Comments by "Doug JB" (@dougjb7848) on "Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 1 (IJN 3(?) : 2 USN)" video.

  1. Abe’s formation had been disrupted by a turn north to escape a rain squall, and the turn back south made it worse. They were still trying to dress their lines when first contact was raised, and by time they resolved their visual contacts as enemy ships, the two forces were barely 10k yards apart and closing had in at 35 kts. There was little he could do — if he’d issued orders at that point for complicated maneuvers, his fleet would have been thrown into disorder and unable to return fire effectively.
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  2. Scott and, more so, Callaghan are remembered positively because the IJN bombardment force turned back. But from reading various accounts, it seems this happened almost in spite of Callaghan. He issued no written battle plan, did / would not understand the power of radar, and kept his destroyers back overlong and missed a chance to launch torpedoes at an unsuspecting enemy.
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