Comments by "Steve Valley" (@stevevalley7835) on "The Drydock - Episode 204 (Part 1)" video.

@Kumimono there were certainly ships purpose built for easy conversion into auxiliary cruisers. The target of Operation Creek was a German freighter, Ehrenfels. British agents had gotten on board Ehrenfels before the war started, and determined, from the way the ship was built and the decks reinforced, she was intended for conversion to an auxiliary cruiser. The Italian "banana boats" Ramb I and Ramb II were also built with an eye to easy conversion to auxiliary cruisers. The Japanese has several carriers that were converted from liners and seaplane tenders. Sources vary if the liners were purpose built for easy conversion.
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@WALTERBROADDUS Opana Point radar picked up the Japanese formation at 7:02 and reported it to the Army information center at Fort Shafter. The bulk of the air power on the island was Army. An hour should be plenty of time to get a substantial reception committee in the air and vectored toward the Japanese. The fault point would be the Navy getting the sub contact info to the information center at Fort Shafter, so that they would take the report from Opana Point seriously. Instead, the Ward's report was passed up the chain all the way to Kimmel, rather than alerting the Army information center.
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