WI: Maximally Effective Pearl Harbor attack?

Zheng He is correct that the Japanese were pretty much locked into carrying out the offensives that had already been planned. But I would think that there would be no Midway type battle until later on. The Saratoga was torpedoed attempting to rendezvous with the Enterprise no Enterprise no rendezvous. The problem is how quickly can reinforcements arrive from the Atlantic Ocean. The navy could send the Yorktown and Wasp both were fully operational. As for the Hornet she was just starting to workup in the OTL she did not got to the Pacific until march. You might be able to slice off some of the time but not much that is if you want a trained crew on board the Hornet. As for the Ranger I don't know if the navy would be willing to risk her in the Pacific. So the harassment attacks that the American carrier engaged in and so annoyed the Japanese would not happen until later. Doolittle Raid would not happen, so Yamamoto would not be so able to force a Midway operation down the throats of the rest of Japanese High Command. But Coral Sea would still be likely to happen.
 
I still say the tank farm is a poor target, compared with something, like, say, the torpedo stores.
Is it possible that destroying the torpedo stores actually helps the USN? If this means it needs to mass produce new ones for the submarine fleet might it have to revert to a simpler but workable design than the OTL version that failed to work?

:confused:

Though I suppose the torpedo mafia would still want their baby so maybe that's too optimistic.

:frown:
 
Is it possible that destroying the torpedo stores actually helps the USN? If this means it needs to mass produce new ones for the submarine fleet might it have to revert to a simpler but workable design than the OTL version that failed to work?
True, but building up a stock again will take time. Also, I would assume that it would knock out only the Hawaii torpedo stocks, so there might be enough left on the West Coast, to allow them to sort-or-operate while building up store of unfortunately faulty torpedoes.

Though I suppose the torpedo mafia would still want their baby so maybe that's too optimistic.
Yes, plus with the Mark 13s, there is no older alternative.

Also, other targets would include the dry-docks, materials storage facilities and command buildings.
 
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Zheng He is correct that the Japanese were pretty much locked into carrying out the offensives that had already been planned. But I would think that there would be no Midway type battle until later on. The Saratoga was torpedoed attempting to rendezvous with the Enterprise no Enterprise no rendezvous. The problem is how quickly can reinforcements arrive from the Atlantic Ocean. The navy could send the Yorktown and Wasp both were fully operational. As for the Hornet she was just starting to workup in the OTL she did not got to the Pacific until march. You might be able to slice off some of the time but not much that is if you want a trained crew on board the Hornet. As for the Ranger I don't know if the navy would be willing to risk her in the Pacific. So the harassment attacks that the American carrier engaged in and so annoyed the Japanese would not happen until later. Doolittle Raid would not happen, so Yamamoto would not be so able to force a Midway operation down the throats of the rest of Japanese High Command. But Coral Sea would still be likely to happen.

Regarding Hornet and Wasp, an option they have is to use surviving aircrew (depending on the circumstances of their sinking) from CV-2 and CV-6 to fly from them, and to a point same goes for ship crew. So possibly Hornet could be a tad more effective compared to OTL. But imo, if Saratoga is not torpedoed and Nimitz has all four operational in spring 1942 they might still carry the Tokyo raid, with potentially dire consequences for Coral Sea and especially Midway.
 
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