35th Annual Admiral Nimitz Symposium - 2022: Richard B. Frank Guest Speaker

Great work, thank you for uploading this.

Outstanding

Good evening,
I am wondering why your analysis never includes the aircraft carrier “USS Robin” which was in fact an aircraft carrier borrowed from England? This was in fact your president who asked Winston Churchill for this. At this time the US Navy had “ONE OPERATIONAL CARRER”!
Forever in His service

Wonderful …..

Anytime any marine tells you the Navy did not do enough during the Guadalcanal campaign, look at the casualty lists. More sailors died inand around the waters of the islands than either Marine or Army.

There's a concept in football that the team that makes the fewest mistakes usually wins. The same applies to the Guadalcanal campaign. Regardless of the deficiencies on the American side going in, the deficiencies on the Japanese side was even more pronounced.

Love the graphics and use of pictures...

Sadly the reasons for the catastrophic Navy losses were due to INCOMPETENT LEADERSHIP,TACTICS,AND IGNORANCE OF THE JAPANESE TECHNOLOGY AND WEAPONS!

I guess the New York Times was publishing fake news since 1942.

This was just too abbreviated for me to enjoy. For instance, he keeps mentioning fantastic proportional differences between our air crew losses vs Japanese without explaining why such a gap existed even when we suffer more carrier damage.

However. please read the seminal book by this man AND the one by the (tragically) late James Hornfisher entitled, "Neptune's Inferno," which is purely an accounting of the USN's ordeal at this battle; and, is one of the most compelling books I've ever read. The USN'S performance there was crucial above all else and they gave us, imo, our finest hour.

One of my favorite movies is "The Gallant Hours", a dramatization of the Guadalcanal campaign starring James Cagney as Halsey. It opens with Halsey being ordered to replace Gormley and, basically, ends with the 'Friday 13th" battle. It is a study of top command, formulating battle plans, and giving orders that you know will get people killed, yet giving the orders anyway. Reviewers complain that there is no "action" but I see plenty of "action" in the run up to the battle. Halsey calls in Scott and Callahan to give them their orders personally and they all know that this will be a 'real brawl'. Then the waiting. . .

The IJN bombardment of Henderson feild that night was described in the book Guadalcanal Diary written by Richard trekaskis.. I read that book several times in highschool..when it got to that point in his description of that Event ..I almost thought I could see that dark night with all of it's explosive horror.

The impacts were so great they buried several aircraft and fuel drums

Gormley was not a well man..he was sickly it's shows in his photos of the time..he really should never had had responsibility's over a carrier force..he really did not know how to use them.

I wish you could have elaborated more on Willis Lee..that guy made some shit happen ..he was known for being able to snipe japanese ships with 16 inch rifles..he was absolutely an impressive individual.

The lesson in Ukraine can potentially be drawn from the Japanese piecemeal effort and ultimate failure in Guadalcanal. The fact that the Western countries are giving the Ukrainians just enough to fight on worries me greatly.

"Shotguns at two paces"
Interesting that Richard Frank describes it this way. I've described naval gunfire battles of this time as being like using shotguns with 00 buckshot (to simulate salvo firing of the main battery) while wearing a flak jacket. Stay far enough away from the enemy, so 100-200 yards, and the 00 buckshot pellets won't get through your flak jacket if they do hit, although they will hurt outside the protected area, and you're lucky to get one or two hits at all. Get too close, and you're likely to take most of the pellets in the cartridge and they'll barely notice the flak jacket.

My father served as a gunnery officer aboard the USS San Francisco later in the war. Thanks to the speaker for recognizing the gallantry of that great heavy cruiser and its officers and men.

Could you imagine if the United States went to war today and Joe Biden was making all the decisions excuse me I think I just pooped myself

Does anyone know why the Allies only invaded islands on the southwestern side of the Slot?

Richard Frank is a first rate historian.

I like this. However, I think the notion that the racist nazis and the racist japanese were going to be able to "link up" is more a historians placeholder than a realistic possibility back in those days.
They essentially had no real cooperation, and no coordination. Any link across the indian ocean was going to be flimsy like rice paper, and wouldnt take the US much effort to sever.
The only moment where there was some fear of this was when the whole IJN fleet had a frolic there and savaged the british navy.
The Nazis were well into murdering jews by then, and we are expected to believe that the stereotypically depicted four eyed, buck toothed midgets from asia were going to be acceptable to Hitler? I call BS on it.
Hitler basically went to war with the US on an impulse, much to the shock of his generals. Rommel couldnt even stay supplied enough to achieve victory in Egypt, and the nazi armies similarly ran out of puff in the Caucasus; the 'linking up via the indian ocean' concept isnt even serious. Tunisia, cutoff by concerted allied attack on the sea and air logistics, turned into a surrender similar in scale Stalingrad (not so much duration and ferocity).
The Japanese were so terrified of having to open a 2nd front with the USSR that they just stuck their head in the sand in the far east and did nothing to aid the Nazi war effort on the eastern front.
The reality is that Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were both isolated, with no prospect of linking up. I see no evidence that they even wanted to link up.

It was a very close thing. If Admiral Mikawa had destroyed the Marine transports the Marines would have been up the creek without a paddle.

Santa Cruz: IJN should have pursued the retreating U.S. task force and finish off the damaged Enterprise.
Although the IJN had taken heavy aircraft and aircrew losses, they still had two working flight decks, and more than enough left to finish off the Americans.
Or, if they chose not to pursue, IJN could unleash their 4 battleships,8 heavy cruisers to bombard Henderson Field and the Marines...*unopposed by any USN ships.*

and when he gets to heaven to saint Peter he will tell, one more marine reporting sir I’ve served my time in hell. (Guadalcanal Marine)

I'm still surprised that the US Navy had more casualties than the Marines did during the Guadalcanal campaign.

WHEN ARE WE GETTING VOLUME 2 OF TOWER OF SKULLS?!?!?!

The US sacrifices will always be remembered and valued...but do not forget that Australia fielded 11 Divisions (to US roughly 25 Divisions) and were the first to defeat the Japanese army at Milne Bay in August-Sept. 42. We also cleared the rest of New Guinea and the western Pacific, which enabled US forces to concentrate on the Central and Eastern Pacific. It highlights that we all need allies, and Australia has stood shoulder to shoulder with the US since.

I remember when Nimitz took Command of the Navy. He was a shock. Discipline went down the toilet. Took years to get it back. Not good.

Outstanding presentation. Although I do not agree that the Battle of the Tenaru River/Alligator Creek dictated how the terms of the Pacific War would be fought. That happened already during the fiercely fought Bataan Campaign. I understand that most, but not all, our troops fighting there ended up killed or POW. Still, reports were sent from the Philippines back to the US, and even examples of captured materials for study via submarine, I think. So it's not as if the fight in 1941-1942 in the Philippines was some black hole from which nothing emanated. If one sees it differently, that's OK, I'd like to understand more.

Garcia Lisa Harris Helen Clark Shirley

Harris Carol Wilson Larry Garcia Donald