Not surprisingly there have been very few wars that have been announced before they began.
The 14th Part was not a declaration of war, tho it's commonly called one. All it did was break of negotiations.
Really? Were radio transmitters not powerful enough? It wouldn't have been long enough to (say) call up off-base soldiers, but couldn't the message have at least been gotten to Pearl Harbor?In any case, had the ultimatum been delivered say 30 minutes before the attack as planned, it would have made no difference - PH could not have been alerted
Really? Were radio transmitters not powerful enough? It wouldn't have been long enough to (say) call up off-base soldiers, but couldn't the message have at least been gotten to Pearl Harbor?
Untrue, the vast majority of wars have been preceded by a declaration and a long period of negotiation and dispute. WW2 was unique in the respect that countries (Mostly the Axis) adopted a new doctrine of gaining strategic surprise in the initial period of war.
When the actual message was translated by American codebreakers, an alert to Hawaii had to be sent by Western Union telegraph, because of atmosphere conditions.
Because of a comedy of errors (bad handwriting, not paying for priority transmission, etc.) the message didn't arrive at Pearl until after the first wave had finished.
For the sake of arguement lets say that the warning is such that there is just enough time to scramble the fleet out of pearl harbor into some manner of formation, spread planes out of close clusters on the airfields and launch CAP.
Probably the smartest way to start a war. Never made much sense to me to basically announce you're coming to kick the door in.
I'd want to see the look on the guy's face at Pearl recieving that message.
Captain: "Alright, I want more fighters in the air now and get the women and children..."
Sailor: "Captain! Priority message from Washington."
Captain: *grabs note*
ATTENTION JAPANESE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR IMMINENT *STOP*
*Looks outside at burning everything*
Captain:"Join the Navy they said..."
Probably the smartest way to start a war. Never made much sense to me to basically announce you're coming to kick the door in.
For the sake of arguement lets say that the warning is such that there is just enough time to scramble the fleet out of pearl harbor into some manner of formation, spread planes out of close clusters on the airfields and launch CAP.
OTL the Japanese intended to declare war on the US just hours before the Pearl Harbor attack but due to some technical problems this did not happen.
What impact would there be if the Japanese DoW had been delivered on time as planned?
The same Kimmel who wasn't getting Ultra? The same Kimmel who no more guessed Pearl was a target than the Intel weenies in DC who had Purple & J-19 & still didn't guess? The same Kimmel who wan't actually responsible for the defense of the damn base?Dirk_Pitt said:If you have Kimmel get his head out of his ass and realize that Pearl was the target
Yes, had Kimmel sortied, it could have been a total damn massacre.Dirk_Pitt said:you could have a much less one-sided battle