1941 Joint Army-Navy signal to Hawaii states, "This dispatch is to be considered a war warning. Negotiations with Japan looking toward stabilization of conditions in the Pacific have ceased and an aggressive move by Japan is expected within the next few days. The number and equipment of Japanese troops and the organization of naval task forces indicates an amphibious expedition against either the Philippines, Thai or Kra Peninsula or possibly Borneo. Execute an appropriate defensive deployment preparatory to carrying out the tasks assigned in WPL46. Inform District and Army authorities. A similar warning is being sent by War Department. Spenavo inform British. Continental districts, Guam, Samoa directed take appropriate measures against sabotage".
Japanese ships, of course, were already en route to their launching points for assaults across the Pacific, including Pearl Harbor, with a fast carrier task force having left the Kurile Islands the day prior. A Japanese news agency reported that there was little hope of concluding a peace, a frank admission on the Japanese side of the direction which events were headed in.
The War Warning message is oddly a somewhat controversial part of the Pearl Harbor story as it forms the basis of questions about whether it was broad enough. It did not list Pearl Harbor as a potential site of an upcoming attack, but it was broad enough to list every place as one. And,in fact, Army and Navy commands at Pearl Harbor did react to the warning with precautionary measures.
On the same day, the Siege of Toburk ended when the 8th Army made contact with the garrison. The German 15th Panzer Division, however, took Sidi Azeiz.
The Soviets concluded their defense of Rostov victoriously, a setback for the Germans.
No comments:
Post a Comment