68 years ago today the Imperial Japanese Navy achieved one of the greatest tactical victories in the history of naval warfare when it decimated the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
Paradoxically, this victory was a strategic error of biblical proportions as it dragged the vengeful USA into a war in which, given American industrial might, was only ever going to have one winner.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was superbly executed and resulted in the destruction or disablement of 8 American dreadnought battleships but crucially did not result in the loss of the 3 Hawaii based Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers which were at sea on 7th December.
The Japanese victory also proved that the aircraft carrier had become the new “capital ship” of the world's navies and confirmed the obsolescence of the dreadnoughts which were largely relegated to secondary shore bombardment and air defence roles for the rest of the war.
The successful British attack on the Italian Fleet at Taranto in 1940 had indicated that aircraft carriers would be the dominant naval asset in the future.
Pearl Harbor confirmed this and perhaps the final “nail in the coffin” of the dreadnought would come only 3 days later when on 10th December 1941 the Japanese would sink the British ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse whilst they were underway in the South China Sea
Of the 8 American battleships at Pearl Harbor 6 were ultimately repaired and resumed service.
Only USS Arizona and USS Oklahoma were beyond repair – the Arizona famously sank at it's moorings following the detonation of a forward magazine and its wreck, with over 1100 of the crew entombed within, remains at Pearl Harbour to this day.
The Oklahoma rolled over following multiple torpedo strikes, was eventually righted but was deemed beyond repair. She eventually sank in the Pacific whilst under tow to the breakers.
In passing, it is worth mentioning that the wreck of the “target battleship” USS Utah also remains at Pearl Harbor.
The Utah had been stripped of its armament and armour as a result of the 1930 London Navy Treaty and by 1941 was primarily used as a radio controlled mobile target.
Although The Utah is often forgotten, its wreck was left in situ and still contains the remains of many of the 58 men of the crew who were killed in action on 7th December 1941.
In October 1944 5 of the 6 surviving battleships from Pearl Harbor, USS West Virginia, USS California, USS Pennsylvania, USS Maryland and USS Tennessee, formed the American line of battle at Surigao Strait where occurred the last battleship on battleship action in history.
This was a resounding American victory resulting in 2 Japanese battleships (Fuso and Yamashiro) and several smaller vessels being destroyed.
As a final aside, it isn't widely known that one of the surviving ships from Pearl Harbor was the cruiser USS Phoenix.
In 1982, after being sold to the Argentinean navy and renamed General Belgrano, this vessel was finally sunk by the Royal Navy during the Falklands War
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a calculated gamble by the Japanese which, in hindsight, has be considered as one of the worst misjudgements in military history.
