I guess you forgot about Pearl Harbor. Originally Posted by Tigbitties38
Nope. as we all know .. Pearl Harbor was a sneak attack. the US Navy in wartime conditions has never had a major naval battle end in decisive loss.
actually since you took the Pearl Harbor bait as expected, the attack on Pearl Harbor was not supposed to be a pure sneak attack. goes against all that Samurai code nonsense. in the days leading up to Dec 7th the Japanese embassy was receiving a document in parts that was supposed to be delivered to the White House on Dec 7th at 2 pm EST exactly by the Japanese ambassador.
the document was not a declaration of war. it was a formal letter breaking off diplomatic relations with the US. it was supposed to be delivered just before the attack began. they fucked up and didn't get the last critical page translated into English in time.
Pearl Harbor was a failure of US intel and assessment, in a peacetime setting but with known tensions between the US and Japan. General Marshall and the chief of the Navy should have assessed the situation and had the US pacific fleet on patrol, not sitting in Pearl Harbor. Marshall did advise Gen. Short and Adm. Kimmel of rising tensions but did not order the fleet out to patrol or the Army Air Corps on high alert.
if Marshall had done that, Pearl Harbor would have been vastly different. first, the bulk of the fleet would be on patrol and not caught at anchor. second, air patrols would have spotted the attack force before they reached Pearl Harbor. without the element of surprise the Japanese attack would have been far less effective, and it's possible that the US fleet with one or more carriers at sea and the battleships with them could have defeated the Japanese force.
the US did in fact detect the attack. the Army had just installed a radar post in Hawaii and it was operational on Dec 7th. the operators detected a large group heading toward Pearl Harbor but mistook the group for a scheduled flight of a B-17 squadron due to arrive at the air base at Pearl. two problems ... first the radar showed the force approaching from the west where the B-17s coming from the mainland would be coming in from the east. and the timing was wrong, it was 8 am and the B-17s weren't scheduled to arrive until that afternoon. if the operators had realized this and alerted the Navy and Army Air Corps yet again Pearl Harbor could have been vastly different.