They were anticipated. The U.S. planes sortied as soon as word reached them, presuming (reasonably) that the japanese would time their attacks to coincide so that one attack would not alert the other defenders.
Unfortunately for the U.S., the Japanese attack force was grounded on Formosa (the name at the time) by a heavy fog and was not able to launch as scheduled. When the fog burned off, the Japanese launched their attack, just in time to catch a lot of the U.S. planes returning to base to refuel, having flown a useless CAP against an enemy that was not yet on the way.
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Nothing in this thread requires that it be hijacked into an acrimonious squabble over current politics. If you have a need to link WWII to the Iraq War, open a new thread.
[ /Modding ]