Transports

[news]

Just watched a History Channel (yes, I know) about Guadalcanal and heard
the narrator mention that the Japanese General knew that the weak point
of the American Fleet was the transports and ordered the Navy to attack
them...This kind of flies in the face of the way the IJN seemingly
preferred to engage in Bushido with Warships

[Rich Rostrom]

... Japanese General knew that the weak point of the American
Fleet was the transports and ordered the Navy to attack them...

Yabbut a general can't "order" the Navy to do anything.

This kind of flies in the face of the way the IJN seemingly
preferred to engage in Bushido with Warships

Yabbut the Navy didn't attack the transports.

Mikawa having destroyed the cruiser force
retired to Rabaul. IIRC there was a hit near
the bridge of his flagship, killing or injuring
several of his staff, but the fleet could have
pushed on. His decision to retire was consistent
with the Japanese attitude of considering only
warships important.

[news]

In article

Post by Rich Rostrom

... Japanese General knew that the weak point of the American
Fleet was the transports and ordered the Navy to attack them...

Yabbut a general can't "order" the Navy to do anything.

okay, maybe it was an Admiral or whoever was in overall charge of the
Japanese effort

Post by Rich Rostrom

This kind of flies in the face of the way the IJN seemingly
preferred to engage in Bushido with Warships

Yabbut the Navy didn't attack the transports.

my hazy recollection of the show mentioned that as a goal and then the
show segued into the naval battle. I was imagining that the original
intention was subsumed by the possibility of some real bushido type
battle

Post by Rich Rostrom
Mikawa having destroyed the cruiser force
retired to Rabaul. IIRC there was a hit near
the bridge of his flagship, killing or injuring
several of his staff, but the fleet could have
pushed on. His decision to retire was consistent
with the Japanese attitude of considering only
warships important.

[Bill Shatzer]

Post by Rich Rostrom

... Japanese General knew that the weak point of the American
Fleet was the transports and ordered the Navy to attack them...

Yabbut a general can't "order" the Navy to do anything.

This kind of flies in the face of the way the IJN seemingly
preferred to engage in Bushido with Warships

Yabbut the Navy didn't attack the transports.
Mikawa having destroyed the cruiser force
retired to Rabaul. IIRC there was a hit near
the bridge of his flagship, killing or injuring
several of his staff, but the fleet could have
pushed on. His decision to retire was consistent
with the Japanese attitude of considering only
warships important.

Yes, Mikawa could have "pushed on" to the transport area and indeed he
considered such an action but ultimately decided not to - for certainly
understandable reasons.

First he really didn't know the strength of the remaining allied surface
forces in the area - he knew he had sunk or badly damaged several allied
warships but he didn't know what others might remain - he had received
widely varying intelligence reports on the composition of the allied
naval forces at Guadalcanal. His ships had expended an appreciable
portion of their ammunition and would be at a considerable disadvantage
if they were forced to repeat an engagement even approaching the
intensity of the one they had just gone through.

Secondly, his ships were scattered and it would take some time to
reassemble them into a combat formation.

Thirdly, he didn't know Fletcher had withdrawn the carriers. The time
required to reassemble his ships and then press on to the transport area
would have left Mikawa within range of allied air at dawn if the
carriers were still there. Lacking Japanese air cover, Mikawa's ships
would have been easy meat for an allied aerial counter strike.

As a possibly irrelevant aside, I'd note that Japan commissioned no new
heavy cruisers during WW2. Mikawa knew that any of his cruisers which
might be lost could not be replaced.

While hindsight might indicate he should have made a different choice, I
rather think Mikawa's decision to retire was more a reasoned appraisal
of the tactical situation than any excessive adherence to Bushido or an
attitude that the transports were unimportant.

[Rich Rostrom]

I rather think Mikawa's decision to retire was more
a reasoned appraisal of the tactical situation than
... an attitude that the transports were unimportant.

I'm sure the tactical considerations weighed - but
the low value placed on transports and logistics
affected that balance.

Not only in that the transports were not very important,
but that the warships were pretty much all important -
that having destroyed Allied warships, Mikawa had achieved
such a great success that further action would be gilding
the lily.

[news]

In article

Post by Rich Rostrom

I rather think Mikawa's decision to retire was more
a reasoned appraisal of the tactical situation than
... an attitude that the transports were unimportant.

I'm sure the tactical considerations weighed - but
the low value placed on transports and logistics
affected that balance.
Not only in that the transports were not very important,
but that the warships were pretty much all important -
that having destroyed Allied warships, Mikawa had achieved
such a great success that further action would be gilding
the lily.

gee, I would have thought that depriving the enemy of all supplies,
especially since the Japanese had such low regard for America(ns) would
have been more appealing