Burton K Wheeler
Moderator
It’s ComNavOps. In my experience he’s a wrongheaded moron.
I definitely can't disagree with that.
It’s ComNavOps. In my experience he’s a wrongheaded moron.
*Please note that yes the US military would outnumber the defenders but the north side of the island was not nearly so well fortified and the amount of supplies available to the defenders comes into question. I think the US might try to regroup on Hawaii proper if they lost Oahu and the scenario of losing the island was discussed at the time.
I posted this not because I think it's a well-figured scenario but because I've never seen an actual Japanese invasion of Hawaii scenario.
Yeah, losing Oahu, or at least Pearl, is actually pretty plausible. The U.S. had two divisions present, but the third regiment of each was a half-formed Hawaii National Guard unit
The issue, of course, is where the troops and shipping come from and how this effects every other aspect of the Japanese plan. They'd have to build the idea of capturing Hawaii into the plans for Pearl Harbor starting in, at least, the 1930's. The plan was to knock the U.S. fleet out and therefore keep the U.S. out of a Pacific war, which an actual occupation of Hawaii would be counterproductive for.
There is also the issue of getting all of those (dozens in the scenario) slow moving transports across the Pacific, refueling all of the destroyers necessary for the operations (not the dozen or so needed for the Pearl Harbor raid) without getting detected and then sustaining a fleet off of Hawaii when the nearest Japanese bases in the Marshalls are over 2000 miles away, and those were not particularly built up bases for supporting major operations, they were more like outposts.I posted this not because I think it's a well-figured scenario but because I've never seen an actual Japanese invasion of Hawaii scenario.
Yeah, losing Oahu, or at least Pearl, is actually pretty plausible. The U.S. had two divisions present, but the third regiment of each was a half-formed Hawaii National Guard unit
The issue, of course, is where the troops and shipping come from and how this effects every other aspect of the Japanese plan. They'd have to build the idea of capturing Hawaii into the plans for Pearl Harbor starting in, at least, the 1930's. The plan was to knock the U.S. fleet out and therefore keep the U.S. out of a Pacific war, which an actual occupation of Hawaii would be counterproductive for.
The problem is that a December invasion attempt has to take place on the South shore as the North shore will have 6-12’ waves with some swells up to 30’. It is prime surfing season in Hawaii but not great invasion weather. And as noted earlier, the US coast defenses were strongest on the south shore. So it is not really plausible to have a successful landing in December 1941I posted this not because I think it's a well-figured scenario but because I've never seen an actual Japanese invasion of Hawaii scenario.
Yeah, losing Oahu, or at least Pearl, is actually pretty plausible. The U.S. had two divisions present, but the third regiment of each was a half-formed Hawaii National Guard unit
The issue, of course, is where the troops and shipping come from and how this effects every other aspect of the Japanese plan. They'd have to build the idea of capturing Hawaii into the plans for Pearl Harbor starting in, at least, the 1930's. The plan was to knock the U.S. fleet out and therefore keep the U.S. out of a Pacific war, which an actual occupation of Hawaii would be counterproductive for.
The problem is that a December invasion attempt has to take place on the South shore as the North shore will have 6-12’ waves with some swells up to 30’. It is prime surfing season in Hawaii but not great invasion weather. And as noted earlier, the US coast defenses were strongest on the south shore. So it is not really plausible to have a successful landing in December 1941