Hit and Run

The Unauthorized History of the Pacific War

Captain William Toti, USN

Halsey, Station Hypo, World War Ii, Macarthur, Seth Paridon, Pacific War, History, Stavridis, Cactus Air Force, Fargo, William Toti, Aircraft Carriers, Nimitz, Mush Morton, Wahoo, Imperial Japan, Cruisers, Wake Island, Battleships, Spruance, Courses, Submarines, Midway, Cincpac, Guadalcanal, Documentary, Naval History And Heritage Command, Society & Culture, Admiral King, Imperial Japanese Navy, New Guinea, Cincpoa, Cryptology, Navy, Sam Cox, Pearl Harbor, Education, Bill Toti, December 7, Us Navy, Bombers, Fighters

4.8 • 654 Ratings

🗓️ 27 September 2022

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today we are going to be discussing the period between January and April 1942. This was a pivotal and dangerous period in the history of the Pacific War for the United States. With the disaster at Pearl Harbor just a few weeks in the rearview mirror, the US Pacific Fleet was still in a seriously weakened condition…one might say decrepit. While the fleet may have been decrepit, it wasn’t dead. Admiral Nimitz had just taken command on December 31, 1941 and was already under immediate pressure from his boss Admiral King, and the American press and public, to strike back at the Japanese in retaliation for Pearl Harbor with whatever he had. Strike back sure. But with what, when and where?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to episode 105 of the Unauthorized history of the Pacific War podcast.
0:23.9	My name is Seth Periden, historian and deputy director of the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum.
0:27.8	And with me, as always, is my esteemed co-host, retired Navy captain Bill Toady,
0:31.9	former skipper of the Fast Attack Submarine Usess, Indianapolis,
0:34.9	commoner of Submarine Squadron 3 in Pearl Harbor, and many other postings.
0:38.6	How are you doing, Bill? I'm doing well, Seth. Looking forward to this. Yeah, this is going to be a good one. Today we're going to be discussing the period between January and April 1942. This was a pivotal and dangerous period in the history of the Pacific War for the United States. With the disaster of Pearl Harbor just a few
0:55.2	weeks in the rearview mirror, the U.S. Pacific Fleet was still in a seriously weakened condition,
1:00.2	one might say decrepit. While the fleet may have been decrepit, it wasn't dead. Admiral Nimitz had
1:07.1	just taken command on December 31st, 1941, and was already under immediate pressure
1:12.3	from his boss, Admiral King, and the American press and the public to strike back at the
1:17.4	Japanese and retaliation for the Pearl Harbor attack with whatever he had. Strike back for
1:22.6	sure, but with what, when, and where? Let's dig into it and find out, shall we?
1:29.8	Bill, what was the situation like in late December, 1941, early January, 42 in the Pacific
1:36.7	theater?
1:37.1	What were we looking at?
1:38.3	It's not an exaggeration to say that the surface navy was essentially sunk.
1:48.2	It would take months and sometimes years and sometimes never to recover those ships that had been sunk at Pearl Harbor. The engine for constructing
1:53.9	new ships was already operating, but you couldn't pump out ships in less than a year.
2:02.8	And that was accelerated, right?
2:08.4	So you wouldn't start seeing the fleet significantly increased the number of carriers and fast battleships until well into 1943.
2:13.0	So Nimitz knew that all he had left was the carriers, two carriers, I think it was, right? Seth.
2:20.4	Three. He had Enterprise Lexington and Yorktown was on the way, so technically two, yeah.
	...

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