Why did the Americans put there ships together at Pearl Harbor?

Answer 1

AIRPOWER was not an accepted "power" prior to the Pearl Harbor attack. Airplanes were for "Reconnaissance" and "Observation." Aircraft Carriers were NOT considered capital warships...they were warships, but were looked upon by senior naval officers as Auxillery ships that SUPPORTED the BATTLESHIPS. Aircraft Carriers were NOT part of any nation's "Battle Line." Pearl Harbor "Helped" to change that way of thinking. But the Japanese air attack against the British Battleship HMS Prince of Wales and Battlecruiser HMS Repulse only 3 days later in the China Sea on December 10, 1941 settled the matter once and for all. When those two warships went to the bottom, no one argued the point that airplanes could not sink a moving battleship with all anti-aircraft guns firing while maneuvering at sea! Now it was done. From December 10th onward, the new "Queen of the Seas" was the aircraft carrier...the Battleship was gone. Note-the aircraft that sank Prince of Wales and Repulse were Japanese ARMY airplanes that took off from land based airfields. Consequently, when mentioning "aircraft carriers", the implication is "Airpower" and not the actual ship itself. For without aircraft, the aircraft carrier really would be quite useless. Warships docked together during the Pearl Harbor attack was a traditional method of docking naval ships (parking ships) prior to the acceptance of AIRPOWER. This allows for economy of space, maintenance, accountability, and the easy flow of men and re-supply material.