How did the Japanese execute the attack on Pearl Harbor? Was it an all out blitz? Or was it more choreographed, with squadrons on station waiting for orders to fly sorties on the harbor?

by infodawg

watching Midway and it occurred to me that it was likely an all out blitz but I wanted to be sure...

Finger_Trapz

I'm unsure of what you mean by "Blitz", as its not really an actual tactic or strategy in warfare. "Blitz" is often the name given to the rapid advance of German troops throughout WW2, but it was simply a sensationalized name. You could apply the description "Blitz" to the American breakout of Normandy or Soviet Operation Bagration both happening in 1944. Its hard to know what you mean by "Blitz", but given you offered an alternative of choreography and careful planning, I would easily say thats exactly what Pearl Harbor was.

The Japanese were incredibly extensive planners. For example, Midway had three separate tasks forces, it wasn't just the carriers. There were also diversionary forces elsewhere in the Pacific to draw out American forces, and a landing force for Midway involving much of Japan's battleship force.

Pearl Harbor was similarly planned out very well. Six carriers maintained absolute silence while they sailed through the most quiet waters in the Pacific to reach Pearl Harbor. The plan for Pearl Harbor was to effectively paralyze the US Navy for long enough that Japan would be able to run rampant and dig into all of East Asia. This had to be a haymaker, a knockout blow to daze the United States. It was incredibly well planned beforehand. Japan planned two waves of attack on Pearl Harbor.

The first wave was roughly comprised of 50% dive bombers, 25% torpedo bombers, and 25% fighters. Fighters and half of the dive bombers were aimed at ground targets around Pearl Harbor, primarily causing damage to infrastructure and making sure the Americans could not scramble a force to oppose the attack aircraft. The other half of the wave was to attack American ships in harbor. Given that there were no carriers in harbor at the time of the attack, most Japanese pilots favored attacking the battleships, as they were concentrated and docked directly next to eachother in an area of the harbor called "Battleship Row". It was incredibly easy to line up the attacks. The second wave was roughly the same in composition and plan.

The Japanese obviously can't know exactly where the ships will be at all times. They knew about battleship row and the rough composition, shape, and areas of the harbor, but the pilots would attack targets at their own discretion. This is roughly the standard for all of naval warfare involving naval aviation. Pilots don't just take off whenever they want and go out hunting for ships. The Japanese simply couldn't just "trickle in" and attack one at a time. This isn't particularly unique to the Japanese nor naval warfare in general. Attacks are planned, its not a free-for-all or a mosh pit. This applies to Midway too, in fact. Midway was very well planned, but when it comes to actual battle, its not like you can perfectly predict ahead of time which way an enemy fighter will turn. Battle is chaotic, however planning and organization is not.

The Japanese however were rather superb at planning attacks. They differed from say, the Americans who's command structure has been different compared to many of their opponents in history. Americans often times give lower ranking officers the freedom to make choices at their own discretion. The Japanese were very strict with their command structure and planning, therefore their military organization and planning was done to a far greater extent than the Allies due to a difference in theory. This isn't to say the British or Americans didn't plan things out or "Blitzed" themselves through battles, the powers just had different doctrines.