Seventy Years Ago: Taking Stock In The Pacific

In September 1942, Japan remains determined to expel the Americans from Guadalcanal. Bloody fighting, both ashore and at sea. Nothing works for Japan, but neither have the Americans clinched the win. On Guadalcanal, it was about half time. Or by a baseball clock maybe approaching time for the seventh-inning stretch. By early September, both sides have runs, hits and errors.

Time to review the pluses and minuses of both sides:

Japan:
Assets -
1. Incredibly effective torpedoes. Far faster, greater range, explosive power and reliability than American torpedoes. Air launched torpedoes have less explosive power, but are equally effective and can be launched in shallow water;
2.  Aggressive submarines. Used against warships in fleet actions, with good effect;
3.  Excellent pilots - especially aircraft carrier fighter pilots;
4.  Superb fighter plane - Mitsubishi  Zero - highly maneuverable, long range, high climb rate, great for dogfighting;
5.  Sailors skilled in night fighting;
6.  Superior optical systems, including gun laying equipment;
7.  Outnumbered US in aircraft carriers at outset, 10-5;

Vulnerabilities:
1.  Poor damage control and firefighting equipment and skills;
2.  Submarines not used effectively against allied shipping;
3.  No effective organization to recover downed pilots and to train replacements to a high enough level;
4.  Aircraft highly maneuverable but not strongly built - no self-sealing fuel tanks (vulnerable to fire) and no armor to protect pilots;
5.  Lost more aircraft than allies from the beginning;
6.  No radar;
7.  By early September had lost 6 aircraft carriers to 2 for US;

United States:
Assets -
1.  Ship board radar;
2.  Ground based radar;
3.  Communications intelligence;
4.  Excellent pilots;
5.  Superb damage control training and equipment;
6.  Incomparable experience in carrier flight operations;
7.  Excellent organization to recover downed pilots;
8.  5"/38 dual purpose gun - war's best anti aircraft artillery;
9.  Two decades of detailed war planning;
10. Excellent and rugged aircraft: e.g. F-4-F slower than Zero but more rugged, climbs more slowly but to higher altitude and dives faster without falling apart;
11. Fleet units and organizations well prepared for war (under Kimmel's leadership);
12. Excellent coordination between Navy, Marine and Army air forces;
13. Skilled at underway replenishment at sea;

Liabilities:
1.  Snafus at high military staff levels in DC - e.g. R.K. Turner;
2.  Snafus in army organization in the field - both Hawaii and Philippines failed to set up effective radar control organization - or for that matter, any organization at all for air defense, even though they had radar equipment for nearly six months;
3.  Torpedoes - inadequate testing - failure to act on fleet reports of torpedo failures for two years;
4.  Inadequate anti aircraft machine guns aboard ship -  1.1" quad mounts kept jamming and hitting power of projectile inadequate;
5.  Staff level in DC failed to allocate enough resources to communications intelligence before the war and let some fleet commanders (R.K. Turner) fail to make effective use after the war. Turner, for example, wouldn't have a Comint support unit on his flagship;
6.  Not enough equipment and ships (during 1920's and early 1930's, US had not built up to the limits of Naval arms limitation treaties);
7. First year of war, US Navy fighting in two oceans with a navy built for one - depended on movements through Panama Canal.