At 6:00 a.m., six carriers launched a first wave of 181 planes composed of torpedo bombers, dive bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters. Before dawn on the 7th of December, undiscovered and with diplomatic prospects firmly at an end, the Pearl Harbor Striking Force was less than 300 miles north of Pearl Harbor. Under the greatest secrecy, Nagumo took his ships to sea on 26 November 1941, with orders to abort the mission if he was discovered, or should diplomacy work an unanticipated miracle. An Advance Expeditionary Force of large submarines, five of them carrying midget submarines, was sent to scout around Hawaii, dispatch the midgets into Pearl Harbor to attack ships there, and torpedo American warships that might escape to sea. His Pearl Harbor Striking Force also included fast battleships, cruisers and destroyers, with tankers to fuel the ships during their passage across the Pacific. Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo would command the operation. With over 420 embarked planes, these ships constituted by far the most powerful carrier task force ever assembled. When the time came for war in 1941, the Japanese devised a mission which included all six of the nation's first-line aircraft carriers, Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku and Zuikaku. officers that the prospect of an attack on Pearl Harbor could be safely discounted. However, its distance from Japan and shallow harbor, the certainty that Japan's navy would have many other pressing needs for its aircraft carriers in the event of war, and a belief that intelligence would provide warning persuaded senior U.S. Navy had even explored the issue during some of its interwar "Fleet Problems". The Pearl Harbor naval base was recognized by both the Japanese and the United States Navies as a potential target for hostile carrier air power.
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