft carriers defeated the Japanese fleet in the battle of Midway Atoll, sending four Japanese aircraft carrier ships to the bottom at once. After that, until the end of the war, the Japanese were deprived of the opportunity to conduct large-scale offensive operations and lost strategic initiative.
Author: Ev. Antonyuk Historian