Mid-Oceanic.

This is coolbert:

Courtesy the tip from Darius.

Consider not so much the second attack on the American naval base Pearl Harbor but rather the possibilities in the modern context as the topic of a most recent blog entry.

"Flying Boats Flew Japan’s Little-Known Follow-On Raid On Pearl Harbor"

"The second attempted attack on Pearl Harbor indirectly changed the course of the war in the Pacific."

From the Internet web site "The Drive" and the article BY THOMAS NEWDICK.

"The flying boats first touched down at French Frigate Shoals, around 1,900 miles from Wotje Atoll, 560 miles northwest of Honolulu. This was the largest atoll available in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, owned by the United States, but remote and unoccupied and used by the IJN as an anchorage. Here the flying boats rendezvoused with two submarines that were waiting to refuel them."

Japanese flying boats their mission to bomb the American naval base Pearl Harbor requiring a mid-oceanic refueling from submarine. US-2 current Japanese flying boats as has been suggested possibly being employed [with some modifications] as refueling tanker aircraft not being tied to a conventional ground airfield. 

Aerial refueling tanker mission of a US-2 made more flexible and robust. US-2 AVGAS "cargo" can be loaded from a logistics ships at sea or even a tethered rubber bladder anchored in shallower water?

This is a concept worthy of consideration of which we can find historical precedent?

coolbert.