7 interesting facts about the attack on Pearl Harbor

By Michael Gryboski, Editor
Thursday, December 07, 2023

Multiple tactical warnings were missed

Photograph taken from a Japanese plane during the torpedo attack on ships moored on both sides of Ford Island shortly after the beginning of the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941. | Wikimedia Commons

In addition to intelligence failures on the part of the U.S., there were multiple tactical warnings on the early morning of Dec. 7 that were not properly handled by American forces.

This included an American vessel spotting and firing depth charges at a Japanese submarine, one radar finding two unidentified planes that were Japanese scouts, and another radar report that found a large aerial presence headed toward Hawaii about 40 minutes before the attack began.

“The detection of the massive first wave about 40 minutes before the first bombs fell, however, should have triggered a full alarm by at least 20 minutes before the attack,” wrote historian Richard B. Frank in 2021.

“Since it only required about eight to 10 minutes to get battleships to general quarters with all watertight enclosures secured at sea, and less time for smaller vessels, even doubling that time for the less prepared situation that morning in Pearl Harbor, the attack still should have found the ship defenders alert and ready.”