The failure of Pearl Harbor 2
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, did the Japanese try again?
QUESTION THErE was a second Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor three months after the attack on December 7, 1941.
The Japanese knew they had missed the vital oil storage depots that fuelled American operations in the Pacific, and they also wanted to disrupt the salvage of the sunken warships.
Aircraft carriers had not been at Pearl Harbor on the day of the attack, and the Japanese had missed most of the submarines — the two types of vessel that would win the war for the Americans.
The first attack, 80 years ago this week, was the catalyst for the U.S. entrance into World War II. The reason why few of us have heard of the second attack is that it was an abject failure.
Five long-range Kawanishi H8K flying boats — huge planes with a 124 ft wingspan — were assigned for the operation K mission. At some 1,900 miles, it was the longest bombing raid in history at the time. Nicknamed ‘Flying Porcupines’ by the Allies (as were our own Sunderland flying boats by the Germans), they not only possessed an amazing 24-hour endurance but also bristled with machine guns and cannon.
on March 4, 1942, the only two serviceable planes took off from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. They had a secret refuelling rendezvous with a submarine at the French Frigate Shoals atoll.
When they at last arrived at Hawaii, the weather was dire. one plane glimpsed Tantalus Peak on oahu at 2am and dropped its bombs, just missing President Theodore roosevelt High School.
The second plane tried to bomb Pearl Harbor but hit the sea. The cloud, combined with an effective blackout, made reconnaissance impossible.
This time, the island’s air defence was alert, so the planes were spotted on radar; searchlights and anti-aircraft guns were manned; and fighter aircraft took off. But nothing could be done in the cloud and the giant Japanese planes lumbered off home, their mission a total failure.
The Japanese Press claimed damage at Pearl Harbor, with 30 deaths, but the reality was the massive effort had just broken two windows of an empty school.
An attempted third operation on March 10 ended with the Flying Porcupine being shot down near Midway Atoll. Benedict le Vay, author of Pearl Harbor Still Shocking 80 Years On,
Emsworth, Hants.
QUESTION What caused the end of the last Ice Age?
THE end of the last Ice Age was part of a natural cycle.
In the 1920s, Serbian astronomer Milutin Milankovic identified three cyclical variations in the Earth’s orbit that slightly alter the amount of sunlight reaching us, and trigger the start and end of increased glaciation consistent with an Ice Age.
The orbit varies from near circular to slightly elliptical. When more elliptical, the lengths of the seasons are altered a little. A complete cycle is 100,000 years.
The Earth’s tilt gives us our seasons. It can vary by two-and-a-half degrees over a 41,000-year cycle. When the angle is larger, summers and winters get more extreme.
Like a child’s spinning top as it slows down, the Earth has precession [wobblelike movements]. During this 26,000-year cycle, one hemisphere has warmer summers and colder winters, while the opposite hemisphere has the reverse.
Acting together, this could explain Ice Ages. Cores drilled from deep ice showed eight Ice Ages over the past three-quarters of a million years. These 100,000-year cycles agree with Milankovic’s theory. When an Ice Age starts, the reflection of light from the Earth increases with white ice cover and so aids the cooling. As the ice retreats, the reverse is true. We have ice caps because the North Pole is in a nearly landlocked ocean and the South Pole is covered by a continent. For much of the geological past, the Earth has been ice-free. Minor cool periods, such as the Little Ice Age after the Medieval Warm Period, can occur during interglacial periods. Phil Alexander, Farnborough, Hants.
QUESTION What forgotten cities are waiting to be rediscovered?
TWo major Ancient Egyptian cities, Itjtawy and Thinis, are in the historical record but remain undiscovered.
Itjtawy was a royal city founded by Amenemhat I, who ruled 4,000 years ago. He transferred Egypt’s capital from Thebes to Amenemhat-itj-tawy (which means ‘Amenemhat the seizer of the two lands’), known simply as Itjtawy. The name implies the area was chosen to prevent Asiatic incursions into Egypt. Archaeologists believe it may have been in the Faiyum region, south of Cairo.
Thinis is thought to have been Egypt’s capital during the First Dynasty in 3,000 BC. Priest and historian Manetho cited it as the first capital of Menes, who united Egypt and was its first pharaoh.
The city began a steep decline from the Third Dynasty and the capital was relocated to Memphis. It is thought to be in the vicinity of modern Girga on the Nile, 300 miles south of Cairo.
A number of undiscovered cities are referred to in the Bible. Akkad was the capital of the Akkadian empire, which was the dominant political force in Mesopotamia during the end of the third millennium BC.
And, according to St Luke’s Gospel, Arimathea was a city in Judea. It has not been located but was reportedly the home town of Joseph of Arimathea, who appears in all four Gospel accounts of the Passion. He donated his new tomb outside Jerusalem to receive the body of Jesus.
Sheila Franks, Dunstable, Beds. IS THERE a question to which you want to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question here? Write to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents,
Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT; or email charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection is published, but we’re unable to enter into individual correspondence.