There
are two events in military history that I have often wondered how different the
outcome would have been had the Commanders in the field
used a Balloon Barrage
to defend their positions.
If
I can take you back to the dark days of World War Two for a moment and give some
thought to 7th December 1941. The American Fleet was
based largely at Pearl
Harbour, the American Government was watching the Japanese Government make its
way across the lands and ocean, yet
since they were not at war with them they
chose to let them continue with their appalling war and keep them at arms
length, a policy of
isolationism.
However,
all that was to change, the Japanese Government had decided the American forces
were a threat to them and a first strike against the
United States was chosen.
The Japanese knew that in
Pearl
harbour was a huge concentration of the
United States
Navy. An all-out strike on that could cause enough
damage to keep
America
out of the war as a major threat. Japan was planning to wage war in Southeast
Asia against Britain, the Netherlands,
and the
United States. Japan needed to protect their advance into Malaya and the Dutch East Indies,
countries rich in natural resources such as oil
and rubber. The attack was
intended as a preventive action to keep the
U.S.
Pacific Fleet from influencing the war. The Japanese knew that
once they
attacked then the
United States
would declare war on
Japan
, hence it made sense militarily to get the first blow in, and damage the
United States
ability to wage war against the Japanese.
The attack it consisted of two aerial attack waves
totaling
353 aircraft, launched from six Japanese aircraft carriers.
The
Japanese had been gathering intelligence for a long time on the build up of arms
and the distribution of ships and planes across the island.
They
knew the layout of aircraft and stores and munitions and oil supplies.
The
attack sank four
U.S.
Navy battleships (two of which were raised later) and damaged four more. The
Japanese also sank or damaged three
cruisers, three destroyers, and one
minelayer, destroyed 188 aircraft, and caused personnel losses of 2,402 killed
and 1,282 wounded. The power
station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and
torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters
intelligence building were
not hit. Japanese losses were minimal, at 29 aircraft
and four midget submarines, with 65 servicemen killed or wounded.
Afterwards
it was a clear tactical victory for the Japanese but a grand strategic failure.
The result was inevitable:
United States
declares war on the Empire of
Japan
; Nazi
Germany
and Fascist
Italy
declare war on the
United States
.
The
United States
had been deploying intelligence gathering work and knew of the declaration of
war in advance. They had managed to break
the cipher codes
Camp
Tyson
in
Tennessee
was formed to train Barrage Balloon Squadrons. It has never been satisfactorily
explained why there were never any
deployed on the Island at
Pearl
Harbour. Claims have been made that the men were not ready and that they had to learn
about the balloon
handling and deployment from scratch. This is unlikely as they
were very interested in our Barrage Balloons and had ample British servicemen
available to train and help set up this new form of air defence.
American
Intelligence deciphered a message from a Honolulu
spy saying:
From:
Tokyo
To:
Honolulu
Date:
2 Dec. 41
"
In view of the present situation, the presence in port of
warships,
airplane carriers, and cruisers is of utmost
importance.
Hereafter, to the utmost of your ability, let me
know
day by day. Wire me in each case
whether or not there are
any
observation balloons above
Pearl Harbor
or if there are any
indications
that they will be sent up. Also
advise me whether
or
not the warships are provided with anti-mine nets."
A
second message was issued on the 6th a day before the attack saying:
From:
Honolulu
To:
Tokyo
Date:
6 Dec. 41
"
1. On the American Continent in October the Army began
training
barrage balloon troops at
Camp Davis
,
North Carolina
.
Not
only have they ordered four of five hundred balloons, but it
is
understood that they are considering the use of these
balloons
in the defence of
Hawaii
and
Panama
. In so far as
Hawaii
is
concerned, though investigations have been made in the
neighbourhood
of
Pearl Harbor
, they have not set up mooring
equipment,
nor have they selected the troops to man them.
Furthermore,
there is no indication that any training for the
maintenance
of balloons is being undertaken. At
present time
there
are no signs of barrage balloon equipment.
In addition, it
is
difficult to imagine that they have actually any.
However,
even
though they have actually made preparations, because they
must
control the air over the water and land runways of the
airports
in the vicinity of
Pearl Harbor
, Hickham, Ford, and
Ewa,
there are
limits to the balloon defence of
Pearl Harbor
. I
imagine
that in all probability there is considerable
opportunity
left to take advantage for a surprise attack against
these
places.
"
2. In my opinion the battleships do not have torpedo
nets..."
They
could have used barrage balloons at
Pearl Harbour to reduce the threat from enemy aircraft, although if deployed,
the mentality of the
average Japanese pilot was that they would have pressed on
with the attack in any case, preferring self-sacrifice to failure. This would
have
meant that any balloon crews would have needed to be pretty slick to get a
fresh balloon inflated, armed and back up quickly. With over 300
enemy aircraft
flying over the base, over a 3 hour attack,
it was likely that had balloons been deployed the tactic would have been
to press on
with the attack and take out the balloons one by one leaving a
fairly clean sweep for the remaining bombers.
However the existence of the two deciphered signals has led to much
speculation that failure to fully defend Pearl harbour against an attack was a
ruse by Roosevelt to declare war on
Japan
. I find this theory hard to follow.
Even
if well defended the Japanese would have pressed home with their attack and even
an unsuccessful attack would have led to a declaration
of war by the
United States
on
Japan
. I think that
Pearl
harbour was not simply a sitting duck that morning, but a base that was not
expecting
an attack. The United States was clearly expecting expect sabre
rattling by the Japanese in the form of them flexing their military might
but an
attack on Pearl Harbour was not expected, although it was known to
have been well reconnoitred by the Japanese.
However conspiracy theories
abound even today.
The Japanese failed to follow through their final attack on
Pearl
Harbour
which was to attack and destroy all the logistical supplies. The
reasons for
this are not clear but had they done so the United States would have had great
difficulty in waging a serious war against the Japanese
as it was the attack on
Pearl Harbour clearly delayed the amount of firepower they were able to muster
quickly and gave the Japanese a head
start as it were in their war against the
Allies.
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