41: Future Rising
Guadalcanal leading nowhere: “It had no geographical relation to the course the war would later follow, neither to Nimitz’s central Pacific campaign nor to MacArthur’s return to the Philippines.” Larrabee, Commander in Chief, 257. “People were killed all around me” and “I just cried my heart out”: Graff interview. “This was a privilege”: McKinney, CL-51 Revisited, 69–70. “We hate the petty bickering”: Shaw, Beside Me Still, 104. “Years later I’d have nightmares”: Joslin, quoted in National Geographic Society, The Lost Fleet of Guadalcanal. “They gave this city a strange feeling”: San Francisco Chronicle, “The San Francisco Heroes’ Parade” 155, no. 155, 1. “They didn’t think”: O’Brien, Robert, “When the Proudest Veteran Came Home,” unknown publication, in Spencer, The War Years: Hellfire and Glory, appendix. “In the press”: Spencer, The War Years, 2:11. “Polishing off a battleship”: Davies, “Cruiser San Francisco, Home,” 1, 7. The Boise “sank six Japanese warships”: New York Times, “Boise Captain Gives Credit,” November 24, 1942. Gatch’s statement: Fox Movie Tone News, “Hero ‘Battleship X.’ ” “Victory has a hundred fathers”: Keyes, The Quote Verifier, 234–235. “Informal inquiry into the circumstances”: King to Forrestal, “Investigation of the Loss of the USS Vincennes, USS Quincy, USS Astoria, and HMAS Canberra,” 2. “He is not a colorful personality”: Baldwin, “A Sailor-Diplomat Runs Up His Colors,” SM9. “Dawn is about to break”: Morison, The Struggle for Guadalcanal, 317. “Those who can stand”: Frank, Guadalcanal, 527. “It is unacceptable”: Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, 461. Operation KE and evacuation statistics: Frank, Guadalcanal, 595. “Total and complete defeat”: Patch to Halsey, February 9, 1943.
42: Report and Echo
“Full of the usual horror stories”: Shaw, Beside Me Still, 119. “I now see”: Ibid., 155. “As soon as I could talk”: Graff interview. “The requirement to be ready”: Mustin interview, 513. “Think creatively” and “There are no secrets”: Graff interview. “Something new the psychiatrists”: Custer, Through the Perilous Night, 223. “We have received news”: Ibid., 238–239. “You may not care”: Ibid., 241. “This young man”: Harrison interview. The Sullivans in Waterloo: Satterfield, We Band of Brothers, 199. “The most complete and lucid report”: Hepburn, “Report of Informal Inquiry into the Circumstances Attending the Loss of the USS Vincennes, Quincy and Astoria, and HMAS Canberra, on 9 August 1942, in the Vicinity of Savo Island (Solomon Islands),” 37.
43: The Opinion of Convening Authority
“No one man was responsible”: Weaver, “Some Reminiscences,” 14. “In every circle”: Livy, Book 44, chapter 22. A typescript of a fuller version of this quotation is contained in the Ghormley Papers, box 15, folder u. ECU. “The deficiencies which manifested”: Russell to King, “Memo for Admiral,” 2. In his command study of Admiral Fletcher, Black Shoe Carrier Admiral, John Lundstrom argues that Fletcher should not be criticized for deciding to withdraw Task Force 61 because the decision was announced at a conference in advance of its execution. The record establishes that neither Nimitz nor Ghormley managed to referee this important disagreement among their subordinates. “Sheer stodgy unimaginative bureaucratic complacency”: Stone, “Brass Hats Undaunted,” September 8, 1945, in The Best of I. F. Stone, 90. “Too indefinite in regard” and “No special battle plan”: cited in Hepburn, “Report of Informal Inquiry into the Circumstances Attending the Loss of the USS Vincennes, Quincy and Astoria, and HMAS Canberra, on 9 August 1942, in the Vicinity of Savo Island (Solomon Islands),” Paragraph 79, 35. “Were faulty in requiring them”: Ibid., 35–36. “Only one plan”: Ibid., 41. “In my opinion”: Ibid., 44. “I have been accused”: Dyer, The Amphibians Came to Conquer, 372. “I have always hesitated”: Buell, The Quiet Warrior, 174–175. “There is generally a twilight zone” and “In my opinion the primary cause: Hepburn, “Report,” 52–53. “Far from impressive” and “there is only one instance”: Ibid., 54. “It would be difficult”: Ibid., 53. “Granting that the immediate cause”: King to Forrestal, September 14, 1943, 2. “It does not necessarily follow”: COMINCH, “Memorandum for Admiral,” 4. Bode’s demerits: New York Times, “Annapolis Hazers Punished,” 1. “Seemed to be under” and “He told me” and “It was one of the most pleasant”: Commandant, 15th Naval District, “Record of Proceedings of a Board of Investigation Convened at the U.S. Naval Station Balboa, Canal Zone, in the Case of Howard D. Bode, Late Captain, U.S. Navy,” Statement of Commander, USNR, April 20, 1943, 2–3. “Although there are probably”: Bode to Hepburn, April 8, 1943, 4 (Hepburn Annex, 305). “Within the past two weeks” and “Some time recently” and “I am writing a letter” and “I can find no expression” and “I am sure that”: Bode to Hepburn, April 18, 1943, 1–2. “It is the opinion of”: Commandant, 15th Naval District, April 24, 1943 1–2. “This Bureau concurs”: Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, “Second Endorsement to JAG report dated July 13, 1943, July 17, 1943, 1—.”
44: Ironbottom Sound
“The magnitude of the Solomons campaign”: Custer, Through the Perilous Night, 223. “Senior Marine Corps operations officers”: Pope, “ANZACs Criticize Ghormley Tactics,” 5. “Your father was relieved”: Nimitz to Robert L. Ghormley, Jr., January 27, 1961, Ghormley Papers. “Their hopes for a combined victory”: Weinberg, A World at Arms, 347–348. “We don’t claim to be prophets”: Collier’s, “The Idea Is to Win,” 70. “We have not begun”: Lee, “How Japan Plans to Win,” 74. “Unwilling to pay the price”: Weinberg, World, 344. The IJN’s perceived inferiority: Hirama, “Japanese Naval Preparations for World War II,” 63. “The outstanding feature”: Ohmae, “Japanese Commentary on Guadalcanal,” 59. Land fighting “decisive”; air and sea “ancillary”: Samuel B. Griffith, II, to Hanson W. Baldwin, January 17, 1961, Baldwin Papers. “If our surface forces”: Halsey manuscript, 397. “There were many courageous decisions”: Spruance to King, February 18, 1943, 25. “Purchased one night’s respite”: Frank, Guadalcanal, 461. “The key to Allied success”: Lundstrom, The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign, 523. “We have come to expect”: COMINCH, “Battle Experience: November 1942,” 27–15. “Training, TRAINING and M-O-R-E T-R-A-I-N-I-N-G”: Nimitz to King, “Solomons Island Campaign, 5th Battle of Savo,” 16. Issuance of Current Tactical Orders and Doctrine: Hone, “U.S. Navy Surface Battle Doctrine,” 72. Robert Graff quotations and trip to Solomons: Graff interview and Graff, “My Statement,” Graff Papers.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Key
NARA: National Archives and Records Administration (Archives II), College Park, Maryland
NHC: Naval Historical Center, Washington Navy Yard, Washington, DC
NMPW: National Museum of the Pacific War, Admiral Nimitz Foundation, Fredericksburg, Texas
NWC: Naval War College, Cushing Library, Newport, Rhode Island
USNI: United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland
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