A third wave at Pearl Harbor posed a target-selection problem. If the battleships and carriers had already been neutralised, remaining torpedoes might have been spent on cruisers. If the American carriers were still unlocated, conserving those weapons for a later carrier attack made more sense. Bombs could instead attack dockyard and base infrastructure, which offered targets as accessible to bombing as the cruisers. Uncertainty about the enemy's most valuable units therefore shaped weapon conservation and target priorities.
Notable Point · 3:21-4:17
Pearl Harbor's third-wave target priorities
A hypothetical third wave at Pearl Harbor raises a choice between bombing infrastructure, attacking cruisers, and conserving torpedoes for absent American carriers.