Lately stuck on WW2 history.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Again, watching a documentary on WW2. I just found out that radar caught the Japanese fighters planes on radar at Pearl Harbor, BUT dismissed it as scheduled American bombers coming in....... Talk about FUCK ME! Imagine what a blow it would have been to the Japanese fleet if they had taken the radar seriously and not dismissed it and defeated the raid?

Bear in mind:
A) The US had only just started using RADAR, having been given access to the technology by Britain the previous year. They probably didn't have much idea how to use it properly or much faith in its effectiveness.

We actually had a former Eagle Squadron leader helping the Fleet learn how to use radar. He was seconded to the Army to help them set up the Air Information Center that would, eventually, coordinate the air defense of Oahu. Things were running behind because the Public Works officer had refused to release the finished building to the Air Corps.

B) There were actually a shocking number of warning signs that the government ignored, up to and including a war game in 1932 where Fleet Admiral Harry Yarnell managed to take Pearl Harbor in the same way that the Japanese would nine years later, going in the same direction, using the same persistent cloud bank, and even starting his attack on a Sunday the Seventh. If he used real bombs and bullets, things probably would have been worse than the actual attack. And even after Vice Admiral Ernest King managed to repeat the same tactic with the same results in 1938, things didn't change.

The IJN was not known to have the capacity or skills to refuel at sea, so a round trip to Pearl wasn't considered likely. They had a lot of trouble getting the job done as it was.

Any other "shocking" things you want to discuss?