From: Everette (194cbteng@bellsouth.net)
Date: Mon Dec 05 2005 - 03:50:54 PST
December 5
1941 American carrier Lexington heads to Midway
On this day, the Lexington, one of the two largest aircraft carriers
employed by the United States during World War II, makes its way across the
Pacific in order to carry a squadron of dive bombers to defend Midway Island
from an anticipated Japanese attack.
Negotiations between the United States and Japan had been ongoing for
months. Japan wanted an end to U.S. economic sanctions. The Americans wanted
Japan out of China and Southeast Asia and Japan to repudiate the Tripartite
"Axis" Pact with Germany and Italy before those sanctions could be lifted.
Neither side was budging. President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell
Hull were anticipating a Japanese strike as retaliation-they just didn't
know where. The Philippines, Wake Island, Midway Island-all were
possibilities. American intelligence reports had sighted the Japanese fleet
movement out from Formosa (Taiwan), apparently headed for Indochina.
The U.S. State Department demanded from Japanese envoys explanations for the
fleet movement across the South China Sea. The envoys claimed ignorance.
Army intelligence reassured the president that, despite fears, Japan was
most likely headed for Thailand-not the United States.
The Lexington never made it to Midway Island; when it learned that the
Japanese fleet had, in fact, attacked Pearl Harbor, it turned back-never
encountering a Japanese warship en route or employing a single aircraft in
its defense. By the time it reached Hawaii, it was December 13.
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