First is Pearl Harbour. They stopped after two strikes. They could have gone on until they were out of fungibles. Most of the dry docks were left intact. They had complete control of the air, what were they afraid of?
Diminishing returns..There were still the pac fleet carriers at unknown locations. Further strikes would have been met by increased AA fire and aircraft and aircrew losses. I agree the dry docks and the fuel storage were nice targets but carriers aside they got what they came for.
Next is Midway. Sure the Japanese carriers got hammered but there were still something like 5 battleships, several cruiser squadrons and piles of destroyers. I�d argue that going ahead with the landings at Midway would work. America would have had a pyrrhic victory.
They might have had something if they could have forced a night gunfire action with Spruance, but that seems unlikely. they had not eliminated midways air power. two Us carriers still there to chew at them. I doubt the decimated american attack squardrons would have had much efect on the battle sqaurdrons.. but on the transports very likely. Remember it was less than 6 months since wake island. The japs did the smart thing by getting the hell out of dodge.
Thirdly, off Samar, the last hopes for Japan in Leyte Gulf. Taffy Three holds off a much huger force. No great banzai battleship charge, they ran off.
The jap survivers tell us that they beleived that Taffy three was made up of Fleet carriers. So the Japs thought taffy three was running from them at nearly 30 knots, not 17 that the jeep carriers could do. Don't forget that the japs were getting chewed pretty bad and they did keep at it for quite awhile.
If I had been the jap comander and I thought I had TF77 infront of me I would have pressed this one home..despite my losses. I agree the japs were timid in this case. however because Taffy 3 was comprised of escort carriers. not fleet carriers.. breaking off was the right thing..done for the wrong reason.
Pearl harbor was well planned and executed..unlucky for the japs they missed the carriers
Midway.. lots of small factors for the japs loss here. We knew they were comming..We got lucky in the detection phase and the rule for carrier warefare is "attack effectivly first" the the code and early detection did that for us.
As has been played up in the lit Nagumo was not very decisive. there was a lot of the little lucky/unlucky things going on at midway and the US was just lucky enough to come out on top.
The Imperial fleet was a fine force at the begining of the war. professional, well trained and well led. Like the US there were a few things they could have improved, such as the fire suppression systems on there carriers..we had our torpedos and our torpedo bombers.
We are just lucky that the japs didn't have half our industral might and didn't have the technically oriented personal to replace skilled personal lost in combat like pilots.
