Comments by "" (@BobSmith-dk8nw) on "USS Saratoga (CV-3) - Guide 233" video.

  1. There was a cartoon at the time depicting an American Destroyer racing to intercept a torpedo headed towards the Saratoga. An exaggerated depiction of the Saratoga's Captain is shown leaning out of the bridge and yelling at the destroyer: "I'll take it!" This is the best thing I could find on the Wake Relief Effort http://www.cv6.org/1941/wake/wake_2.htm As best I can tell, it was attempted to bring Enterprise, Lexington and Saratoga to support Wake but the ships were scattered and to far away to get there in time. Had Kimmel issued different orders before he was replaced by Pye ... ??? Who knows? The impression I got - wasn't that Pye was afraid of Hiryu and Soryu - but of the entire Kido Butai - as he didn't know where it was. The Japanese responded quickly to their first defeat at Wake - faster than the Americans responded to reinforce it. It is a theme of the early war that the Japanese were acting faster than the Allies responded. For example - Langley and a transport were trying to bring aircraft intended for the Philippines to Indonesia. They had about 50 aircraft, some intact on the Langley (which couldn't launch them) and some in crates on the transport. Langley was sunk before it could unload and those aircraft the transport unloaded had to be destroyed to prevent their capture by the Japanese when they over ran the port. Also a theme of the early days is Western Forces surrendering to Japanese they might have done better against than they did. As to Midway - the Saratoga had been sent out from the West Coast with a large number of aircraft, many as cargo. Meeting up with Enterprise and Hornet - most of these aircraft were handed over to these ships to replace aircraft lost and damaged in the battle. .
    4
  2. As a perspective on the fates of the pre-Essex class Carriers .... CV-1 - sunk CV-2 - sunk CV-3 - Survived the War - Seriously Damaged time and again CV-4 - Survived the War - to fragile - kept in the Atlantic CV-5 - Sunk CV-6 - Survived the War - Seriously Damaged time and again CV-7 - Sunk CV-8 - Sunk CV-9 on - though several were heavily damaged - no more Fleet Carriers were sunk CVL's - several were sunk and many seriously damaged CVE's - several were sunk and many seriously damaged Of course - none of the Japanese Carriers survived. .
    1