Pearl Harbor was (and is) a very shadow harbor, in fact the Japanese had to design and train their pilots in the use of special shadow operating torpedos for the attack (and many of the torpedos still became stuck in the mud of the Harbor).
Thus the Japanese and the US knew that any attack in Pearl would only provide about six months of Naval Superiority to the Japanese fleet. In fact the US by shifting battleships from the Atlantic and patching some of the less damaged ships had made the US Battleship Fleet by February 1942 only ONE battleship shy of its pre-Pearl Harbor strength. On December 7, 1941 the US had only 8 battleships in the Pacific, it lost two (The Arizona and the Oklahoma AND DID NOT LOSE A SINGLE ADDITIONAL BATTLESHIP FOR THE DURATION OF THE WAR). On March 1st 1942 the US Pacific Fleet had 7 Battleships.
Of the Battleships SEVERELY DAMAGED in the attack three were re-floated and repaired and updated after December 7, 1941:
West Virginia, Re-floated on May 17, 1942, back in Service July 1944
Nevada, Re-floated by April 1942, sent for repairs on the West Coast, Back in Service by May 1943
California Re-entered Service January 1944
Three Battleships were only slightly damaged and stayed on duty (Through off the West Coast not Pearl after December 7, 1941):
Pennsylvania,
Maryland,
Tennessee
These were Joined by the USS Colorado who had been undergoing repairs on the West Coast during December 7, 1941 and the following Ships from the Atlantic Fleet:
New Mexico
Mississippi
Idaho
Thus by February 1942 the US had 7 battleships in the Pacific, compared to the December 7, 1941 number of 8 . This would go down as these WWI era Battleships were withdrawn from Service to be rebuilt, but this was off-set by the North Carolina joining the Pacific Fleet in June 1942 (The USS North Carolina was the First Battleship built by the US since 1920 under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty).
Japan on December 1941 only had 9 Battleships(Plus the Yamoto, which was only completed in October 1941 and the only post-Washington treaty Battleship in the Japanese Navy in 1941). Excluding the Yamoto, the Japanese Fleet was equal to the US Fleet before Pearl Harbor (If you include the Colorado which was being repaired) and Superior to the US Fleet by one Battleship by February 1942 (Two Battleships if you include the Yamato). The problem for the Japanese is the Japanese Fleet only received two Additions battleships during WWII, the first being the Yamato in October 1941, a Second in 1942 with a proposed third Battleship being completed as a Carrier in 1943/44).
After Pearl Harbor the US still had ALL of its Carriers but only the Lexington, Enterprise and Saratoga in the Pacific. These would be joined by the Yorktown and Hornet after Pearl Harbor (Leaving the much smaller, Wasp and Ranger in the Atlantic).
The US Pacific Fleet would lose the Lexington during the Battle of the Carol Sea and the Yorktown during Midway and the Hornet later in 1942. These losses were a concern but by then the Essex Class of Fleet Carriers were ready to come on line (The Essex itself was Commissioned on 31 Dec 1942) as where the North Dakota class of Battleships (The North Carolina come on line in 1941 with the Iowa to come on line in 1944).
As to the Japanese Carriers, they would lose four in Midway and one at the Coral Sea, but these Five Carriers could NOT be replaced and the US was already by December 1941 in the middle of the build up of the US Fleet. By 1945 the US would have had 73 Carriers (Mostly Escort Carriers, but 20 Essex Class Fleet Carriers were built by the end of 1945). Thus by 1943 the Japanese had Clearly lost whatever advantage they gained by Pearl Harbor. The North Carolina Class of Battleship were in Action, the North Dakota Class was coming on line and the Iowa Class would be in action by 1944 (And had the Yamoto Class of Japanese Battleship be more of a threat the Montana Class would have been completed in 1946).
By Mid-1942 the Japanese were at the end of their Supply lines, having done all they could do given the six months of Superiority after Pearl Harbor. Midway was an attempt by the Japanese to destroy the US Fleet on the high sea where it could NOT be re-floated. Instead the Japanese Fleet went down and with it any hope of Japanese Victory in the Pacific. During Planning of the Pearl harbor Attack it was calculated by the Japanese Navy it would give them six months to attack, and it did but at the end of that Six months the Japanese were finished even before Midway (basically do to BOTH the recovery of the Older Battleships but also do to the new Battleships and Carriers the US had coming on line that the Japanese could NOT match).
Thus as you can see the biggest problem for the Japanese is that since the US Fleet was destroyed IN HARBOR, the ships could be (and were) Quickly repaired. Of the Three Severely damaged that extensive repairs were needed, they were back in service within two years. With the Addition of the Yamoto, the Japanese already had Battleship naval Superiority (in addition to Carrier Superiority) prior to Pearl Harbor. The Shifting of US Naval Forces from the Atlantic to the Pacific undercut most of this Superiority by February 1942, and the sinking of Four Japanese Carriers at Midway undid the rest.
Now the US Navy had concerns about the situation in the Pacific, but did not transfer its most modern Battleship to the Pacific till JUNE 1942 (Keeping it in the Atlantic to track down German Raiders). The sister ship of that Battleship was kept in the Atlantic during the same time period. The main reason for this was the Ocean Conditions in the North Atlantic and the South Pacific, with the South Pacific given to more sunny days than the North Atlantic and thus more days for air operations, while the Atlantic do to its worse weather was still more a Battleship battle field (As was the area of the West Indies and the Philippines Sea where the last Battleships to Battleship battles were fought). Both sides were reluctant to operate their carriers in such tight waters, but were willing to risk their battleships.
This same bad weather, tight operating area, air cover from ground base aircraft was the chief factor is the reason the Battleship won the first Battleship - Carrier battle where in early 1940 the German Ships the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sunk the British Carrier Glorious. While Carriers were more and more important during WWII, even after WWII the US Navy wanted to keep US Battleships around their Carriers just in case a enemy Battleship would reach the Carrier line.
Anyway, if you look at the numbers, the US Defeat at Pearl Harbor was NOT a complete defeat it is often see as. The main reason is that the ships could be raised from the short depths and put back into service relativity quickly. In fact the three Ships Severely damaged and recovered after Pearl Harbor sailed to their repair docks on the West Coast UNDER THEIR OWN POWER. Had the US really been desperate they could have been called out for duty during Midway (like the Yorktown had been). Instead the US decided to fight Midway as a Carrier fight and run away from any surface battle. The US was more willing to lose Midway Island than the US Carriers, thus the Placement of the Carriers so they could run to the West Coast if actually threatened. Midway was a Battle the Japanese had to win, while the US could lose the battle. Thus the difference in how both side approached the battle and why the US could fight a Carrier battle and send its Battleships to the West Coast for repairs.
During the Battle for Guadalcanal the US had to stand and fight, thus the last Battleship to sink another Battleship occurred during Guadalcanal. In 1944 during a Night Operation the US decided to fight another surface battle for the same reason and here the old battleships "Sunk" at Pearl came back to win the battle. The US kept its old WWI battleships till the late 1950s when it became obvious that at 40 years of age they needed extensive repairs or scarping (They were scraped). These ships were seen as having served they county well.
Thus the "Ghosts" of Pearl Harbor came back to help win WWII, this was a combination of people working together to get them patched enough to sail and the fact it was easier to repair them then to build completely new ships to replace them. One of the reason these ships were repaired was the severe Steel shortage of WWII. This shortage was so severe the US Navy agree to stop the construction of its Yamoto Killers, the Montana Class of Battleships so that Steel could be used to build more Carriers and other Weapons that could be used in 1943-1945 (The Montana class could not be finished till 1946 at the earliest). Given this Steel Shortage and the need for some sort of Big guns when it came to the island operations of the last two years of the War, the old Battleships were repaired, updated and sent back to battle.
HMS Glorious:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_GloriousUS Naval Losses during WWII:
http://www.navsource.org/Naval/losses.htm#bb Japanese Imperial Navy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Japanese_Navyhttp://www.friesian.com/kongo.htm#navyUS Carriers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_of_the_United_States_NavyUS Battleships:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battleships_of_the_United_States_Navy
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
