Wake: should a carrier be risked to save the garrison?

Vice Admiral William Pye, acting commander of the Pacific Fleet

Vice Admiral inherits a shattered command. Named to lead the Pacific Fleet after Admiral 's relief in the days following , he is managing a crisis not of his making, one that presses on him from every direction. Some 1,600 miles northwest of Hawaii, the small garrison at - roughly 450 Marines and hundreds of civilians - is fighting with stunning tenacity: on 11 December, it repelled a first Japanese landing attempt, sinking 2 enemy destroyers and inflicting severe losses.

A relief force built around the carrier has been steaming toward the island for several days. But intelligence is unambiguous: Japanese carriers detached from the , the carrier strike force that hit , are operating in the area. American carriers are now a scarce resource - the , the , the : 3 ships to cover the entire Pacific Ocean. Losing one would mean facing 1942 with virtually no embarked air cover.

Pye must decide before the window closes: recall the relief force immediately and abandon to its fate, preserving the for the battles ahead; hold course and press on to despite the prospect of a confrontation with enemy carriers; or send only the 's air group to reinforce the island without committing the surface ships into such dangerous waters.