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OCR Page 1 of 89NAVY COURT OF INQUIRY
TRUMAN
FINDING OF FACTS
"NATIONAL
ARCHIVES AND
RECORDS
SERVICE"
I
Pearl Harbor is situated on the Island of Oahu, near the city of
Honolulu, the capital of the Territory of Hawaii, distant 2100 miles from
San Francisco. It is the only permanent outlying United States Naval
Base in the Eastern Pacific. It possesses great strategic importance as
a point from which naval operations in defense of the Western United
States can be conducted, and offensive operations against an enemy to
the Westward launched and supported. The United States possesses no
base on the West Coast of the United States that meets these requirements
to an equivalent extent.
II
Prior to 1940 certain subdivisions of the Pacific Fleet and, begin-
ning in May, 1940, the entire Fleet operated in the Hawaiian area with
Pearl Harbor as a base. In May, 1941, three battleships, one aircraft
carrier, four cruisers, and nine destroyers were detached from the Pacific
Fleet and transferred to the Atlantic.
For the purpose of conducting exercises and maneuvers at sea designed
to increase efficiency and readiness for war, the remaining major vessels
of the Pacific Fleet were organized in three main Task Forces. The opera-
ting schedule was so arranged that there was always at least one of these
Task Forces, and usually two, at sea. Frequently, during Fleet maneuvers,
the entire available Fleet was at sea.
The vessels and the Fleet planes thus rotated their scheduled periods
1-1
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