The Attack on Pearl Harbor, 79 Years Ago

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
Time Ghost History channel on Youtube, with the same host Indy Neidell of Great War fame and currently hosting the Youtube channel World War Two which covers the Second World War week by week along with many other specials finally released yesterday a five hour Pearl Harbor special spread out across ten half hour episodes. Much of this includes minute by minute coverage of the Pearl Harbor attack itself, as well as covering the context of the leadup to the conflict, the ships and planes involved, and the immediate aftermath of the attack as well as concurrent attacks across Asia and the Pacific upon other American, British and Allied possessions. They even cooperated with World of Warships in with many of the cinematics they used in the video series. There's also narrations of eyewitnesses of the conflict and other material used to flesh out the whole attack in this massive special project of theirs.

Check out the full ten episode playlist:



Also... for a less ambitious watching project, two years ago the Military Youtube channel Montemayor released a very comprehensive coverage of the Pearl Harbor attack itself in a video that surprisingly is just under 18 minutes long.

 

ReggieLedoux

Well-known member
Yeah, truly hard to overstate just how bad WW1 wrecked France, Russia (for obvious October reasons), Germany, the Balkans, Austria, Belgium, Hungary and Turkey (tho less so, thanks to the allies recognising the Turkish government as not a continuation of the Ottoman empire). France lost almost an entire generation to the point that they were still feeling the population crisis in 1939 (Spanish Flu can also be thanked for that), Germany... Well, you know how that goes, Hyperinflation, constant civil unrest, Nazis. Austria lost everything, and was denied even a chance to be a part of Germany, knocking them down from world power to a backwater in just four years. Hungary lost... Pretty much most of its land and people. Russia was plunged into a horrific civil war that didn't end for years and what came after wasn't much better for them, the nations states that found themselves newly liberated had a massive job just forming a cohesive identity and government.

The only "winners" (and even that is an exaggeration) is Britain, who didn't lose nearly as much as the other participants and got a free hand to carve up the Middle East, which will totally never backfire on them, and the USA, who finally got out of their isolationist stupidity... Only to jump onto Prohibition, but hey.

Anyway, like Indy Neidell's series, both of them, great background listening while doing a job or housework or whatever.
 

CarlManvers2019

Writers Blocked Douchebag
It was a terrible thing and the loss of life is truly sad, but also credit where due, it was ballsy as fuck to try pull off a raid like that. Sure they screwed the follow up, but that was serious skill on the part of the pilots and junior crew

They had a culture that encouraged Kamikaze’s and executed “cowards” even post-industrialization
 

Harlock

I should have expected that really
They had a culture that encouraged Kamikaze’s and executed “cowards” even post-industrialization

They were probably the best trained, best led, best equipped and most motivated naval aviators to ever live. No offence to the USN guys later that same war, or the RN guys who flew into Taranto or attacked the Bismarck in a massive storm, but the Kido Butai was legendary. These aren't the poor bastards sent to faceplant on US Carriers in 1945, these guys were as good as it gets.

Which is why they should be honoured, and why we should also remember that they still lost. Curbstomping an army of mooks is just doing a job, there's no glory in it. Defeating the best of the best in a fair and even fight though, that is something to be proud of. These guys forced the US to bring their best, and in the end they did.
 

Vargas Fan

Head over heels in love :)
I suppose it's something else you can blame Britain for considering they modelled some aspects of the attack on Taranto but on a far larger more ambitious scale. It can't also be underestimated that the Japanese torpedoes were damned good.

One question though, I know they put wooden fins on their torps to get past the torpedo nets, but if this is the correct way to phrase it, how exactly did that work?

It also seems that Admiral Husband Kimmel has still officially got the blame for a lot of what happened with desktop warriors saying that the US had been warned about Pearl. The line I've heard is that the US was warned that it was 'likely' that 'somewhere' would be attacked soon but with no specifics and considering there were multiple possible targets...well...
 

PsihoKekec

Swashbuckling Accountant
I suppose it's something else you can blame Britain for considering they modelled some aspects of the attack on Taranto but on a far larger more ambitious scale.
Also, the British helped the Japanese to establish their naval aviation after the WWI and helped trained their first carrier crews.

It also seems that Admiral Husband Kimmel has still officially got the blame for a lot of what happened with desktop warriors saying that the US had been warned about Pearl.
It goes hand in hand with belief that Roosevelt knew the attack was coming, because USA cryptographs were able to read the Japanese messages a year later. USA knew something was going to happen, but the fleet attack on Pearl Harbor was inconceivable to them, they simply couldn't believe Japanese were capable of something like it and it didn't help that the Japanese did it on logistical margins that would be simply unacceptable to American planners.
USN expected the main blow to fall on the Philippines, with sabotage by agents within Japanese community on Hawaii seeking to delay the American response. So the first priority was guarding against the sabotage, second was maintaining regular preparedness and third was defense against conventional attack, for which they didn't have enough light units (mostly patrol aircraft) and for which Kimmel was constantly pestering Washington. Not to mention that the move to the more exposed Pearl Harbor was forced upon the Navy by the Roosevelt, giving additional impetus to handing the public a scapegoat.
 

ReggieLedoux

Well-known member
WRT British helping the Japanese with their naval aviation, Britain and Japan had long been pretty strong allies in the region, and strong trade partners, so it's not that surprising they helped them. And yeah, sailing a carrier fleet all the way across the Pacific while at invading seemingly everywhere else in the south pacific is almost inconceivable.
 

Vargas Fan

Head over heels in love :)
WRT British helping the Japanese with their naval aviation, Britain and Japan had long been pretty strong allies in the region, and strong trade partners, so it's not that surprising they helped them. And yeah, sailing a carrier fleet all the way across the Pacific while at invading seemingly everywhere else in the south pacific is almost inconceivable.

Well Britain did help a lot with design of Japans pre-Dreadnoughts, in fact many still being built in Britain and I believe their first Dreadnought was at least partially built in Britain.

There's no doubt it was a gutsy move, yet most of the Battleships were repaired and refloated with the exception of Arizona, Oklahoma and Utah, the last having been downgraded to a training vessel.

It would have been a far greater loss if there had been any of the carriers there, but even then there were still large parts of the US fleet deployed to the mainland or the Atlantic.
 

The Mandarin

Claim, Assert, Dominate.
It was a terrible thing and the loss of life is truly sad, but also credit where due, it was ballsy as fuck to try pull off a raid like that. Sure they screwed the follow up, but that was serious skill on the part of the pilots and junior crew

You have to admire Admiral Yamamoto, who admitted the act began dishonorable by the failure of diplomats and resolved to fight to the end knowing he was facing an enemy who would be too filled with fury and shame to negotiate. Admire it even though it was suicide.
 

Harlock

I should have expected that really
While I don't think Japan expected a clean win they did believe that they could wreck the USN badly enough to secure a negotiated settlement. They were big believers in the decisive battle doctrine and expected a massive ship to ship showdown that they would of course win.
Then they try to get a settlement before US industry can replace the lost warships and gear up for round two.

Unfortunately it didn't predict exactly how fast the US would mobilise, that the USN wouldn't conveniently sail into an uneven battle, and just how pissed off they had made everyone :p

They had some great tools, high quality gear and people, their cruiser and destroyer groups were also remarkable but it took a lot of time to make them that good. Once they were gone they were gone
 

The Mandarin

Claim, Assert, Dominate.
I think Yamamoto knew, but he wanted to batter the Americans hard enough to force them to the peace table, so they could let the US and Germany fight it out. Japan was somewhat dependent on American oil and really dependent on American steel, I don't believe the plan was to defeat them so much as "knock sense into them".
 

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