slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

DotsMan

Thanks for the reminder.
I saw a program on PBS recently. A camera crew had developed a robotic under water camera to explore the interior of the Arizona. (Divers are not allowed to go inside for safety sake plus the ship has been declared to be a naval cemetery.) I was stunned to see, in the video, an officer's uniform still h*****g on a hanger in his quarters. If you haven't seen it, search for it on PBS, you will be amazed.

I just did a little calculating, at the rate of nine quarts a day it will take another 350+ years for all that fuel oil to seep out of the tanks and to the surface.

Gatsby

An other key factor in the Pearl Harbor attack, that is seldom mentioned.

The planned third wave of the first attack, to destroy the "Tank Farms", the fuel supply for the Pacific Fleet, and aircraft, was aborted.

Had this been carried out, as originally planed, the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway may never have happened.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

Thanks for that additional info, Gatsby.

EN Submarine Qualified Loc: Wisconsin East coast

No. Impossible to calculate since no one knows how much fuel remained in the submerged ship when it sank. Plus over time the steel of the tanks will continue to corrode releasing wh**ever is left at an undetermined rate.
Thanks for the tip on PBS.

Gatsby

You're welcome Slat: Admiral Nagumo later wrote that the Americans acted so swiftly to re-establish the situation,

that he thought that the cost in lost aircraft would be prohibitive.

Clear proof of, and a high tribute to, the "Fighting Spirit of Americans" that day!

DotsMan

Amazingly that "Fighting Spirit" had land based B-17 bombers taking off from an aircraft carrier dropping bombs on Tokyo in just four months and eleven days. Good old "American Ingenuity" at work.

Gatsby

An excellent example of a "tactical failure", that was at the same time, a major "strategic success".

EN Submarine Qualified Loc: Wisconsin East coast

Oops. The planes taking off from the USS Lexington were B-25 Mitchells for the bombing run on Japan under Col James Doolittle. The planes were modified a little and the crews trained and practiced extensively at a shortened runway to be able to accomplish this. Carrier catapults would not handle a 2 engine B-25 much less a 4 engine B-17.
Needless to say, the Japs were surprised.
Additional info. When asked where the planes came from received the answer "Shangri-La". Later we actually named a new carrier USS Shangri-La.
The main thing was, yes we did do it.

badbobby Loc: texas

DotsMan
I believe it was B25 bombers taking off from aircraft carriers
the B17's were much too big and much too heavy to ever make airlift form the deck of an aircraft carrier of WW2
I am not belittling your post
just wanted to correct the B17 bit

badbobby Loc: texas

The Doolittle Raid, also known as the Tokyo Raid, on Saturday, April 18, 1942, was an air raid by the United States on the Japanese capital Tokyo and other places on the island of Honshu during World War II, the first air operation to strike the Japanese Home Islands. It demonstrated that the Japanese mainland was vulnerable to American air attack, served as retaliation for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and provided an important boost to American morale. The raid was planned and led by Lieutenant Colonel James "Jimmy" Doolittle of the United States Army Air Forces.
Sixteen B-25B Mitchell medium bombers were launched without fighter escort from the U.S. Navy's aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8) deep in the Western Pacific Ocean, each with a crew of five men. The plan called for them to bomb military targets in Japan, and to continue westward to land in China—landing a medium bomber on Hornet was impossible. The bombing raid k**led about 50 people, including civilians, and injured 400. Fifteen aircraft reached China, but all crashed, while the 16th landed at Vladivostok in the Soviet Union. Amazingly, 77 of 80 crew members initially survived the mission. Eight airmen were captured by the Japanese Army in China; three of those were later executed. The B-25 that landed in the Soviet Union was confiscated, with its crew interned for more than a year before being allowed to "escape" via Soviet-occupied Iran. Fourteen complete crews of five, except for one crewman who was k**led in action, returned either to the United States, or to American forces.[4][5]
After the raid, the Imperial Japanese Army conducted a massive sweep through the eastern coastal provinces of China, in an operation now known as the Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign, searching for the surviving American airmen and inflicting retribution on the Chinese who aided them, in an effort to prevent this part of China from being used again for an attack on Japan.
The raid caused negligible material damage to Japan, but its consequences had major psychological effects. In the United States, it raised morale. In Japan, it raised doubt about the ability of military leaders to defend the home islands, but the bombing and strafing of civilians also steeled the resolve of many to gain retribution and was exploited for propaganda purposes.[6] It also contributed to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's decision to attack Midway Island in the Central Pacific—an attack that turned into a decisive strategic defeat of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) by the U.S. Navy in the Battle of Midway. The consequences were most severely felt in China, where Japanese reprisals cost an estimated 250,000 lives.[6]

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

I remember fairly well the 1944 movie, 'Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo,' starring Spencer Tracy. Even the original raiders spoke well of its accuracy.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/12/doolittle-raiders-recommend-first-movie/