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Admiral DadMan -> The Effect of Losses on Commander Aggressiveness (6/6/2002 2:22:16 AM)
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Will losses suffered have an effect on the Commander's Aggressiveness?
All Commanders, from General and Admirals all the way down to Platoon Leaders and Chiefs know that in battle, you will suffer losses. Some Commanders accepted it as part of War (Gen. Grant, 1864-65; Adms. Halsey/Spruance, 1942-45). Some Commanders (Gen. McClellan, 1862; Adm Ghormley, 1942) were hesitant to risk high losses to achieve their objective, and others became less aggressive the more losses they piled up (Adm. Fletcher).
Of those three, the case of Adm Fletcher is the most interesting. During Coral Sea in May '42, he launched all out strikes at any sightings that included carriers, which led to Shoho being pounded and sunk. But in doing so, he missed a later opportunity to strike at Shokaku and Zuikaku. In the air battle the next day, He lost Lexington, and Yorktown was heavily damaged.
At Midway, even though Fletcher had Spruance launch full deckloads from TF-16, he held back one group of SBD's in case there were more targets. In the following reprisals, Yorktown was again heavily damaged, to be sunk 3 days later by an IJN sub.
After the landings Guadalcanal, Fletcher retired on the first night (instead of staying close-by to offer air support) on the flimsy grounds that his fighter strength had been reduced by 21% in two days of operations. That night (9 Aug 42), the USN was soundly defeated in the Battle of Savo Island. Samuel Eliot Morison wrote that, "Captain Forrest Sherman of Wasp, on hearing a flash report of the action (at Savo), begged permission to turn back and launch planes at daylight to pursue the Japanese ships, but was denied" by RAdm Fletcher.
Following the stalemate in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons (Fletcher had again made another error, he sent Wasp to a fueling rendezvous leaving him with 2 carriers to face IJN 2 CV and 2 CVLs), he was relieved when putting in to port with Saratoga (which had been torpedoed by an IJN sub).
At the other end of the spectrum are Commanders (the Japanese Navy up to June 1942 for example) who are emboldened when victory comes at a very cheap price. Hence the tendancy to overrate one's own abilities and underrate one's opponent ("Victory Disease" as the Japanese called it).
So my question is, are Commander Aggressiveness Ratings static, or can they be modeled to reflect losses incurred, if such a thing would affect them?
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