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What God did at Pearl Harbor
Ford 23
Member Posts: 3,129
Received as email this am--had to pass on
What God did at Pearl Harbor that day is interesting and I never knew this little bit of history:
Tour boats ferry people out to the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii every thirty minutes.
We just missed a ferry and had to wait thirty minutes. I went into a small gift shop to kill time. In the gift shop, I purchased a small book entitled, "Reflections on Pearl Harbor" by Admiral Chester Nimitz.
Sunday, December 7th, 1941--Admiral Chester Nimitz was attending a concert in Washington, DC. He was paged and told there was a phone call for him. When he answered the phone, it was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the phone. He told Admiral Nimitz that he (Nimitz) would now be the Commander of the Pacific Fleet. Admiral Nimitz flew to Hawaii to assume command of the Pacific Fleet. He landed at Pearl Harbor on Christmas Eve, 1941. There was such a spirit of despair, dejection and defeat--you would have thought the Japanese had already won the war. On Christmas Day, 1941, Adm. Nimitz was given a boat tour of the destruction wrought on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Big sunken battleships and navy vessels cluttered the waters everywhere you looked. As the tour boat returned to dock, the young helmsman of the boat asked, "Well Admiral, what do you think after seeing all this destruction?"
Admiral Nimitz's reply shocked everyone within the sound of his voice. Admiral Nimitz said, "The Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could ever make, or God was taking care of America. Which do you think it was?" Shocked and surprised, the young helmsman asked, "What do mean by saying the Japanese made the three biggest mistakes an attack force ever made?"
Nimitz explained:
Mistake number one:
The Japanese attacked on Sunday morning. Nine out of every ten crewmen of those ships were ashore on leave. If those same ships had been lured to sea and been sunk--we would have lost 38,000 men instead of 3,800.
Mistake number two:
When the Japanese saw all those battleships lined in a row, they got so carried away sinking those battleships, they never once bombed our dry docks opposite those ships. If they had destroyed our dry docks, we would have had to tow every one of those ships to America to be repaired. As it is now, the ships are in shallow water and can be raised. One tug can pull them over to the dry docks, and we can have them repaired and at sea by the time we could have towed them to America . And I already have crews ashore anxious to man those ships.
Mistake number three:
Every drop of fuel in the Pacific theater of war is in top of the ground storage tanks five miles away over that hill. One attack plane could have strafed those tanks and destroyed our fuel supply. That's why I say the Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could make or God was taking care of America.
I've never forgotten what I read in that little book. It is still an inspiration as I reflect upon it. In jest, I might suggest that because Admiral Nimitz was a Texan, born and raised in Fredericksburg, Texas -- he was a born optimist. But any way you look at it--Admiral Nimitz was able to see a silver lining in a situation and circumstance where everyone else saw only despair and defeatism.
President Roosevelt had chosen the right man for the right job. We desperately needed a leader that could see silver linings in the midst of the clouds of dejection, despair and defeat.
There is a reason that our national motto is, IN GOD WE TRUST. Why have we forgotten? PRAY FOR OUR COUNTRY! In God we trust! Please pass this important message to others. Americans need to know.
What God did at Pearl Harbor that day is interesting and I never knew this little bit of history:
Tour boats ferry people out to the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii every thirty minutes.
We just missed a ferry and had to wait thirty minutes. I went into a small gift shop to kill time. In the gift shop, I purchased a small book entitled, "Reflections on Pearl Harbor" by Admiral Chester Nimitz.
Sunday, December 7th, 1941--Admiral Chester Nimitz was attending a concert in Washington, DC. He was paged and told there was a phone call for him. When he answered the phone, it was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the phone. He told Admiral Nimitz that he (Nimitz) would now be the Commander of the Pacific Fleet. Admiral Nimitz flew to Hawaii to assume command of the Pacific Fleet. He landed at Pearl Harbor on Christmas Eve, 1941. There was such a spirit of despair, dejection and defeat--you would have thought the Japanese had already won the war. On Christmas Day, 1941, Adm. Nimitz was given a boat tour of the destruction wrought on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Big sunken battleships and navy vessels cluttered the waters everywhere you looked. As the tour boat returned to dock, the young helmsman of the boat asked, "Well Admiral, what do you think after seeing all this destruction?"
Admiral Nimitz's reply shocked everyone within the sound of his voice. Admiral Nimitz said, "The Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could ever make, or God was taking care of America. Which do you think it was?" Shocked and surprised, the young helmsman asked, "What do mean by saying the Japanese made the three biggest mistakes an attack force ever made?"
Nimitz explained:
Mistake number one:
The Japanese attacked on Sunday morning. Nine out of every ten crewmen of those ships were ashore on leave. If those same ships had been lured to sea and been sunk--we would have lost 38,000 men instead of 3,800.
Mistake number two:
When the Japanese saw all those battleships lined in a row, they got so carried away sinking those battleships, they never once bombed our dry docks opposite those ships. If they had destroyed our dry docks, we would have had to tow every one of those ships to America to be repaired. As it is now, the ships are in shallow water and can be raised. One tug can pull them over to the dry docks, and we can have them repaired and at sea by the time we could have towed them to America . And I already have crews ashore anxious to man those ships.
Mistake number three:
Every drop of fuel in the Pacific theater of war is in top of the ground storage tanks five miles away over that hill. One attack plane could have strafed those tanks and destroyed our fuel supply. That's why I say the Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could make or God was taking care of America.
I've never forgotten what I read in that little book. It is still an inspiration as I reflect upon it. In jest, I might suggest that because Admiral Nimitz was a Texan, born and raised in Fredericksburg, Texas -- he was a born optimist. But any way you look at it--Admiral Nimitz was able to see a silver lining in a situation and circumstance where everyone else saw only despair and defeatism.
President Roosevelt had chosen the right man for the right job. We desperately needed a leader that could see silver linings in the midst of the clouds of dejection, despair and defeat.
There is a reason that our national motto is, IN GOD WE TRUST. Why have we forgotten? PRAY FOR OUR COUNTRY! In God we trust! Please pass this important message to others. Americans need to know.
Comments
If they were at sea, not all of those ships would have been together.
Also, those ships would have had a chance to fight back.
It would not have done the Japanese much good to have destroyed our dry docks if they left our ships undamaged.
Again, the fuel depot was not a high priority compared to destroying our fleet.
The flaw was that the Japanese did not do as much damage as appeared at first glance. Our repair crews were able to get the ships repaired and steaming in short order and out to sea where they were not sitting ducks.
I disagree.
If they were at sea, not all of those ships would have been together.
Also, those ships would have had a chance to fight back.
There's too many variables in the "what ifs" of Pearl Harbor to make any blanket statements. Yes, if the ships had been crewed and had made it to sea they would have been very difficult targets, but it is also possible that they would have been caught in the main channel during the attack and more would have been sunk and recovery efforts made much more difficult, delaying the return of the ships to the fleet and the port to a usable status.
To me the statement by the Admiral was "looking at the bright side" and focusing on what had to be done.
The bigger question is that without the attack on Pearl Harbor how would we have entered WWII? Would America have entered the war as energetically as we did without something like Pearl Harbor? Or would we have continued our internal debate until something else happened? How much longer could England have held on without our total commitment?
"Fools learn from their own mistakes. I learn from the mistakes of others"
Otto von Bismarck
Pearl Harbor similar to the horror of World Trade provides a blue print for what to due after the tragedy. The good people of the USA rallied behind the call of duty. The world was saved from the oppressors of Japan and Germany.
Thank God every day for heart, soul, and spirit He has given all of us to overcome...
I disagree.
If they were at sea, not all of those ships would have been together.
Also, those ships would have had a chance to fight back.
It would not have done the Japanese much good to have destroyed our dry docks if they left our ships undamaged.
Again, the fuel depot was not a high priority compared to destroying our fleet.
The flaw was that the Japanese did not do as much damage as appeared at first glance. Our repair crews were able to get the ships repaired and steaming in short order and out to sea where they were not sitting ducks.
I guess the destruction of the Prince of Wales and Repulse was just lucky?
Had the Battle Line been protected by the Carriers at sea, it may have fared better, but there are many things that come into play.
Yes, the ships would have been moving and not static targets.
The ships would have gone to GQ, and set all watertight doors which would have kept some of them off the bottom.
On the flip side, the six carriers Yamamoto sent to Hawaii would have been a big problem for Yorktown and Lexington, and as was proven with the aforementioned Prince of Wales and Repulse, and later at the Battle of The Coral Sea, the Japanese pilots knew how to hit ships that were underway.
All in all, it was probably best that the battlewagons were berthed at Pearl. Those that were raised provided shore bombardment, and even performed well in ship-to-ship action during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
Brad Steele