rtrapasso
Posts: 22653
Joined: 9/3/2002 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: RevRick quote:
ORIGINAL: Mogami Hi, In WITP terms Savo was the result of placing a TF under command of a ship Capt and not a flag officer. Result, A TF that does not fight, ships that don't fire their guns, go in wrong directions. You can't say "A good TF commander would have done this......." because poor Bode was busy running his ship and ignored the TF. ()He appears to have been a decent ship CO but TF leader was beyond him in the circumstance Criuchly left him in. The real blame has to go to Turner and Crutchely and not Bode. If I recall correctly - again, a dubious proposition - Wasn't Crutchley called to confer with Turner because Turner was getting ready to haul keister - er.. retire? The only suggestion I have seen is that Crutchley made a mistake by taking Australia to confer with Turner rather than a DD, or whatever. But than again, they were not expecting an attack that night because of the intel foul-up. Besides that, the next foul up was the doctrine of tieing the DD's to the CA's and not letting them scout ahead or picket the east and west passages around Savo. You are right in that Bode was left to run a TF with no staff and no real knowledge of what was going on - and it's not his fault he was put in that situation. Turner is not one of the best admirals of WWII, IMO, in spite of his well earned reputation with the Gator Freighters. Morrison had guarded praise of him for that skill, but he lacked other qualities. Having studied the Battle of Savo Island on and off for 20+ years: Not only was Bode left to run a TF with no staff and no real knowledge of what was going on, he probably didn't know he was in charge. Crutchley was supposed to have returned and taken over by midnight - he didn't and didn't inform Bode that he decided to stay the night in company with Turner. As for Turner about to turn tail - don't know think he specifically had that as a priority plan, although with Fletcher's playing "Sir Robin" and abandoning the landing (against directives) it certainly had to be on his mind. After losing both his air coverage and surface coverage, Turner pretty much had to withdraw after Savo. Personally, i rate the parties at fault as in order 1) Crutchley (set up the DD patrols, the cruiser coverage, etc., failed to communicate situation to subordinates) 2) Fletcher (he bravely ran away, taking his air patrols with him) 3) Ghormley (failure to supervise the operation, get more support from Washington, etc.) 4) Turner (failure to supervise the operation). 5) individual ship commanders, including the US DD that apparently torpedoed HMAS Canberra (shown in retrospect by forensic analysis) taking her out of battle just as she was effectively starting to fight back. Ultimately, the Allies tried to do too much with too little - leading to overworked, exhausted men trying to make decisions in the dead of night.
< Message edited by rtrapasso -- 1/17/2005 11:19:12 AM >
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