>
>What no manual system can handle … simply … are ships’
> *individual* actions, once action is joined … if control is
> lost of the formation. The only Guadalcanal battle the Japanese
> really lost control in was the First Battle of Guadalcanal.
> Even in Esperance, they withdrew in formation. Even with our
> superior radio communications, we lost control much more readily.
> Superior training and discipline characterized the Japanese
> performance.
>
I sure won’t quibble with the proposition that the IJN was better prepared
for night engagements and kept better order than we did. However, as I
understand it, one of the reasons that Mikawa retired at Savo was that he
believed it would take over an hour to reform his cruisers. I’m not sure
whether he was being overly tidy or his formation had become scattered. It
may be that nobody knows. Chuck Haberlin from the Navy Yard went with the
Ballard people to Guadalcanal. He told me that all of the wrecks they found
were considerably distant from where they “should” have been according to
the records. It may be that a night surface action is a bad time for record
keeping.
Eric Bergerud, 531 Kains Ave, Albany CA 94706, 510-525-0930