Gathering Clouds

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• British Ambassador Lord Halifax is pelted with eggs and tomatoes in Detroit by isolationist protesters, who are opposed to America entering the war.

 

 

• Hirohito approves a detailed plan for the attack on Pearl Harbor that is presented by Chief of the IJN General Staff Nagano. "

 

 

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "I-68 joined the Advance Expeditionary Force for the Pearl Harbor attack; she departed Saeki, Japan for Kwajalein, Marshall Islands.

Japanese submarine I-68 underway, Mar 1934; she was likely to be running trials ww2dbase"

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "US 22nd and 23rd Fighter Squadrons, both operating P-40 Warhawk fighters, was assigned to Losey Field in Puerto Rico. [They were part of the 1940 Destroyers for Bases Agreement with Great Britain and assigned to ASW patrols]"

 

[Patch adopted in 1943 during conversion to P-47s for deployment to England]

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• The Army Signal Corps has a fully functional Air Defense Control Center at Ft Shafter integrating the six radar systems deployed around Oahu.

 

SCR-270 mobile radar

 

- The center was designed to replicate the ones Fighter Command had used to defend Great Britain in the Summer of 1940 and has been inspected by an RAF officer, who was quite impressed with it. The facility is operational as of today, but General Short and Admiral Kimmel are squabbling over who will pay for radar operations and neither is assigning permanent personnel to man it.

 

- Walter Short and Husband Kimmel have no liaisons between their intelligence staffs.

 

• At a Joint Board meeting, General Hap Arnold remarks (erroneously) that the Japanese have no carrier aircraft that can catch one of the new Army B-24 heavy bombers.

 

• Secretary of State Cordell Hull rejects the offer from Prime Minister Tōjō to withdraw from Indochina (only) if the United States lifts the embargo and grants Japan significant economic aid. The Hull Memorandum counter-offers lifting the embargo if Japan withdraws from Indochina and China (keeping Manchuria and Korea), and agrees to an open door policy regarding trade with China.

 

• Japanese military leaders confer on Formosa to complete plans for the invasion of the Philippines.

 

• The Pearl Harbor Strike Force (Kidō Butai) sets sail from Hitokappu Wan in the Kuriles under strict radio silence. Imperial naval commands in southern areas have increased radio traffic to mask the silence of the striking force."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• The Civil Air Patrol is created as an auxiliary to the Army Air Forces by Federal Office of Civilian Defense Director and New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia. Originally intended to only conduct unarmed reconnaissance, armed aircraft will eventually conduct ASW patrols as well as other missions such as search and rescue, target towing, cargo transport, and courier service. In Texas, CAP aircraft will thin down wolf populations to prevent loss of beef. By the end of the war, CAP pilots will have flown over 500,000 mission hours, with 90 aircraft lost, and 64 pilots killed.

 

CAP aircraft"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• USS Saratoga finishes a yard overhaul at Bremerton, Washington, and departs for San Diego. The Japanese think she is at Pearl Harbor.

Carrier Wing 3 aboard Saratoga in 1941

 

• The Malaya landing group departs Hainan, consisting of 18 transports carrying 26,640 men from the 5th and 18th Divisions. It is escorted by cruisers Kumano, Mikuma, Mogami, Suzuya, Chokai, Sendai, and three destroyer divisions.

 

• The Southern Expeditionary Force departs Saigon with the 143rd Infantry Regiment escorted by light cruiser Kashii and destroyers. Both forces are covered by Naval Lt-General Kondō with battleships Kongo and Haruna, heavy cruisers Atago and Takao, and three destroyer divisions.

 

• A Manila based PBY reports that the Japanese transports seen the previous day in Cam Ranh Bay, Indochina, are no longer there.

 

• In the Philippines, the 21st Pursuit Squadron completes transition to the P-40E. Its P-35As are turned over to the 34th.

 

• Japanese submarine I-10 conducts a submerged reconnaissance of Pago Pago, American Samoa.

 

• USS Enterprise launches Marine Corps F4F fighters of VMF-211 to Wake Island. The same heavy weather that is masking the approach of the Japanese Carrier Strike Force will prevent Enterprise from refueling her escorts until she clears the front. This will delay her return to Pearl Harbor from the December 6th to December 8th.

 

• Newly appointed Soviet Ambassador to the United States Maxim Litvinov tours Pearl Harbor on his way to Washington DC.

 

• Battleship Division One conducts a night gunnery exercise, led by Rear Admiral Isaac Kidd aboard USS Arizona.

USS Arizona during an exercise in the 1930s"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Admiral Kimmel sends USS Lexington with three heavy cruisers and five destroyers to deliver Marine Corps SB2U dive bombers of VMSB-241 to Midway Island. This leaves no carriers at Pearl Harbor.

Vought SB2U Vindicator"