Essay On The Attack On Pearl Harbor

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To what extent did the attack on Pearl Harbor impact the United States Navy The United States Navy was attacked by a surprise attack by the Japanese. The strength of each side was even but the United States got caught off guard. The United States had 8 battleships, 8 cruisers, 30 destroyers, 4 submarines, 49 other ships, and 390 planes. The Japanese had 6 aircraft carriers, 2 battleships, 2 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser, destroyers, 8 tankers, 23 fleet submarines, 5 midget submarines and 450 airplanes. As the attack progressed, the loses for each side were great. The loses for the U.S are. 4 battleships sunk 3 battleships damaged 1 battleship grounded 2 destroyers sunk 1 other ship sunk 3 cruisers damaged 1 destroyer damaged 3 other ships damaged 188 aircraft destroyed 155aircraft damaged 2,402 killed 1,247 wounded The Japanese lost all these units. 4 midget submarines sunk 1 midget submarine grounded 29 aircraft destroyed 64 killed 1 captured The attack had several major aims. First, it intended to destroy important American fleet units, thereby preventing the Pacific Fleet from interfering with Japanese conquest of the Dutch East Indies and Malaya. Second, it was hoped to buy…show more content…
A further important disadvantage—this of timing, and known to the Japanese—was the absence from Pearl Harbor of all three of the U.S. Pacific Fleet's aircraft carriers (Enterprise, Lexington, and Saratoga). Ironically, the IJN top command was so imbued with Admiral Mahan's "decisive battle" doctrine—especially that of destroying the maximum number of battleships—that, despite these concerns, Yamamoto decided to press
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