Comments by "" (@RedXlV) on "The Drydock - Episode 066" video.

  1. Halsey was the US Navy answer to MacArthur. Well, not as bad as MacArthur, but they had the same propensity for successfully covering up their failures via self-promotion.
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  2. Also how unfortunate it was that the French fleet was removed from the war. Imagine if Paul Reynaud 's proposal to merge France and the UK into a single nation had gone through instead of Petain's takeover and surrender. Granted, the only way that could've actually gotten approved would've been if Petain and at least half of the French cabinet had been assassinated in advance. (Which wouldn't have been such a bad thing anyway.)
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  3.  Erik Heath  It wasn't just a single typhoon debacle. In 1945, when Halsey resumed command he promptly sailed his fleet through a typhoon again. The fact that he was rotating command with Spruance makes his shortcomings all the more obvious. When it was the 5th Fleet under Spruance, it never experienced of the debacles that it did as the 3rd fleet under Halsey. For that matter, the reason Halsey was so thoroughly taken in by Ozawa's decoy was his deep desire to match Spruance's sinking of 4 aircraft carriers at Midway. And given the declining number of Japanese carriers, Halsey saw this as his last chance. He prioritized personal glory over the more important mission of protecting the invasion force.
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  4.  Golden Eagle  The scattering of PQ17 was the decision of First Sea Lord Sir Dudley Pound . Admiral Pound died a year and a half later, of brain cancer. I have to wonder if the tumor was already impairing his decision-making at the time, because it really was a bone-headed move. There's also speculation that he was worried that if the first major joint naval operation with the US resulted in heavy American casualties, it would result in less cooperation going forward. If so, pulling away the escort force backfired heavily, because Admiral King (who already hated the British) promptly reassigned the American ships to the Pacific and remained reluctant to cooperate with the Royal Navy for the rest of the war.
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  5.  @eric619  Averof stomps. She's 20 years more modern than Olympia, and a superior ship in every way.
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  6.  Golden Eagle  I would assume they didn't know Admiral Pound had cancer until later.
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