Comments by "" (@RedXlV) on "Guadalcanal Campaign - Cape Esperance (IJN 1 : 2 USN)" video.

  1. Regarding Scott choosing San Francisco as his flagship on the basis that the most powerful ship in a squadron should be the flagship. Was San Francisco really a more powerful ship than Helena? I would suggest that she was not. While the 8-inch shells were individually harder-hitting than 6-inch, even if we assume the lowest practical rate of fire for Helena and the highest for San Francisco (8 RPM and 4 RPM, respectively), we end up with Helena putting a a good 2/3 more weight of shot out per minute. And the weight of broadside wasn't that much lighter than San Francisco's, with 15x 6-inch AP shells having 88% of the explosive mass of 9x 8-inchers. Helena additionally had a far superior secondary battery, being armed with 5"/38s instead of 5"/25s, and a slightly better protection scheme. Had I been in Scott's case, I would've taken Helena as my flagship and been fully confident that I was sailing in the most powerful ship of Task Force 64.
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