Admiral Chūichi Nagumo's third wave

[Triton]

What are your thoughts if Admiral Chūichi Nagumo was persuaded to launch a third wave to destroy as much of Pearl Harbor's fuel and torpedo storage, maintenance, and dry dock facilities as possible on December 7, 1941? Would it have postponed major United States operations in the Pacific for a year or that it would have prolonged the war another two years as was the opinion of Admiral Chester Nimitz?

 

[royabulgaf]

The big danger is that Pearl would have been ready for a third wave. The cost/benefit ratio would drop quite a bit, with a real concern that the carriers would head home empty. Midway could become a turkey shoot.

 

[pathology_doc]

Midway could become a turkey shoot.

Not sure about that - they lost an entire carrier at Coral Sea without Midway becoming a turkey shoot, and even after that Japanese naval aviation was not exactly impotent.

IIRC Halsey was fairly close and the real danger is that the third wave might have revealed the Japanese carriers' position or allowed a follow-you-home counter-strike. Rage and desperation might have allowed the Americans to do the impossible and nail a carrier or two much earlier than they did IRL; and having flown off three strikes already, the Japanese would have been in less of a position to respond.