The Pearl Harbor attack did not destroy the American Fleet

In the attack on ‘Battleship Row’ on 7 December, two elderly battleships, the Arizona and Oklahoma, were damaged beyond repair by bomb or torpedo hits. Of the 2,026 American sailors and marines killed in the attack, 1,606 had been aboard these two ships (only 218 army personnel were killed in the raid.) Three more battleships (the California, West Virginia and Nevada) sank upright in the shallow water of the harbour. They were salvaged, but two of them did not return to service until 1944 – partly because they underwent comprehensive modernisation.

Three more vessels (the Pennsylvania, Maryland and Tennessee) suffered only minor damage. They were in dry-dock or moored inboard on Battleship Row. In any event, none of the six survivors was fast enough to operate with carrier task forces in later wartime operations. The Pacific Fleet’s three aircraft carriers were away at sea on 7 December, and none of the heavy cruisers were damaged. Three modern carriers were available to the US Navy in the Atlantic, as well as two modern battleships and six older ones.

Following December 7th the Pacific Fleet feel back in part on what they had planned to use for striking forces in the first part of the war. Smaller mobile task forces built around a single carrier, a handful of cruisers either heavy or light(8in or 6in gun armed) and protected by a gaggle of destroyers. And by and large while additional carriers were transferred from the Atlantic(3 of 4 there on December 7th would eventually be shifted) smaller cruisers and destroyers by and large were not at first.

War plans and thinking basically assumed several months of small raids and attacks of opportunity on the Japanese while the US readied itself for larger counterattacks. The fleet would be restricted to areas around Hawaii, or maybe out to Midway, or if forced, protecting the sea lanes to Australia by way of the Coral Sea, French Polynesia, Samoa, and then to the US.

So lets get specific and look at the two major operations launched by the Pacific Fleet in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, mostly with ships on hand. Those being the aborted attempt to save or reinforce Wake Island in December 1941, and in early 1941 a coordinated series of raids on the Japanese Mandate Islands in the Marshalls by multiple carrier groups.

Lets start with Wake. It was an attempt to get more supplies, radar, guns, and some more men to Wake, while getting the few civilians left, and maybe the entire garrison off if necessary. It is notable too that it was conceived and launched under the lame duck leadership of Kimmel, and then Pye as Interim while Nimitz made his way from Washington to Hawaii. The seaplane tender Tangier would be used, while she and the oiler Neosho and some escorts departed Pearl on December 16th after some delays in loading while the newly arrived Saratoga came from California, was formed with a ask force under Frank Jack Fletcher, and some additional shuffling and refueling including Enterprise and Task Force 8 under Halsey. The idea being that Enterprise and Wilson Brown with Lexington would screen the main effort with diversionary raids or as a reserve while Fletcher caught up to the Tangier and made the actual effort.

Due to delays in getting everything ready, lack of fast oilers, and inexperience in refueling at sea each of the task forces faced delays. And by the time Fletcher was in position for the final run into the island the second Japanese landing force was in the process of coming ashore and he was recalled when it was also then clear Japanese carriers were in the area.

Several weeks later though with the position slightly more stable for the moment, Nimitz felt ready to launch a real attack. Halsey with TF8 in Enterprise, and Flethcer with TF17 now in Yorktown would strike Japanese held islands in the Marshalls and Gilberts. TF8 had the Big E, and the cruisers Northampton, Salt Lake City, Chester, and 6 destroyers and an oiler. TF17 had Yorktown, cruisers St. Louis, Louisville, 5 destroyers and an oiler.

These compositions are pretty standard for carrier task forces through the end of 1942 till mid 1943 or so. And while commanders always sought a larger screen to both better protect the carrier, and detach separate forces for surface actions such as off Guadalcanal and as some admirals were bashed for not doing during the 4 big carrier battles of 1942, often the ships just were not available.

US battleships would start to make a reaprreance with the new Fast Battleships reaching the front once there was the infrastructure(read fuel) to support them. North Carolina got into action first as part of the escort of Enterprise at Eastern Solomons in late August 1942 off Guadalcanal, while more were to come.