Konpeki no Kantai::Volume1 Chapter3

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Konpeki no Kantai Volume 1 Chapter 3

Chapter Three: Operation Z (The Naval Battle for Hawaii)

1

In Hawaii it was 4:30am, December 7th.

In Tokyo, it was midnight of the 8th.

Takasugi Eisaku, vice admiral of the mobile air strike force in charge of the advance strikes against the Hawaiian Islands, was at this time in the ocean about 230 nautical miles (about 430 kilometers) north of Oahu…

"It is finally time."

His eyes fixed on the second hand moving around, about to reach twelve, Commander in Chief Takasugi raised his eyes to the pitch dark sea.

"The war has started."

The Fleet Chief of Staff, Inouemon Tataisa, his expression tense, opened the telegram they'd received.

Climb Mount Niitaka

"All right. Signal the start of the attack."

"Yessir."

The high speed battleship "Hiei" transmitted "Tora, tora, tora."

* In those days, Taiwan being Japanese territory, the highest peak, Mount Niitaka (at 3997 meters, higher than Mount Fuji. Presently Mount Yushan) was associated with the decision to start the war, in the old world the telegram had been sent on December 2nd. "Tora tora tora", in the old world, meant "the surprise attack has succeeded."

In this way commenced the first act of the destined outbreak of war...

However, compared to the great war of the previous world, the attack on Hawaii was quite different.

Already, the first wave of our attack forces had reached the skies over Oahu.

In the attack on Pearl Harbor in the previous world, fighter aircraft launched from the aircraft carrier Akagi at 6am local time. Following them, the Nagumo Task Force's six carriers launched their attack forces one by one, Mitsubishi A6M Zeroes, Nakajima B5N torpedo bombers and Aichi D3A dive bombers. A total of 183 aircraft swooped down on their targets...

This happened at 7:55 in the morning.

However, it was obviously a surprise attack. Because of this, Japan aroused the hostility of the American citizenry, in a single stroke bringing them into a state of war.

If you examined it all critically, the military was not concerned with the result of that great starting battle, and the plans of the military leaders had no consistency. Tactically, it was a success, but strategically, it was a massive failure.

Why? Because Japan, aware of the difference in industrial might between the two sides, had planned for an early ceasefire. This was the Japanese strategy.

Well then, the tactic? The purpose of the surprise attack on Hawaii was to make Japan's operations to the south easier to accomplish through the destruction of the enemy's Pacific Fleet.

The destruction of a great fleet of no less than eight battleships was certainly a success. And at the same time, it was thought that if at the beginning of a war you inflict a heavy blow on the enemy, inflicting a sense of war weariness on the enemy nation, it would help advance ceasefire negotiations. However, the big blunder of the military leaders was to make light of America's sense of national identity.

Already they spoke of banishing those who had studied the Americans and the British from the ranks of military leadership, and taking up those who had studied abroad in Germany. Favoring praise for the Germans, contempt for the people of America and Great Britain was spreading.

With propaganda slogans which spoke of the Americans and the British as savage brutes being used incessantly, the Japanese people thought of them as demons, or animals, thereby satisfying a meaningless pride. This may have been to inspire the Japanese nation to a sense of superiority, but it was only turning their complex inside out.

Our Ootaka Yasaburou, reflecting back on all this, carried out the announcement of the outbreak of war in advance.

Prime Minister Ootaka's thinking went like this... In order to conclude an early armistice, first and foremost, we have to get the support of American public opinion. Then what should we do? War is not decided by the results on the battlefield only. The idea that even your enemy could haven taken your side was the great strategy unique to Ootaka.

Starting a war was easy. What was hard was bringing it to an end...

Ootaka's analysis of the enemy nation was flexible. He saw that they were a people that preferred to play fair. This spirit of fair play was almost like Bushido.

Therefore, Ootaka was firmly resolved to fight this war to the end in a sportsman-like way. He would try to be an enemy worthy of respect.

But nevertheless, from boldly going and declaring war, carrying out the Hawaii surprise tactic, exceedingly dangerous gamble. Because the enemy's powerful Pacific Fleet and their long range ground forces could be ambushed by their surprise attack force and forced to leave.

Naturally, Prime Minister Ootaka was very anxious about this.

"As in the world before, I think an attack on Hawaii is next to useless, but I want your opinions."

He asked the newly established Cabinet, along with Vice-Admiral Takano Isoruku, who from Commander in Chief of the Combined Fleet was now inaugurated as the President of the Navy General Staff.

Whereupon,

"No, with regards to that, our Deep Blue Society has done more than enough research into the matter."

"Is there hope of success?"

"There is plenty. I certainly wish to be permitted to do it as planned. Since the Naval Task Force has already sortied from Kasatka Bay..."

Demonstrated in this way, it would certainly be called a revolutionary new tactic.

"You're going to carry out a night-time strike?"

"Yes. At midnight on the eighth. Local time will still be before dawn, but we will attack Hawaii immediately thereafter."

"I see."

Ootaka perceived President of the Navy General Staff Takano's true intentions and groaned.

Continuing he said, "This is a fair way to conduct a surprise attack."

"That is correct. This is absolutely a strategy to make the enemy unable to call it a surprise attack."

Vice-Admiral Takano's eyes laughing, "In that regard, to blind the eyes of the enemy, I would like to request that the Southern Army's operations be a bit flashy."

"Understood. I would like to leave that matter to you."

Ootaka promised.

The Army was against it, but Ootaka directed them in such a way that the enemy would be able to deduce their invasion plans. It was what you might call a 'leak'. In this way the American side was deceived. From the sudden great increase in communications, they had come to the conclusion that the first objective of the Japanese in starting the war would be to acquire the resource rich southern areas.

At this point in time, the Americans had already succeeded in breaking the simple cipher used by the Japanese.

The Americans still believed that the Japanese had not noticed. But, the Japanese knew about it. In other words, they were having a war of counter-plots and strategems...

One the one side, there was Takano Isoroku... He knew all too well the difficulty of night-time carrier operations. Not to mention the need for illumination during aircraft takeoff. Especially in stormy weather.

But pilots hand-picked for their proficiency overcame this problem skillfully, through intense training.

Again, the members of the Deep Blue Society racked their brains to resolve the issue. After a while what they thought of was a technique involving a special luminous paint. They would affix an appropriately luminescent band to the flight deck to facilitate takeoff, and remove it shortly afterwards.

2

Blessed with good weather, the take-off of the Hawaii attack forces was complete at 2:30am. Launching the entire attack force within roughly fifteen minutes from the first aircraft was nothing less than superb.

Indeed, setting aside the start of the original Pacific War, this was the first surprise move by the Japanese side. The enemy surely thought it was a mistake.

When it escaped from the layers of cloud, the moon shone brilliantly.

Guiding the attack force were six Seiden (Star Lightning) reconnaissance planes. They did not exist in the former war, but rather were a new type of airplane.

The Seiden was a high speed, twin engine day or night reconnaissance plane, with four crew members. At 570 kilometers per hour, its maximum speed was exceeded that of the Zero (533 kph). The armament was only two 7.7mm machine guns, but it was well armored against bullets. What's more, the cruising range was comparable with the Type 96 Land-based Attack Aircraft (the Mitsubishi B3M) at 4700 kilometers.

Takano, knowing from his previous existence that a deciding factor in a naval battle was to be better at searching out the enemy, had hastened the development of the Seiden.

Fortunately, this new aircraft was ready in time for the war. The design was under direction of Kubo Seiichiro and the other members of the Deep Blue Society. The manufacture was handled by Higashino Genichirou's Taishan Aircraft Company. Nevertheless, the Seiden was a first generation electronic warfare plane. From here on out, its production would be increased, and it would play an active part in many different theaters of war.

The Seiden, with its excellent astronomical navigation capabilities, guided the attack force without any wasted effort. Amazingly, even though the Seiden was only first generation, it was equipped with high speed electronic computers. And it had the signals intelligence systems necessary for searching out the enemy. It had unprecedented performance for this day and age. The inventor: the Deep Blue Society's own Kubo Seiichiro.

The six Seidens, indicating Oahu Island to the following attack force by waggling their wings, left for the four points of the compass. They had to assume their second duty. Scattering to the airspaces they were responsible for, they took up their posts searching for the enemy. This would have great significance later...

Over the space of fifteen minutes, the first wave of the attack force penetrated the Oahu airspace. Flying under the strict guidance of the Seidens, the first formation arrived over Oahu precisely at midnight, December the 8th, Tokyo time. In Hawaii it was 4:30 in the morning. It was not yet dawn.

The veteran pilots dived, descending from the clouds. Skillfully evading the black ridgelines, they descended to very low altitude.

They had been hand-picked for their outstanding eyesight. The first formation of Zeroes immediately assailed Wheeler Field.

It was so they could blow up the P-40s on the ground. There were more than eighty aircraft parked here.

Three minutes later, the second wave attacked 34 planes at Hickam Airfield.

For the enemy this was totally unexpected. They were amazed by the sudden appearance of flares dropped from overhead. Not even in their dreams did they imagine that Japan had the offensive capability to do such a thing as this at night.

Type 97 fighters and type 99 bombers rushed in after. The enemy was completely astonished. Their power lines were severed and the barracks left in the dark. Milling about in confusion, they had no time to fight back. After the initial shooting, incendiary bombs were scattered and the parked planes went up in flames, one by one. Bombs dropped from the bombers created big holes in the runways, making them impossible to use.

The goal of the first wave was the elimination of the Hawaiian air forces. They were aiming for Ford Field, Pearl Harbor, Bellows Field, as well as the Kaneohe Air Base with its 32 flying boats.

A total of 230 planes on the ground went up in flames. The much vaunted enemy air force was destroyed in the blink of an eye, and we had taken air superiority into our hands completely.

In comparison, of the 180 planes launched, no more than two were lost due to engine trouble and eight due to crashes into hillsides because of their very low altitude attacks.

Having received word that the first wave was successful, Naval Commander in Chief Takasugi ordered the waiting planes of the second wave to start their attack. As for the second attack wave, the level bombing group was 54 carrier borne aircraft, the dive bombing group 78 planes and the air superiority group had 35 Zeroes. They took off a half hour after the first wave.

The objective of the second wave was the defenses of the huge naval base on Oahu.

"No matter what, don't attack the fuel depot," ordered the leader of the attack forces, Shinagawa Yajirou.

All the planes attacked.

Control of the air had already been taken from the enemy, and their anti-aircraft positions were in a shambles. Nevertheless, the enemy showed their fierce Yankee spirit.

As a result, the damages for the second wave were different from the first wave. Three dive bombers, three other bombers and four Zeroes were shot down, but this was within expectations.

And yet, counterbalancing their losses, they held up their great military gains. A major staging area for American naval strategy, the Oahu Island military bases were destroyed.

It was strategically significant that while the land, sea and air bases had been thoroughly eliminated, the enemy aircraft carriers were as yet unassailed…

When attacking, one must not confuse goals and objectives. Takano Isoroku would correct the errors of his previous life.

The destruction of the Hawaii fleet definitely had meaning, in and of itself. Just as it was before, it was a preemptive strike so that the southern strategy may succeed quickly. But how did it turn out? Many of the enemy ships sunk in the shallow waters of Pearl Harbor were quickly repaired and returned to service in the battlefield.

The second mistake in the previous war was that we were satisfied with this, and withdrew without strike the naval bases.

This had a lot to do with the character of their commanding officer. He lacked the nerve, fearing an enemy counterattack. First and foremost, the commanding officer didn't believe in the strategy as it was given to him.

But Commander-in-Chief Takasugi was not like that. He wasn't pushing for conquest. He was a firm believer in annihilation. He believed that if you do something, you do it thoroughly. His was a strong character. He was a courageous general. He was a person with a strong will to fight.

The Japanese Navy, as has been mentioned already, had fallen to become a meritocracy. However, it wasn't about what you could do in the battlefield, but rather about how you fought there. In a place where life and death are at stake, paper test scores are virtually meaningless. Therefore, in accordance with Takano Isoroku's policies, the Navy underwent a great revolution in its organization. It was changed completely, putting the right people in the right places through a thorough screening of their characters.

* The words of Clausewitz, "The goal is Paris, the target the French Army – You must not lose sight of the goal" are famous, but often misunderstood. The German "der Zweck" (the purpose) and "das Ziel" (the goal) can be hard to tell apart. It is easier to understand in Japanese. 'Purpose' is defined as "the alignment of your actions towards a state you wish to attain." A 'goal' is defined as "a step (a landmark) on the way to one's ultimate goal." Put another way, there being no occupation of Paris without eliminating the French Army, the elimination of the French Army was not the purpose; the purpose was to capture Paris. This was also achieving the political goals of Germany. "Politics decides the purpose, and war achieves it," is a problem that has been the subject of many theses over the years. What's more, Clausewitz's "On War" caught the eye of Mori Ougai (at the time a second class military physician) as he commenced his study abroad in Germany. After his return to Japan, he translated the book in collaboration with the Military Academy, and it was published under the name "The Principles of War."

As it turned out, the first and second air strike waves yielded reasonably satisfying results.

But they were finally going out on stage.

Upon receiving the reports, Commander in Chief Takasugi Eisaku, so that they could accommodate the returning aircraft, directed the fleet south to the rendezvous point east of the Hawaiian Islands. It was a strategy to keep the enemy off guard...

3

The enemy's Pacific Fleet was not present in Pearl Harbor at the time. This was something understood from the beginning.

<~~26% Completed~~>

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