US Naval Ships that were at Pearl Harbor

[Surpmil]

Nice collection!!!

Where do you reckon the cancellation stamp for the Arizona ended up? Did Hoga YT-146 have a stamp? She's the last ship afloat from Pearl Harbor.

Bob

+1 : USCGC Taney - Wikipedia

[Peter Laidler]

What an amazing thread............

[Bob Womack]

+1 : USCGC Taney - Wikipedia

Okay, okay, the last NAVY ship.

Bob

[Surpmil]

This is the extent to which the Japanese went to prepare for the Pearl Harbor attack:

Painstaking execution of detail in both the model and the operation combined with a peculiar blindness to the overall strategic imperatives. Adm. Yamato we know was probably not fully committed to the operation in his own mind and perhaps others as well, but having decided to embark on war the only logical step was to immediately attack and occupy the Hawaiian Islands, thereby driving the US fleet back to the mainland of North America.

The less significant oversight was failing to follow up and destroy the carriers at all costs regardless of losses involved.

And of course to entrust your fate to code machines when they had all read Herbert O. Yardley's "American Black Chamber" is another mystery!

[Bob Womack]

One of the biggest oversights was the fuel tanks at Pearl. Had they bombed the fuel oil and diesel tanks it would have effectively shut down the port and forced evacuation of the fleet to the West Coast. However, the Japanese were obsessed with knocking out the capital ships and the carriers and overlooked the tank farms.

Bob

[Surpmil]

Given their lack of home supply and need to secure oil reserves that is a strange oversight indeed. Even if they had destroyed the tank farm, they would have had the difficult if not impossible task of blockading Pearl Harbour to prevent reconstruction or refueling direct from tankers brought into the harbour, and there would have been an all-out effort on both fronts presumably.

But then had they attacked only the "BCD" powers in S.E. Asia and not the USA, even FDR would have been very hard pressed to get America into the war, and they would have got the oil they needed from the then Dutch East Indies.

[Mk VII]

The Brooklyn-class cruiser USS Phoenix (CL-46) was also present at Pearl that day. Sold to Argentina in 1951, and modernised several times, she remained in service as General Belgrano until 1982, when she was torpedoed and sunk by the British Conqueror in the South Atlantic, the only surface warship so far to be sunk by a SSN.

[42rocker]

A lot of nice information.

Nice Ship covers! I normally just buy and sell Ship covers but, have a personal collection of USS Constitution event covers of her East and West Coast trips 1931 - 1935.

Later 42rocker

[Sapper740]

Here's an interesting and poignant 'tween wars photo taken from the deck of the USS Pennsylvania (BB-38). In order ahead of the USS Pennsylvania are USS Nevada (BB-36), USS Oklahoma (BB-37), and the USS Arizona (BB-39). The four ships suffered different fates on Dec. 7, 1941 with the USS Arizona and USS Oklahoma destroyed and sunk, the USS Nevada, despite being able to get under way was damaged and beached at Hospital Point, while the USS Pennsylvania survived the attack virtually unscathed in drydock.

[Surpmil]

The reality was they pretty out of date by that point and as the war subsequently showed, mostly good for shore bombardment. That being said, had the Japanese attempted to occupy the Hawaiin Island in 1941 they would have been vitally important for defence if only as floating batteries; which would also have been the best us of HMS Repulse and Prince of Wales in Malaya once it was known their accompanying aircraft carrier would not be present.