Battle of Cape Esperance 10/11/42

Ultradog MN · Oct 11, 2017

Good narrative on one of the many naval
battles for the Solomon Islands.
This writer paints a rosier picture of
this night time battle than other writers
do. The US still hasn't given up on their
line ahead battle formations and will pay
for it again here.
And Adm. Scott hasn't learned to
completely trust his radar.
The learning curve at this point of the
war is steep for the Americans as they
adapt to the IJN's superb night fighting
tactics. But they're catching on and this
time will give as good as they get or
maybe even a little better.
Click here

johnlobb · Oct 11, 2017

Dawg, thank you very much for the great story. I am a student of WW2, and love any history of that very interesting war.

Texasmark1 · Oct 11, 2017

"And Adm. Scott hasn't learned to completely trust his radar."

From what I have learned, had the Western Oahu RADAR station operators "trusted their radar" and the managers of the military been more skeptical, inquisitive, and responsive...."just in case", Pearl Harbor would have had a very different outcome. Course RAdio Detection And Ranging (RADAR) systems were quite primitive back then and it is understandable that anomalies were common and operators just coming on board with no experience....having had no equipment previously available.

oldtanker · Oct 11, 2017

Given todays tech stuff it's hard to imagine a time when people didn't trust radar. Now we use it for weather predictions and active storms. It's understandable that people in general have to trust they're lives to new things they don't trust them. And so much new stuff came out in WWII. The men who had to trust that new technology must have spent the entire war wondering if it was going to kill them or save them. No more than learn one system when another came out.

Rick

dhermesc · Oct 11, 2017

Actually had the Army told the Navy what they saw on the Western Oahu RADAR station and the Navy reacted by immediately going to battle stations and attempting to head to high seas Pearl Harbor would have been a slightly bigger disaster than it was.

If everything worked perfectly they had about 40 minutes from the time the radar spotted the Japanese planes to when the first bombs dropped on Pearl Harbor. On battleship row the Nevada is the only ship with steam up - it could have made for open water - meaning that instead of nearly all her crew surviving and the ship being repaired and sent back into service the crew would have suffered losses similar to the Arizona and the ship sunk in deep water and lost completely. The airfields might have gotten some planes in the air but their reaction time simply means more pilots lost with their planes on the tarmac as they struggled through preflight check lists. The only advantage that might be gained is the AA guns armed and manned as the planes appeared instead of the mad dash to arm during the attack. These guns might have made a bigger dent in the Japanese attacking forces but there was little hope of them reversing the effects of the attack.

oldtanker · Oct 11, 2017

(quoted from post at 12:27:52 10/11/17) Actually had the Army told the Navy what they saw on the Western Oahu RADAR station and the Navy reacted by immediately going to battle stations and attempting to head to high seas Pearl Harbor would have been a slightly bigger disaster than it was.

If everything worked perfectly they had about 40 minutes from the time the radar spotted the Japanese planes to when the first bombs dropped on Pearl Harbor. On battleship row the Nevada is the only ship with steam up - it could have made for open water - meaning that instead of nearly all her crew surviving and the ship being repaired and sent back into service the crew would have suffered losses similar to the Arizona and the ship sunk in deep water and lost completely. The airfields might have gotten some planes in the air but their reaction time simply means more pilots lost with their planes on the tarmac as they struggled through preflight check lists. The only advantage that might be gained is the AA guns armed and manned as the planes appeared instead of the mad dash to arm during the attack. These guns might have made a bigger dent in the Japanese attacking forces but there was little hope of them reversing the effects of the attack.

X2. The aircraft available were no match for the Zero. Especially sense the Japanese pilots were well trained and battle tested where most of our pilots were not well prepared.

Yes, had the ships got up enough steam they may have been sunk in the channel of as you said in deep water. About the only advantage is the AA guns would have been manned and the troops prepared for the attack. But all in all the results would have been much the same IMO too.

Rick

Ian Beale · Oct 11, 2017

A local met station here in Oz up until the 1980's still had a radar set out of a 1942 UK battleship for tracking sondes.

They had a copy of an ad by the makers of the original cavity magnetron on the wall which had a picture of one of those with the caption along the lines of "Where we started"
with "Where we still are" hand written below.

All hand controls - was reckoned the one advantage was that you knew exactly what had to go on to use a radar set

ss55 · Oct 11, 2017

(quoted from post at 20:53:43 10/11/17)

(quoted from post at 12:27:52 10/11/17) Actually had the Army told the Navy what they saw on the Western Oahu RADAR station and the Navy reacted by immediately going to battle stations and attempting to head to high seas Pearl Harbor would have been a slightly bigger disaster than it was.

If everything worked perfectly they had about 40 minutes from the time the radar spotted the Japanese planes to when the first bombs dropped on Pearl Harbor. On battleship row the Nevada is the only ship with steam up - it could have made for open water - meaning that instead of nearly all her crew surviving and the ship being repaired and sent back into service the crew would have suffered losses similar to the Arizona and the ship sunk in deep water and lost completely. The airfields might have gotten some planes in the air but their reaction time simply means more pilots lost with their planes on the tarmac as they struggled through preflight check lists. The only advantage that might be gained is the AA guns armed and manned as the planes appeared instead of the mad dash to arm during the attack. These guns might have made a bigger dent in the Japanese attacking forces but there was little hope of them reversing the effects of the attack.

Click to expand...

X2. The aircraft available were no match for the Zero. Especially sense the Japanese pilots were well trained and battle tested where most of our pilots were not well prepared.

Yes, had the ships got up enough steam they may have been sunk in the channel of as you said in deep water. About the only advantage is the AA guns would have been manned and the troops prepared for the attack. But all in all the results would have been much the same IMO too.

Rick

I also have to agree. The Japanese cancelled their planed third wave attack because most of their mission was completed by the first two attacks and they were unsure if the missing US carriers could counter attack. Forty minutes of extra warning would have prolonged the battle, maybe raised US moral and raised the Japanese losses, but sadly the outcome of the battle probably would not have changed much.

Battle of Cape Esperance 10/11/42

Ultradog MN

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johnlobb

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Texasmark1

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oldtanker

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dhermesc

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oldtanker

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Ian Beale

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ss55

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