Comments by "" (@BobSmith-dk8nw) on "The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?" video.

Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. Isaiah 6:8 .
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First off - it is "Battle OFF Samar". This battle is somewhat unique in having been named this way, it is believed because of the wording of an early report on the Battle from one of the senior Naval Officers involved. Next - habits die hard. Halsey was still fighting the ghosts of the early war Japanese Carriers in the Battle of Cape Engano. Just as the Japanese had hoped - he was going after those carriers despite the fact that their naval aviators had become ineffective and severely reduced in numbers. In fact, the air strike launched by these carriers to attract the USN's attention - was mixed up with a land based attack and not even noticed. It was only later when US recon spotted them that Halsey went after them. Kurita was still in the mode of preserving a fleet in being. Japan, throughout the war, was worried about losing ships - because they knew they couldn't replace them. At Pearl Harbor and Savo Island - they had withdrawn when they had achieved an ascendant position - out of worry for losing their ships. After Midway - when their worst nightmare occurred they were even more concerned. So - here - Kurita goes into the battle KNOWING that it is the IJN's last fight BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE THE FUEL FOR ANOTHER ONE - yet - in the end - he withdraws to preserve his force - when there was no longer any point to doing so. Another factor here - is the importance of communications. Halsey had Lee create a battleship force to guard the San Bernadino Strait but - didn't tell them to do it. Everyone else thinks he's done it but he doesn't leave ANYONE there. The Japanese Southern Force was split into two, rather than combining into one force under one Admiral - and these two guys didn't like each other - so they never said a word and went into battle individually. Of course it wouldn't have made much difference ... but ... The other thing is - and this I have not seen mentioned any where - why the hell didn't Kurita have SOME kind of recon reports on the position of the American ships? The Japanese had been attacking the US for some time with aircraft - so they had them - why the hell didn't they have dedicated recons reporting to Kurita so he had some idea where the US ships were? Of course - a factor in that could be that they were getting shot down ... but I've heard nothing about any attempt to provide such recon. .
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Erroneously - Naval Battles tended to be named for a near by land feature - such as Trafalgar or Jutland. Of course - since the battles did not take place AT Trafalgar or AT Jutland but took place on the water OFF these landmarks - they REALLY should have been named The Battle OFF Trafalgar or The Battle OFF Jutland ... but ... historically that is not what was done. So most battles are like The Battle of Trafalgar or The Battle of Jutland. For this battle though - the officer who wrote up the report for the battle - titled his report "The Battle Off Samar" and that was the name the United States Navy chose to use for THIS battle. The Navy that fights the battle - gets to name it - should they choose to. Thus - the CORRECT name for this battle - is the one the United States Navy gave it - which is - The Battle OFF Samar . The Japanese would also be entitled to name this battle as well and probably did - but - they would have named it in Japanese. Those of us who might read and speak Japanese might know the name the Japanese use but those of us who don't speak Japanese probably don't. I don't. But - for those of us who speak English - if we fancy ourselves Historians - we SHOULD all know the CORRECT name of the battle - and use it. But - some people - persist in saying the name of this battle wrong - even though they KNOW better. They have been told repeatedly by any number of people such as yourself and myself - and yet - they persist in saying the name of the battle WRONG. Now ... with some battles ... they were named by a nation whose language one might not speak - even if it is written in English and it is understandable why one might have difficulty in saying the name of such battles correctly. However - anyone who speaks English - should have very little trouble when choosing between the words "Off" and "Of". .
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@billbolton They did have reports from Pearl Harbor from agents they had there before the attack. I don't know what happened to them but most of the rest of the Japanese were interned - and they probably didn't have that many white agents. Actually operational security is a high priority. Things could slip but - detailed fleet compositions and lists of ships by type? No. Japans intelligence was terrible. Japans military consisted of little fiefdoms. The Army and Navy hated each other. They didn't talk - they didn't share - they didn't communicate. The Meiji Reformation took place in 1870. Prior to that - Japan had a real, true, literal Feudal Society. You don't change things like that in 70 years. Pilots took Samurai Swords with them in their cockpits. Not that they had a use for them - but because they saw themselves as Samurai and a Samurai can't go into battle without his sword. In the Mitsubishi factory during the production of Zero Fighters, the fuselage would be carried from one part of the factory to another on an ox cart. Modern technology was a facade covering what was still LITERALLY a feudal society. They had no idea what they were doing in the modern world. They had scientists. They had technicians. They had trained personnel. They could USE the tools of a modern society but they WERE NOT a modern culture. They were a feudal culture with modern weapons. They took away their spears and gave them machine guns - but they were still feudal warriors. I'm sure they did have some type of systems intelligence that tried to break codes. The nations they copied everything from had them - so the Japanese were bound to have them too - but that doesn't mean they understood cryptanalysis. They were learning. They were taking things from western cultures and making them Japanese - but 70 years wasn't enough time. It just wasn't. The Japanese Navy - as excellent as it was at using it's weapons - didn't understand what they were for. They never understood that the warships weren't what was important - that it was the merchantmen that counted. The Warships were just there to protect theirs and kill the enemies. There are a lot of things they COULD have done. They COULD have had land based recon flights to find what US ships were where and what they were doing - but for whatever reason - they didn't. Of course - US Air was shooting down Japanese aircraft left and right - so it's hard to say if there actually were recon flights that were supposed to inform Kurita - but whatever the reason - they didn't. They thought that they were engaging fleet carriers and cruisers - so they were using Armor Piercing Ammunition - that, since they were in fact engaging escort carriers and destroyers, went right through their targets and out the other side. It poked a hole in the US ship - but those shells didn't explode. They did, as they closed the range realize the true nature of their targets and some of their ships switched to High Explosive shells - and THESE were the ships that sank the Gambier Bay and the Roberts. All those Japanese cruisers were supposed to have float planes ... but they obviously didn't get any intelligence from that source - for whatever reason. .
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The thing is ... all these guys were doing here at the Battle OFF Samar - was doing their jobs. It was part of their jobs ... to do things like this. .
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Yes it is. .
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@handlebarfox2366 Rip & Tear https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZMg9ryeWOw .
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@adamalton2436 They fucking hated each other. Before the war - they on occasion killed each other. Yamamoto was partially moved to command of the fleet to keep him from being killed by the army ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoroku_Yamamoto .
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@user-rk3yb6nd1n This is the closet thing I could find doing searches for "Naval Shellfire Dye Marker" This is NOT for a Shellfire Dye Marker but for a Rescue Dye Marker but it does list the contents which might be similar to that of the material used in the Shellfire Dye Marker: https://archive.org/details/milmanual-tm-43-0001-37-ammunition-data-sheets-military-pyrotechnics/page/n93 The salient point here is : "The this marker consists of a heat-sealed plastic laminate bag filled with uranine, a dye composed of soluble sodium salt and fluroescein ..." Sorry I couldn't find anything better. Maybe someone else can come up with something better. .
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@Kwolfx Found this on Jeune Ecole https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeune_%C3%89cole This is the closest thing I could find mentioning Admiral Aube https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Martel-class_ironclad .
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@Kwolfx Yeah, the guys advocating unrestricted submarine warfare were in good company - and in the course of WWI & WWII - they prevailed. .
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@Kwolfx Yeah and he has to find pictures too. One of the good things about Wikipedia is the notes. Some of them have links in them but some of them cite hard copy sources. Amazon is a good place to search for books as they have links to other book sellers and you can buy books from them through Amazon. Another source for books of course is Libraries. They may have the books but they may also have an Inter-Library Loan program where other libraries that have a book will lend it out to them. It's probably better now that they have electronic searches as going through card catalogues and guessing if there's anything relevant in a source from it's tiny descriptions ... was a very hit or miss process. .
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@billbolton I doubt seriously they had any idea. The thing is - WE were breaking THEIR code - so we had a lot better idea what they were doing and working with. They weren't breaking out code so they were entirely dependent on tactical observations and those were terribly unreliable. .
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@adamdubin1276 Maybe that is how they figured it out. Some of them, including Nagato - did figure that out and switched to HE. Or maybe the torpedoes made them take a closer look. .
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@richardlinter4111 Thanks for those links. I don't speak French but I was able to use Google Translate: https://translate.google.com/ to read some of it and can come back later when I have more time. YES. It is always good to be able to read things in the original language of subject. David Drake - the author - can translate Latin ... I am so envious of his ability to read Caesar in the original ... but I suck at languages. As to Doenitz and Raeder - yeah - they weren't guilty of the kinds of war crimes others of the Japanese and German leadership were. They were lucky though that they had someone like Nimitz to stick up for them. Other countries and other people would have just hung them all. .
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