"Shattered Sword". Kido Butai was short of fighters, dive- and torpedo bombers.
@Bearcat: Yes, but that is not just the best thing you could do with the B-17 but the only. And I don´t think Zeros would have been a major problem, they were grounded too and poor performers above 20,000ft anyway.
Right on both counts.
The JNAF suffered terrible losses almost from the onset of the war. While the losses in shot down aircraft at Pearl was low, with only 27 aircraft failing to return, the
Kido Butai also had to write off ~50 other aircraft due to battle damage (the exact number differ from source to source, but 50 is a good average) so actual mission loss was near 80, mostly in D3A and B5N wings, ~20 mission killed at Darwin with an additional 35+ aircraft were lost, including mission kills, in the IO raids, over 150. including mission kills, at Coral Sea, and of course, 248 at Midway. That represents nearly 500 IJN front line aircraft, or almost 100 more planes than the
Kido Butai brought to Pearl Harbor.
What is considerably worse is the reality that most of the aircraft lost by the USN and Commonwealth (primarily Australian & British) were at the end of their tether in any case. The loss of pilots was tragic for all sides, but the destruction of F2A or TBD in battle meant very little as far as material since these aircraft were already on borrowed time as far as their service life. The Japanese lost aircraft that they continued to use, in slightly improved form, all the way to the end of the war. Japanese losses were front line, leading edge designs while Allied losses were mainly obsolescent. Pilot losses were far lower than platform losses on both sides, but even there the U.S. was able to make up losses with vastly greater effectiveness than the Japanese.
The second fact is that, if MacArthur had allowed his Air Commander to launch against the well known IJN & IJA air bases immediately after the attack on Pearl became known (using a pretty well designed pre-set attack option), the B-17's would have caught the entire Japanese air package on the ground. The fog had lifted, but the attacks did not launch for some time after the skies cleared. The fog, in fact, cleared exactly when the it would have afforded the Americans the maximum advantage. The weather that December 8th was a gift to the U.S. from Mars, but MacArthur spurned the God of War.
That, of course, was only his first, most obvious act of utter stupidity. His force deployments, orders, and logistical decisions were, as noted, even worse (my personal favorite was burning what, in the circumstances that actually occurred on Bataan, would have been around 3 months worth of rice for EVERYONE trapped on the Peninsula because he didn't think to move it).
There are a lot of very controversial theories about why MacArthur did what he did in the early days of the war. His actions were at odds with the strategic sense he displayed later (even if they were in total line with his disregard for the lives of his troops) to a degree that is remarkable. Some of the theories lean into conspiracy land and would, without doubt, start a flame war, if posted here, and even I, who heartily despise the man only half believe them, although the evidence is tending to push to the Hmmm side of the question. Anyone who really wants to find out why I hate 'ol Doug shouldn't have much trouble finding them.