History Buffs: Why were there no Aircraft Carriers present at Pearl Harbor during the attack in 1941?

At the time of Pearl Harbor the US Navy had seven fleet carriers:

The Enterprise and Lexington were both stationed in the Pacific and were ferrying a fighter squadrons to Wake Island and Midway. Enterprise was supposed to have reached Pearl Harbor by the evening of December 6 but a storm prevented her arrival. She was close enough that her own aircraft were shot at by friendly fire during the attack. In fact Halsey states that the Enterprise wasn't at Pearl only by the grace of God.

USS Hornet was off Norfolk undergoing a shakedown cruise.

USS Saratoga had just entered San Diego after being dry-docked in Bremerton.

USS Yorktown was also at Norfolk, VA on December 7.

USS Ranger had been on patrol in the Atlantic and was off the coast of the USA when the Japanese struck arriving at Norfolk, VA on the 8th of December.

USS Wasp was also at anchor in the Atlantic.

(US carriers were used to help relieve the pressure of the British navy during 1940 and 41 before the US got involved. German subs at times did engage or were told not to engage US warships)

Now for the real reason why the carriers were not there, simple, luck. The Battleship hadn't been replaced yet by the carrier, something that really didn't happen until about mid-'43 or so. Sinking a battleship wasn't easy. Even after Pearl Harbor most US carriers operated independently of each other, which makes them more venerable to both surface and air attacks.

The Bismarck is actually the classic case of how many people expected battleships and carriers to operate. The carrier would find, and harass the enemy battlefleet which allows the battlefleet to either engage or retreat away from the opposition depending on the opposition. Then after the fight the carriers' aircraft would harass any stragglers of the enemy fleet. In this case the Ark Royal, finding and torpedoing the Bismarck allowing the British battleships to close range and destroy the Bismarck.

The Japanese carrier fleet of Pearl Harbor consisting of six carriers was actually an uncommon practice at the time. Such a mass of carriers in one place was actually considered by just about everyone dangerous, though we now know it wasn't.

Don't look back with today's knowledge either. The carrier and battleship were both supreme fighting weapons and until war actually began the theories that both battleship and carrier admirals tossed around were just theories. Some actually proved wrong; EX Mitchell exclaimed that it was actually easier to hit a moving target than a stationary one, one that was proved false in wartime experience.

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History Buffs: Why were there no Aircraft Carriers present at Pearl Harbor during the attack in 1941?

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Carriers and battleships were the priority of the first wave of attacking planes. Those who place high priority on carriers ignore history in 1941. The carrier was not the primary fighting ship of the navy like it is today. In fact the carrier didn't actually really gain its dominance like many people think until mid 1944 when large numbers of carriers were finally put together. In 1941 the main tactic was to use carriers independent of the battlefleet (and each other) to harass the on-coming enemy battlefleet. After the main engagement (between the battlefleets) the carriers would either cover for the retreating battlefleet or attack a retreating enemy battlefleet. In fact this very tactic was used against the Bismarck in 1941 and carriers which were engaged by an enemy battleship were generally sunk, or damaged (only a fierce defense by destroyers prevented a worse outcome at Leyte Gulf). Many historians who put the attack as a minor US victory is because Japan ignored the fuel tanks and repair facilities which could have changed parts of the war.

My grandfather, should he still be alive today (he would be over 100 years old if her were), could answer this question VERY truthfully for you, because he was an aviation training officer at the war s start. He was stationed in San Diego at the time of the attack. It was actually a fluke of nature, God s divine intervention, or whatever you may choose to believe, but as the story goes ( from him, and then my grandmother in later years after his death) that BEFORE Pearl Harbor occurred, he was being reassigned to Pearl Harbor, because the government SAW A NEED for aircraft carriers out there...but that was foresight too little too late....then, through a "SNAFU" of paperwork, just as he was boarding a vessel to take him to Pearl Harbor, a young officer came running up the gangplank, waving orders in his hand for my grandfather to debark, and wait for new orders sending him to Corpus Christi, Texas, where he worked the entire rest of the war, training aviation cadets. True story...told by my grandfather first, then the rest of my moms family later on...it has become some sort of "legend" to the latest generation.

The two carriers in the Pacific at the time of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor were the USS Lexington (CV-2) and the USS Enterprise (CV-6). The Lexington was in the process of delivering aircraft to the Marines stationed at Midway when the attack occurred. It was ordered south afterwards and to launch search and patrol aircraft to locate the Japanese fleet before returning to Pearl on December 13. The Enterprise had just delivered a Marine fighter squadron to Wake Island on December 2 and was en route to Pearl, being close enough to have some of her scout bombers involved in the defense during the attack. She re-fueled quickly and left the next morning to continue to search for the Japanese fleet. I think the U.S. Navy was extremely lucky to not have either carrier in port when the infamous attack happened.

The American aircraft carriers Lexington and Enterprise were at sea when the Japanese attack took place and escaped damage. The aircraft carrier Yorktown was on temporary duty in the Atlantic at this time, and was immediately ordered back to Pearl Harbor after the Japanese attack. The aircraft carrier Saratoga was at the San Diego naval base on the American West Coast when the attack occurred.

Enterprise Pearl Harbor

Schedec and Bob Mc have it right..........people forget just how small the pre Pearl Harbor the Navy was......there were lots of ships building, but only 5 carriers In the whole Navy on 7 Dec 1941.......Ranger was a small, basically prototype design and spent the whole war in the Atlantic; Wasp and Hornet were still working up.....in fact at one point in 1942 due to damages and sinkings, the US Navy had ONE operational carrier left in the whole Pacific.......a ship named Enterprise

and amiths opinion is as good as his spelling........

the english had broken the japanees war code and informed the us that the japanees were going to attack pearl harbor. our military knew the importance of carriers and ordered them out to sea before the attack. that way the president could declare war on the axis powers and with the carriers and more to be built.win the war.

They were out in the Pacific on manuvers, very common and very good timing it would seem. It would have taken years for the U.S. to rebuild its fleet of aircraft carriers, had those been destroyed...who knows, perhaps the world would be under facist rule and the naysayers concerning the happenings of WWII could be in no doubt.....