WI Japan attacked both Pearl Harbor and the Panama Canal on Dec. 7 1941?
The first and most obvious problem is logistics...
Just for the sake of arguement the Japanese rig a frieght ship as it passes through the canal to explode.
I'd assume that since the threat of war against Japan was more imminent than the threat of war against Germany, so the lion's share of the USN would be on the Pacific side of the USA.
So Japan would be shooting themselves in the foot a bit by removing the USA's ability to restation its fleets away from Japan, no?
Google " Texas City Explosion" and imagine if that ship had gone up in one of the locks of the Canal, or look up "Halifax Nova Scotia Explosion". Either going off in a lock are going to close the Canal.How could Japan have gotten any ships to Panama undetected? They got to Hawaii by sailing north along a rarely used shipping lane. To get to Panama, they'd have to get to the lanes near the Ecuator, which are heavily traveled. If they'd sailed south past Australia, they would have been detected by either U.S. forces in the Philippines or by Australian forces, who would have notified US Naval Command. If they sailed north, they'd have to skirt North America. The IJN did use submarine aircraft carriers, but the first one wasn't finished until late December 1944. In 1941, I just don't see how the Japanese Navy could have gotten any kind of ship close enough to Panama and still inflict effective damage.
Just for the sake of arguement the Japanese rig a frieght ship as it passes through the canal to explode.
How could Japan have gotten any ships to Panama undetected? They got to Hawaii by sailing north along a rarely used shipping lane. To get to Panama, they'd have to get to the lanes near the Ecuator, which are heavily traveled. If they'd sailed south past Australia, they would have been detected by either U.S. forces in the Philippines or by Australian forces, who would have notified US Naval Command. If they sailed north, they'd have to skirt North America. The IJN did use submarine aircraft carriers, but the first one wasn't finished until late December 1944. In 1941, I just don't see how the Japanese Navy could have gotten any kind of ship close enough to Panama and still inflict effective damage.
Well I was saying like a shipping vessel explodes in the canal. Japan sent ships through the canal, as it was pretty much an international passage.
Don't they have some sort of inspection process before a ship goes through the canal? I would think they'd take some sort of precautions routinely as the locks are so vulnerable.