I have been reading the 2001 book "Pearl Harbor Betrayed" by Michael Gannon. I am puzzled how the book misses out mentioning the 21st to 24th November Exercise 191 when Adm Kimmell took his fleet north of Oahu to almost the exact positions the Kido Butai took a few weeks later. Kimmell divided his fleet into 2 with a Black (attacking fleet) with a carrier and a White defensive fleetalso with carrier. Upshot was he had to cut the Ex short when ordered back to Pearl by Washington/The White House. Like a naughty schoolboy ordered to see the Headmaster. It is also odd the Ex 191 got no airtime in the various PH inquiries from 41 to 46.There would be a few movies in that lot (bits of similar 1946 hearings are protrayed in the brilliant(imho) Oppenheimer. As we all know the carriers went off on westerly missions altho one was returning nearby at 8am on 7Dec41. The giant book "At Dawn We Slept" also ignores Ex. 191, ADWS misses a lot. Anyway - back to Gannon's book.Gannon is quite good at weaving more complete accounts of various events. There is the well known story of how at approx 6am on the 7Dec41 the Destroyer USS Ward fired on and sank a Jap midget sub near the entrance to Pearl a few hours before the Jap attack hit ~750am on the 7Dec41.The sub had been trailing work boats as though it wanted to follow them in past the boom gates. What Gannon tells is that a PBY (Catalina) from the Kanehoe Air Base on a routine patrol also attacked the Sub and dropped "depth charges" at the same time as the Ward. I had never read that. Gannon also has a good account of how the Army radar station on northern point of Oahu detected the Jap air fleet coming in but were told not to worry.Gannon covers the background about the radars v well.
