Gentlemen,
––I’m marking this discussion so I whenever I get home I can reference a couple of excellent books on the above subject.
For most of my life, until reading some excellent books, I had also had thought that Nagumo should have ordered a third strike against Pearl Harbor’s above ground fuel tanks and workshops.
–After all,…Nagumo was assigned to command of the strike force by SENIORITY, not merit,…and Yamamoto was against his appointment because he felt him to lack aggressiveness.
----Anyway, back to my point. A third strike PROBABLY couldn’t have destroyed a large percentage of the above ground fuel tanks.
–Even if they had destroyed 100% of the above ground fuel tanks,…the U.S. Navy already had a secret huge below ground tank farm in place, and a large percentage was already in operation. The story concerning the vulnerability of the above ground storage tanks was purposely leaked as propaganda to deflect any interest away from the secret below ground tanks.
–Also,…it was shown that there was an over-abundance of repair capacity in Hawaii,…and it wasn’t only concentrated in the navy shops at Pearl Harbor,…but scattered all over the island,…therefore no more than a small percentage of it was capable of being destroyed by a third attack on the naval base.
–Another “item” that should be included here is that the stated main objective in Yamamoto’s plan was to sink 4 Battleships, as this was thought to have the most “shock” impact on the military and civilians alike,….and also to sink as many American carriers as possible.
----As I said,…I’ll find these books and post their titles. They explain a lot. Pearl Harbor is the most fascinating of many WW2-Pacific conflicts for me,…and I’ve read 60+ books on the subject. Even the “revisionist” and “conspiracy” histories that try to bend history and facts to support their predetermined agendas. I feel the facts should lead to theories/opinions,…not the other way around.
“Tall Paul”