(October 15, 2023 at 1:36 pm)LinuxGal Wrote: Nevertheless 68 civilians were killed. The real tactical mistake was on Admiral Nagumo for withdrawing his fleet without a third wave to take out the oil tank farm.
I doubt they could have. The vast majority of their bombs were 551-lb, and only some of those were SAP, which would have been needed to penetrate the metal roofs of the tanks. The 1760-lb converted armor-piercing shells (of which not many were left, most had been expended in the first wave) had smaller explosive charges than even the 551-lb bombs, and with their armor-piercing weight and profile, likely wound have buried themselves bellow the tanks before exploding. Their 100-lb explosive charge isn't going to do much to the the 7000 - 21000
tons of fuel, oil, diesel, and other POLs that would have tamped that explosion down, though the tanks would probably spring some leaks.
(October 15, 2023 at 1:36 pm)LinuxGal Wrote: The strategic mistake of Japan was thinking the war depended on battleships. Someone had the foresight to pull the American carriers out to sea before the Pearl Harbor attack and we all know what happened later at Coral Sea and Midway.
The Japanese were specifically after the carriers, and had already reorganized their fleet such that their six biggest carriers were grouped as
Kido Butai (roughly, "Mobile Force"), while their Combined Fleet with its battleships often swung at anchor and contributed very little the first eight or so months. KdB did virtually all the heavy lifting because Yamamoto, CinC Combined Fleet, was very air-minded.
The American carriers were absent for the following reasons:
1)
Saratoga on the West Coast, undergoing refit
2)
Lexington delivering Vultee dive-bombers to Midway
3)
Enterprise returning from Wake after delivering VMF 221 to Wake Island. Had the Big E not been slowed down by heavy weather forcing the refueling of destroyers, she would have been in harbor the morning of the attack and in targeting priorities, carriers were #1 for the Japanese.
Even Ray Charles could see that war was coming soon, so the flattops were busy delivering warplanes. As much as the Americans valued battleships, you'd think that same "foresight" would've seen them moved elsewhere too.