The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was, as Admiral Husband E Kimmel termed it, during his testimony to the investigating congressional committee: “A beautifully planned and executed military manoeuvre.”
Years later, Richard H ‘Dick’ Best Jr, a member of VB-6 aboard USS Enterprise at the time, said: “The only thing really surprising about the attack to any of us in the navy at the time, was that it occurred the day it did, rather than any other day that year.”
Pearl Harbor’s vulnerability to surprise air attack was well known, having been demonstrated on 7 February, 1932, when then Captain, Ernest J King, brought USS Saratoga within striking range, without being spotted. This was during the Army/Navy Grand Joint Exercise 4 Blue, and he executed an air attack that umpires declared eliminated the base for further operations. To prove it wasn’t a fluke, two further ‘surprise attacks’ occurred in 1935 and 1937 fleet exercises.
