Greetings, I thought it was common knowledge that the US picket DD had prosecuted an attack on an unknown sub in the harbor 2 hours before the first air strikes. It was one of the great questions as to why the fleet was not at general quarters.
(The attack was considered the action of a nervous DD commander-but as long as it was un certain the fleet should have been placed on GQ) One of the side effects would have been during the air strikes the ships would have already been set to condition "Zebra" (all water tight doors and hatches closed, fire fighting and damage repair teams manning the repair lockers, gun mounts and anti aircraft batteries manned etc. etc) the ships would have been preparing for sea and many of them would have been able to get underway. After PH the Navy always reacted to unknown sub attacks as actual events and prepared for battle. The unresponsive actions were just another of the many small warnings that went un heeded by the peacetime attitude (lower grade officers worried about disturbing persons up the chain of command with false alarms)
I'm not retreating, I'm attacking in a different direction!