Trial by Ordeal
Part.5 - Aftermath
Pearl Harbour, Hawaii
1942
The battleships may have died, but their shattered hulls lay stricken across the Hawaiian anchorage for months and in some cases years. The USS Arizona was quickly declared a complete loss and due to the extent of the damaged suffered it was deemed impractical to even attempt to move her from the anchorage. The wreck was slowly scavenged of every last usable item and the battleship was formerly stricken from the Navy Register on the 1st December 1942. Two of her triple 14-inch turrets ended up being recycled as coastal defence batteries in Hawaii. Post war she was authorised as a memorial on the 16th May 1956 and dedicated as such on 30th June 1962 (1).
The USS Oklahoma lay capsized at her moorings until March 1942 for months before salvage work commenced in March 1943. She did not enter dry dock until 28th December that year, by which time it was deemed not worthwhile to attempt the necessary repairs required to effectively rebuild the Oklahoma from the keel up. With new modern battleships entering service it was decided to leave her at Pearl Harbour and slowly strip her of all remaining useful parts. The vessel was officially decommissioned in September 1944 and stricken from the Navy Register two months later. Sold for scrapping in 1946 the Oklahoma was defiant to end by sinking whilst under tow back to the States on the 17th May 1947 (1).
The shattered hulls of the USS Maryland and USS Tennessee were slowly raised and salvaged over 1942 and early 1943. The damage to both was quite extensive following the 'deflagrations' of their main magazines which had destroyed entire portions of the ships. It was quickly obvious to all that only a total reconstruction from the keel upwards would repair the damage sustained. This was something that would take at least two to three years and cost the same as building entirely new ships, which of course would be far superior in every aspect.
In the end the US Navy reluctantly decided that it would not be worth while restoring the Maryland and the Tennessee and both were quietly declared Constructive Total Losses (CTLs). The hulls were beached away from Battleship Row to clear the anchorage and officially retained as 'Guard Vessels' to Pearl Harbour. To avoid the stigma of being sunk neither ship was removed from the Navy Register until the end of hostilities in the Pacific in 1946 (3). Both were scrapped post war (2).
The USS West Virginia was re-floated from her berth by late 1942 and towed into a floating dock at Pearl Harbour for a detailed inspection of what damaged she had actually sustained. It was at this point that the critical damage inflicted upon the keel was identified together with the large amount of deformation across the hull. Although repairs were technically possible this would have involved cutting the battleship down to the waterline and replacing everything above the splinter armour deck. It would also have necessitated replacing twenty feet of the keel and ' straightening out' the ship to cure its amended banana shape.
The US Navy wisely concluded that all of the time, effort and cost involved would be more profitably spent on the construction of Essex class fleet carriers and so the West Virginia was declared a CTL. Her turrets were removed for use elsewhere (at least two were used as coastal defence batteries) and the rest of the ship used as a floating source of spares at Pearl Harbour for the duration of the war (4). Suitably pillaged of parts she was officially stricken from the Navy Register at the end of World War Two in 1946. She was scrapped post war (2).
The USS California presented the US Navy with an entirely different problem altogether. Whilst being slowly re-floated and salvaged at Pearl Harbour her name-state embarked on a massive War Bonds drive in order to pay for the expected repairs. The sum finally raised was not an inconsiderable amount, but all of it had been donated by the good citizens of the State of California for the specific purpose of rebuilding 'their' battleship. It was therefore quite a shock to them all when the US Navy decided not to repair the California. A detailed inspection of her hull had revealed the true extent of the damage sustained during the attack. The keel was bent out of shape and would require fifty feet from the middle of the ship to be entirely replaced. Heat deformation had collapsed most of the rear of the hull. Only the front quarter remained relatively undamaged and was considered ' reusable' in any rebuild. Quite logically the US Navy considered that the resources required to repair the California could be far better used elsewhere and the proposed rebuild was cancelled (2).
This immediately caused an outcry amongst the senior politicians in California who were adamant that the money that they had raised in their War Bonds drive would be spent on repairing 'their' ship and on no other construction project. They even went as far as threatening to withhold the money from the Federal Government and keeping it themselves to fund entirely new naval construction in California yards. In the end a suitably patriotic solution was agreed upon. The State of California released the money that it had raised to the US Navy in return for a guarantee that it would be used to build a seventh battleship of the Iowa class. This in turn would be named the USS California. The old USS California was renamed and towed back to San Francisco where she remained for the rest of the war. In the meanwhile the State of California continued its War Bond drive and ultimately raised enough money to cover the entire building cost of the replacement battleship (5).
USS California (BB-65) entered service with the United States Navy in late 1944 and saw service throughout the rest of the Pacific War. She was present at the formal surrender of Japan in March 1946. Post war she saw action in Korea, Vietnam (1970), the Lebanon (1983) and both Gulf Wars (1991 & 2003). She was finally decommissioned by the US Navy in 2004 and sold to the State of California who turned her into a state monument in San Francisco. She was finally destroyed in the 'Big One' earthquake of 2018 (6).
The USS Pennsylvania being relatively less damaged than the other battleships was quickly singled out for immediate salvage & repair. The ship was re-floated by March 1942 and towed to Puget Sound on the West coast of the United States for what amounted to a major refit (2). She was partly modernised with a brand new secondary battery of duel purpose 5-inch / 38 cal guns, lots of close range 40-millimetre and 20-millimetre AA and a full set of modern radars.
The 'Penn' returned to service in mid 1943 and immediately deployed to the Pacific in support of the US Navy's 'island hopping' campaigns across the ocean. She saw service at Tarawa, the Marshal Islands, the Marianas, in the Philippines, and Okinawa. She was eventually lost in action on the 12th of February 1945 in Buckner Bay, Okinawa. A Japanese bomber managed to infiltrate the anchorage and hit the battleship in the stern with a heavyweight airborne torpedo. Three shafts were damaged and serious flooding quickly occurred aft. Salvage parties were rushed to the vessel from every available ship, but despite their best efforts they were unable to prevent the flooding from spreading. The Pennsylvania finally sank stern-first after a desperate two hour fight (7).
The USS Nevada being the least damaged battleship at Pearl Harbour was the first to be salvaged. She was re-floated on 12 February 1942 and makeshift repairs completed in the Hawaiian Islands before sailing for Puget Sound on 22 April 1942 for a full refit. This was completed at the end of December of the same year and the Nevada returned to service with the US Navy (1).
The Nevada served first in the Pacific in the recapture of the Aleutian Islands in May 1943, before being transferred to the Atlantic. She saw action on Utah Beach on D-Day in June 1944 and then took part in the 'Dragoon' landings in the south of France. The following year saw the Nevada return to the Pacific where she participated in the capture of Iwo Jima in July 1945 and Okinawa in September. As the last surviving American battleship from Pearl Harbour she was deliberately included in the Allied Fleet that attended for formal surrender of Japan in March 1946. She was expended as a target off Hawaii in 1948 (1).
Pearl Harbour, Hawaii
18.00 Hrs, 8th December 1941
Within twenty four hours of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour the Royal Navy Liaison Officer to the US Pacific Fleet had
complied and passed a detailed report back to the British Admiralty in London (1). Sent via the undersea telegraph cables from the British Consulate on Oahu
the report contained enough information to convince the Royal Navy of the wisdom in withdrawing its Force Z from Singapore before it was likewise destroyed by
the Japanese Kaigun. The British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, required little persuasion to agree to the tactical retreat and the battleship HMS
Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse were hastily withdrawn on the 9th December 1941 and quickly redeployed to Ceylon (
.
Both the United States and Royal Navies also reviewed their procedures for operating fully loaded fuel tankers within their naval bases following the destruction of the USS Neosho. Although not much could be done since the tankers were in integral part of all naval operations, procedures were tighten up and some minor changes made in how they were operated (2).
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour roused the sleeping American giant into World War Two. Making one of the most famous speeches of the twentieth century the US President Franklin D Roosevelt stated that the 7th of December would be 'a date that would live in infamy,' and formally declared war on Japan (1). Over the next few weeks photos and (edited) newsreel footage of the damage inflicted against US interests on Oahu were splashed all over the American press. The destruction of Pearl City was prominent in all the reports as a majority of its 'peace loving' civilian population had been unintentionally killed in the attack (2). It was the rallying cry needed to make the millions of United States citizens go to war. Recruiting officers overflowed with potential recruits for all three services, arms orders exploded all over the country and the vast industrial might of the US geared itself up for war production (1).
There was of course the small matter of who was going to take the blame for the disaster. The US Government was adamant that they would avoid any responsibility for the fiasco and so the commander of the US Pacific Fleet, Admiral Kimmel, was lined up as the scapegoat. A well run campaign in the press made him 'responsible' for the loss of so many battleships at Pearl Harbour and he was swiftly removed from his post and sent back to the US.
Admiral Kimmel however was not prepared to go down without a fight for something which he felt was not his fault. He immediately requested to have a court martial at which he planned to show that secret intelligence which could have saved the Pacific Fleet had been withheld from him. Unfortunately such a public hearing during a time of war was quite out of the question since it would have revealed the success of American code breaking against the Japanese. Instead Kimmel was kept waiting until Admiral Forrestal finally offered him a court martial at the end of the war in March 1946. Kimmel, by now a rather bitter man on account on how he had been treated, declined the offer and preferred to wait for the Congressional investigation. This was completed the following year and found that he had been guilty of an error of judgement but not of dereliction of duty. The source of the blame for the attack was to be found in Washington and not Hawaii. Kimmel felt vindicated, but he was unhappy that it had taken several years to effectively clear his name (9).
The damaged sustained to naval facilities at Pearl Harbour were extensive and were to cause major problems to the United States Navy for months to come. Admiral Chester Nimitz was to later say that it delayed the final outcome in the Pacific by at least six months. Virtually everything had to be rebuilt from scratch with all the materials and the bulk of the labour having to be shipped in from the mainland (10).
Of particular concern to the US Navy was the loss of much of the fuel oil stored on Oahu which severely restricted its ability to operate in the Western Pacific for much of 1942. The fuel shortages were mostly solved with the construction of the massive storage depot under the Red Hill reservation in late 1942 (1). With other surface storage facilities being constructed at a hectic pace the problems were totally solved early the following year (2).
Another major building project at Pearl Harbour that took pre-eminence was the reconstruction of Pearl City to the northwest of the naval base. Almost entirely wiped out by the tsunami its rebuilding was politically motivated in order to show a commitment to the local population by the federal government. All of the survivors were re-housed by May 1942 and new settlers brought in from all over Oahu and the other Hawaiian Islands. Next door to the new town was a purpose built cemetery where eight hundred of the former inhabitants who died as a result of the tidal wave were buried with much ceremony (10).
Another serious loss sustained by the United States at Pearl Harbour was the destruction of so many of its maritime patrol flying boats. Less than two remained operational and the facilities to support them wrecked. As a temporary measure an alternative base was established at Kaneohe Bay on the east of the island of Oahu. The remaining PBY aircraft operated from there for the next six months until full repairs had been completed at Ford Island. To reinforce their numbers both Canada and Great Britain agreed to transfer a total of three of their Consolidated Catalina flying boat squadrons to Hawaii. Only Catalina airctaft were sent out to the Pacific since the type was already in extensive use with the US Navy and it enormously simplified the logistical situation. These squadrons remained on the islands for several months until new American construction made good the losses and could once more fully take over the maritime patrol role (11).
Other 'loans' to the United States Navy in 1942 took the form of the two British capital warships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse who arrived at Pearl Harbour in May 1942. With the Japanese no longer making major threats into the Indian Ocean and the majority of German and Italian battleships isolated in ports due to lack of fuel the British were in a position to make the 'gesture' of offering these two units to reinforce the ever growing US Pacific Fleet (11). The two ships would see extensive use in the Pacific theatre for the rest of '42 before returned home to Britain in the spring of 1943. For a short spell they were joined by the armoured carrier HMS Victorious (1) and all three became known as the 'Three Cavaliers'.
HMS Repulse with her high speed proved very useful as a fast carrier escort and was frequently deployed with the US carriers, especially in the latter half of 1942. She also took part in the savage fighting around Guadalcanal and was present at the infamous Battle of Savo Island on the 13th November 1942. Supporting the American cruiser forces Repulse used her superior radar to engage and seriously damage the Japanese battlecruiser Hiei in a blistering night action. Mortally wounded by a dozen 15-inch shell hits the Hiei was later torpedoed and sank in the last battlecruiser verse battlecruiser action in naval history (12).
To also help bridge the 'battleship gap' after Pearl Harbour the United States approached the Chilean Government with a proposal to lease their flagship the Almirante Latorre for service in the US Navy. The 14-inch battleship was in reasonably good condition having been refitted at Devonport between the wars and was immediately available. The Chilean Government however were reluctant to part with their country's only battleship and it took all of President Roosevelt's powers of persuasion to get them to agree to a deal. The Almirante Latorre was leased to the US Navy for three years and after a fairly extensive modernisation at New York joined the Pacific Fleet in late 1942. She served with great distinction before being returned to Chile (in her highly modernised form) in 1945 once the general situation had swung heavily in favour of the Allies (13).
Another source of second-hand battleships for the US Navy occurred when the Royal Navy began in 1943 to decommission some of its Revenge class warships due to manpower shortages. Although hardly modern they did boast respectable amounts of firepower and were better than nothing. Two ships, HMS Revenge and HMS Ramillies were transferred to the United States Navy in mid 1943 and immediately underwent refits on the East coast (11). These mostly consisted of replacing their 6-inch and 4-inch batteries with a modern duel-purpose one of six twin 5-inch 38 cal turrets. They also received modern AA guns and radar. The battleships retained their 15-inch main armament guns since American could easily manufacture ammunition for them (as they did for captured French battleships) and the British guaranteed a supply of replacement barrels for the duration of the war (14).
Both the Revenge and Ramillies joined the island hopping campaign across the Pacific in 1944 and soon proved their worth operating alongside their American counterparts in the bombardment role. Here the accuracy and destructive power of their 15-inch guns proved particularly useful. In 1944 their sister-ship HMS Resolution was also transferred to the US Navy following the Normandy landings in France, and the three battleships continued to serve out the rest of the war in the Pacific (11). They replaced their worn out 15-inch guns early in 1945 at Puget Sound with spares supplied by the Royal Navy from the decommissioned capital warships HMS Warspite, HMS Malaya, HMS Repulse and HMS Renown. All were present at the Battle of Surigao Straits on the 25th March 1945 in the last battleship verse battleship action where they formed half of Rear Admiral Oldendorf's main line of battle (15).
Epilogue
Pearl Harbour was a massive tactical defeat for the United States and a strategic disaster for the Japanese Empire. Although it had gained a spectacular victory over the Americans the attack on Hawaii could never alter the fact that in any modern war it was going to lose against such a mighty opponent. This was demonstrated by the fact that every warship, plane and facility lost at Pearl Harbour was completely replaced within ten months by American Industry (1). For purely political reasons the American Government poured absurd amounts of money into repairing as many of the sunken warships at Pearl Harbour, even when it would have been quicker & cheaper to have started from scratch. The destroyers USS Cassin and USS Downes were rebuilt in this fashion with surviving components from their wrecked hulls being incorporated into new hulls and passed off as the original ships. The same happened for the light cruiser USS Helena, the submarines USS Cachalot, USS Tautog, USS Dolphin and USS Gudgeon and a whole host of other vessels. Although incredibly expensive, time consuming and totally unnecessary it did allow the US Navy to revise downwards the total number of 'official' losses at Pearl Harbour to fewer than twenty ships (16).
On the Japanese side the loss of around eighty front line naval aircraft with their irreplaceable elite aircrews seriously compromised the striking potential of the Kaigun's carrier force. However this was not immediately apparent to naval commanders like Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. With only a limited training scheme in existence it took months for the aircrews to be replaced, and these new pilots were of a much lower quality than those whom they were replacing. In the short term the Kaigun was compelled to withdraw two of its carriers (Shokaku and Zuikaku) in home waters and transfer the displaced aircrew to bring all the other carrier airgroups up to strength (17). The result was that Vice-Admiral Nagumo only had three fleet carriers at his disposal for his raids against Australia and into the Indian Ocean. With a more limited strike capability the damage that they inflicted was less than would have otherwise been the case. In particular the Royal Navy was very lucky in only losing the carrier HMS Hermes off Ceylon in April 1942. Two heavy cruisers, HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire, were very badly damaged in Japanese air attack but both managed to survive since only limited air strikes could be mounted. If more planes had been available both cruisers would undoubtedly have been lost (17).
The enforced reduction in the Kaigun's carrier force was also extremely useful to the United States Navy during the early months of 1942. With the facilities at Pearl Harbour in a right mess the American fleet was forced to drastically restrict any offensive operations against the Japanese until they had been sufficiently repaired. The US Navy was however able to mount one major offensive operation in April 1942 with the famous 'Doolittle' Raid against Tokyo, but only at the expense of stripping everything else bare to do so. It was likewise stretched to the limits just to send a pair of carriers down to the Southern Pacific to fight the Battle of the Coral Sea. Although technically a draw with one carrier destroyed on either side the Americans had nowhere to repair the damaged USS Yorktown, which ended up limping back to Puget Sound on the west coast. She was therefore unavailable for the Battle of Midway the following month where the Americans lost the USS Enterprise to Vice-Admiral Nagumo, who in turn lost the Kaga, Akagi and Soryu to Rear-Admiral Spruance. Reduced to a single carrier Spruance was forced to withdraw westwards for a full day, which allowed the Japanese to attempt an (unsupported) landing on Midway. The result was a disaster due to a major lack of planning by the Japanese (only five Daihatsu landing craft were assigned to the operation, and no account was taken of the coral reefs surrounding the atoll), and strong resistance by the Marines garrison (18). With only one carrier left apiece both sides disengaged as the Japanese retreated eastwards, and the Americans reluctant to risk their last flat-top in the Pacific declined to take up the pursuit. However, it was the decisive naval engagement of the war and from that point on the Americans never lost the initiative.
It took the United States almost a year to completely rebuild and enhanced their base at Pearl Harbour. As predicted by its top commanders this delayed the fight back across the Pacific by roughly by six months. Tarawa was captured in June 1944 (19) and Kwajalein was taken in August of that year. A massive naval battle was fought off the Marianas in January 1945, opening up the way to invade the Philippine Islands in April (19). Here the Americans were supported for the first time by their British and Commonwealth allies in the form of the British Pacific Fleet (BPF). Notwithstanding the name it was made up of predominantly Royal Navy warships with detachments from the rest of the Commonwealth and a few European navies as well. Although quite tiny in comparison with the US Pacific Fleet it added another 140 warships to the fight (including 6 fleet carriers, 6 light fleet carriers, 9 escort carriers, 5-6 battleships including the newly commissioned HMS Vanguard, 10 cruisers and 40 destroyers). What the BPF lacked however was a credible supply train of support ships and as a result was constantly having to 'borrow' vessels off the Americans (20). Despite this the BPF would stay the course for the remainder of the war right up to the end.
The big breakthrough came in August 1945 with the fall of Iwo Jima (19). This opened up the way for vast fleets of USSAF strategic bombers to fire-bomb the great cities of Japan in an effort to force her to her knees (1).
The tactic predictably failed. The Japanese people and their rulers refused to give and continued to fight the war into the following year. The Americans however had something hidden up their sleeves to force the issue. Although delayed by roughly six months due to the urgent need to divert resources to rebuild the naval infrastructure in the Pacific American science had devised a new type of weapon (21). Called the Atomic Bomb it could level whole cities with just one device. A test bomb was detonated in the New Mexico desert in January 1946 and two operational devices were immediately shipped out to the island of Tinian.
At about the same time the Soviet Union finally launched a land offensive against Japan in North China. Originally scheduled for August 1945 (as agreed at the Potsdam Conference) it had been 'delayed' by Stalin to October, before a harsh winter blew in and forced a further deferral to the following year (19). The offensive overran most of north China in just a few days and allowed the Soviets to recapture Port Arthur, which they had lost to Japan in 1905.
On the 6th of February 1946 a B-29 Superfortress bomber called the 'Enola Gay' dropped the world's first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima and destroyed it (19). The Japanese Imperial Government refused to surrender, and so three days later a second atomic bomb was used. This time the B-29 bomber (called 'Bock's Car') bombed its primary target, the city of Kokura and wiped it off the face of the map (19). Marginal weather had almost forced the B-29 to head towards its reserve target, a city called Nagasaki, but at the last moment the clouds had cleared to permit a text book bomb run (22).
Facing the possibility of atomic destruction Imperial Japan announced its surrender on the 15th of February 1946. The speech was given by no less than the Emperor himself on national radio - with a Japanese translation immediately afterwards for the civilian population. The formal surrender ceremony took place the following month on the 2nd of March 1946 in Tokyo Bay (19). Amongst the Allied warships present was the American battleship USS Nevada, the last survivor from Pearl Harbour. In the end the surprise Japanese attack on the Hawaiian anchorage had cost them the war and their whole empire in little more than four years. It had also sounded the death knell of the battleship as the dominant warship on the oceans of the world.
(1) - Historical fact, event, action or decision.
(2) - Fictional event, action or decision. In reality this never happened, but is entirely plausible.
(3) - This is exactly what did happen to the Arizona and the Oklahoma. In this story the US Navy does the same thing to these other vessels for political and propaganda purposes so that 'officially' they have not been 'sunk'.
(4) - This actually happened to several of the turrets from the USS Arizona.
(5) - This is exactly what the State of California might just do. Certainly gaining another Iowa class battleship would be a better investment than rebuilding the old vessel.
(6) - Utterly fictional event. As everybody knows, in the film 'Demolition Man' the next major earthquake is in 2010! (or 2012 as in the latest disaster movie).
(7) - The Pennsylvania only narrowly avoided being sunk in exactly the manner described at the same location on the 12th of August 1945. She was partly saved by damage control teams ferried across from the USS Tennessee. Here the Tennessee is not available & so the 'Penn' is lost.
( - Fictional event, but one that is VERY likely
to happen given the scale of the damage and losses sustained by the US Navy at Pearl Harbour. The Royal Navy will waste no time in extracting these two
important capital ships from Singapore PDQ!
(9) - All entirely true. Kimmel was lined up as the 'fall guy' for the disaster, only to be virtually cleared by a full enquiry after the war.
(10) - Fictional, but based on estimates by historians on how long it would have taken the Americans to re-build Pearl Harbour had it been smashed by the Japanese. Most estimates are around the 6 to 9 month point. I'm going for 6 months.
(11) - Complete fiction, but exactly what the Allies did during WW2. Both Britain and America 'borrowed' ships, planes and tanks off each other where necessary. The USN did however 'borrow' HMS Victorious for several months in the Pacific - one modification that she received was an industrial sized ice cream maker!
(12) - In reality of course Repulse was never there. However, if she had been available to back up the American 8-inch cruisers I'd put my money on the Allied side in this action!
(13) - This did almost happen. Chile however refused to part with the ship.
(14) - This is probably as far as any 'modernising' would go. Keep the 15-inch and change the rest (add American radars as well!).
(15) - Utter fiction of course. If they were available however they would certainly have been used since most of the 'actual' battle line has been destroyed at Pearl Harbour in this timeline.
(16) - This is exactly what happened!
(17) - With the losses sustained the Kaigun have no other choice. As a result their carrier striking capability is seriously compromised. This might just allow the two British 8-inch cruisers to escape (just). They would however be in repair / refit for the next one to two years.
(18) - In reality the actual Japanese plan for the landings was to run two destroyers and the five landing craft across the coral reefs and hope that they did not sink before reaching land!
(19) - All dates are put back by 6 months!
(20) - With the war lasting longer the RN can deploy two more light fleet carriers, plus of course the battleship Prince of Wales. They might also even have HMS Vanguard in early 1946! The problem with the 'Supply Train' was never sorted out. The one big exception was the amenity ship Menestheus - a floating brewery which could produce 250 barrels of beer a week. She also had a theatre, a large NAAFI and a chapel for good measure.
(21) - This is possible. It would be a higher priority to re-build the US Navy and its facilities in the Pacific during 1942, rather than devote resources to a highly theoretical atomic weapon system. I therefore have the Manhattan Project being delayed by 6 months in this alternative timeline.
(22) - In reality bad weather saved the primary target and spelt disaster for the secondary.
