Comments by "Kenneth Dean Miller" (@kennethdeanmiller7324) on "Guadalcanal Campaign - The Battle of Tassafaronga: (IJN 4(?) : 3 USN)" video.

Yeah, that was not only a plus but Tanaka's first charge was keeping his ships & men safe. Which meant taking out enemy ships if they were there because otherwise they could take him out. And Tanaka was up against US Cruisers and all he had was destroyers. Admiral Wright being an idiot more than leveled the playing field & with the Type 93 torpedoes the Japanese had a major advantage the very moment Wright denied permission to his destroyers to fire torpedoes. If Wright had been killed, it would have been poetic justice. Unfortunately, instead, his idiocy got a lot of good US sailors killed. And him claiming(or lying) that he sunk 3 other Japanese Cruisers & must have gotten hit by submarines gained him a "Navy Cross." Very unfortunate that he was in charge on this night. A competent American Admiral would have easily taken out the entire destroyer force of Tanaka's.
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Number 1) Wright actually should have never been in charge of this action. They should have promoted one of the Captain's from one of the many Cruisers they had already lost to be in charge of this action. At least they had seen & been in action with the Japanese and was fully aware of their capabilities. Number 2) The order to "Not fire without permission should have NEVER been given!" Number 3) The destroyers should have fired their torpedoes and then just simply told Admiral Wright they had done so. That in itself would have saved countless American lives & ships as well. Number 4) When torpedoes start hitting other ships in your column, you would think that the Captain's of other ships would make evasive maneuvers to ensure their own ship was not also hit. It's like Tweedle Deedee & Tweedle Deedum were leading the Three Stooges in a Night Action against the Imperial Japanese Navy. And it pisses me off at the lack of intelligence and the sheer stupidity of the Cruiser Captains at this part of the war. Number 5) The fact that Admiral Wright received a "Navy Cross" for this action is completely & utterly absurd. He should have been demoted & given station on one of the less populated Aleutian Islands. Where hopefully he couldn't get more young Americans killed by his lack of using the brain God gifted to him! Number 6) The Japanese should have put Tanaka in charge of the Center Force during the Battle of Leyte Gulf! BUT, I'm VERY, VERY GLAD they didn't!!! Cuz all of Taffy 3 would have been torn apart. And Tanaka would have had Battleship Yamato firing on the troops ashore at Leyte Gulf. Idk, it may have even taken out MacArthur, which wouldn't have necessarily been a bad thing except for all the other soldiers that would have been killed in the process. Number 7) If Wright had been briefed about the previous battles surrounding Guadal Canal then he should have known to NOT give the order to ask permission before firing. In the darkness surrounding Guadal Canal the previous battles had shown that waiting for permission to fire DOES NOT WORK! The US Destroyers should have just unleashed their torpedoes, told Wright they had done so, & told him to open fire once the first torpedo finds it's mark or if the enemy changes course.
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Every time I hear this story it makes me a little more p-offed than b4. "DO NOT FIRE WITHOUT DIRECT PERMISSION FROM THE ADMIRAL". Is that like some kind of US Navy code for: I have no idea of what I'm doing & I'm completely oblivious to all the other night actions in this area & because of this every ship under my command will probably be decorating the bottom of Iron Bottom Sound by morning. Or even better, in short. I'm an idiot, & if you want to live, you had best not listen to me. Orders or not.
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Why didn't the Japanese do air drops of food? I'm sure they had bombers that could carry 1000lb-1200lb bombs. They could have "bombed" their army with food, ya know, something with a parachute attachment. With enough bombers they could have at least fed them occasionally so they weren't starving to death. And maybe even drop some medical supplies as well as maybe some rifle ammunition so they could at least have some defenses. It's truly a wonder that these men didn't just go & surrender. "Look, I give up, just feed me, PLEASE!!" Idk, any decent Commander, rather than see all his men starve to death would have ordered a surrender. No food, no ammo to fight with. Surrender to the enemy & be there problem.
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Even Halsey was a f_@k up. If it weren't for Nimitz getting good intelligence reports & Admirals like Lee & Fletcher even more of our men would have been lost.
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What I don't understand is why the Japanese didn't at least use bomber planes to drop food supplies and small arms ammunition to their troops on Guadal Canal? A number of good pilots could have taken off at night with fighter escorts and timed it to where they were arriving at dawn & dropped the resupply. Then turn & leave before the Cactus Air Force got planes in the air. Idk, did they try this at all?
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