Harry E. Yarnell

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Harry E. Yarnell

Harry E. Yarnell (born October 18, 1875 near Independence (Iowa) , † July 7, 1959 in Newport (Rhode Island) ) was an American naval officer whose career spanned 51 years and three wars from the Spanish-American War to World War II .

Yarnell commanded the ships USS Dale, USS Saratoga and from 1936 to 1939 the US Asian fleet. In 1932, Yarnell demonstrated in a sea maneuver the vulnerability of the American naval base in Pearl Harbor due to an air raid . As in the later Japanese attack of December 7, 1941, on a Sunday morning, planes that had been positioned on carriers under the protection of a storm and with radio silence, attacked the port with the warships anchored there. On February 7, 1932, the defenders were unable to take off even a single aircraft, and none of the 152 attacking Stuka aircraft were lost according to the rules of the Army and Navy business game. In contrast, the "bombs" (sandbags and paint bags) that were thrown off accurately would have caused the worst damage in an emergency.

Yarnell, who had a good knowledge of Japanese and Chinese, subsequently warned against a similar Japanese attack on the far forward naval base. The results of the simulation game and the admiral's warnings were received unfavorably. Among other things, Yarnell's warning report of November 1938, which has been exempted from confidentiality since 1972, is considered remarkable

At the end of the 1930s, Yarnell experienced a career dip. The reference to the maneuvering situation, which was modeled on in detail by the Japanese Navy, plays an important role today in the conspiracy theories for the attack on Pearl Harbor .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see the reference in the presidential speech by Admiral James P. Wisecup of the Naval War College (2008): Archive link ( Memento of the original from April 28, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.usnwc.edu

Web links

literature

  • William Stewart: Admirals of the World. A Biographical Dictionary, 1500 to the Present , McFarland & Company 2009, pp. 291f
personal data
SURNAME Yarnell, Harry E.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American naval officer
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH near Independence (Iowa)
DATE OF DEATH July 7, 1959
Place of death Newport (Rhode Island)