Seventy Years Ago: Naval Battle Of Guadalcanal

For almost three months, Japanese forces had tried mightily to dislodge the Marines from Guadalcanal, without success. Every Japanese effort to reinforce their army forces on the island had been thwarted or at least limited by the US Navy.

Japan had achieved major successes against the US Navy, including submarine attacks on USS Saratoga and battleship North Carolina, under repair at Pearl Harbor. In late October, Japan sank the carrier USS Hornet and thought they might have sunk Enterprise. Now they planned to send a powerful surface force to bombard Henderson Field, where the "Cactus Air Force" of Marine, Navy and Army aircraft continued to operate with deadly effect against Japanese naval forces trying to reinforce Guadalcanal.

The night of November 12/13, 1942, the Japanese bombardment force under Admiral Abe approached the area, passing south of Savo Island, with two battleships, a light cruiser and thirteen escorting destroyers. The battleships were armed with high explosive projectiles to do maximum damage against the aircraft and fuel dumps at Henderson Field. Such projectiles would be of limited use against battleships and heavy cruisers, but Abe expected no opposition.

The Enterprise had not been sunk. She was undergoing urgent repair at the harbor of Noumea.  Her formation was still a powerful force: the fast battleships Washington and South Dakota, the heavy cruiser Northampton, the light cruiser San Diego and six destroyers were protecting her. 

At Espiritou Santo, moreover, Halsey retained Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner's transport units, to conduct another supply run to be completed by 12 November. In his force were seven transports carrying the 1st Marine Aviation Engineer Regiment, the U.S. Army's 182nd Infantry (National Guard) Regiment and supplies to sustain the forces on the island. Turner had a very potent escort: heavy cruisers Portland and San Francisco, light cruisers Helena, Atlanta and Juneau, plus nine destroyers. Turner move his forces in two separate moves, first the Engineers on three transports, with Atlanta and three destroyers as escorts, under command of Rear-Admiral Norman C. Scott, victor at Cape Esperance. Turner himself would take the rest of the forces, with his escorts under command of Rear-Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan, former Chief-of-Staff to Admiral Ghormley.       

Halsey had an advantage: advance knowledge from COMINT of Japanese plans. He realized that every US gain to that point was at stake. But he could only get a third of his forces underway in time. Enterprise and her screen, augmented by heavy cruiser Pensacola, departed Nouméa; but they would not arrive in time to stop the Japanese. Admiral Turner's transports reached Guadalcanal in the early hours of 12 November, and commenced unloading rapidly.

The evening of November 12, Turner withdrew his transports with a weak escort force and left the area. He left behind a force combining Admiral Callaghan's forces with those of Admiral Scott, under command of Callaghan, who was two weeks senior to Scott, who had been victorious in the surface engagement at Cape Esperance a month earlier. This may have been a bad choice. Callaghan had no combat experience and no experience or understanding of radar. What he did have was courage.

About 0130 on November 13, Callaghan's force of two heavy cruisers, three light cruisers and eight destroyers stumbled across Abe's force of two battleships, a light cruiser and thirteen destroyers.

In a confused and brutal night engagement, both Admiral Scott and Admiral Callaghan died in battle (Scott possibly from USS San Francisco's friendly fire), the US Navy lost two light cruisers and four destroyers. Admiral Abe lost one battleship (Hiei), two destroyers and seven transports. 

Japan did not succeed in landing reinforcements.

But the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal was not yet over.

Reflections On Elections

Elections are a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for democracy. By that, I mean representative democracy, which is the only kind that has a chance of functioning in a large nation. But what constitutes representation?

Nearly half of our voters are dissatisfied with the outcome of the presidential election. In North Carolina, more than half of our voters are dissatisfied with the outcome of Congressional elections.

After each election, there appear criticisms and suggestions for how to fix problems.

From my perspective as an election official of the State of North Carolina, I think we have a pretty good system. This reflects sound decisions made years ago by the North Carolina Board of Elections and by my county, Pamlico County.

I plan to make specific comments about problems and possible solutions. I wouldn't trade our problems for those of other states such as Florida and Ohio.

The New York Times posted an interesting discussion on the question of whether our voting system(s) need to be fixed.

In the next days and weeks I plan to add my thoughts to the mix.

Jobs First - Deficits Later

I've been writing about economics on this blog for a couple of years. My comments are based on a pretty careful reading of scholarly works on the economy and the data scholars have collected and analyzed.

I conclude we don't have a deficit problem. Not right now. Deficits do matter (despite Cheney's observation about Reagan), but not now. Right now we need to put Americans back to work. Then they can pay down their debt, pay more taxes and help the government pay down its debt. Just like Bill Clinton planned in the late '90's.

Here are a couple of pointed comments by scholars.

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/edsall-the-culture-war-and-the-jobs-crisis/?hp

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/12/opinion/krugman-hawks-and-hypocrites.html?hp

And Now A Word From David Frum

David Frum, George W. Bush speechwriter, appeared on "Morning Joe" on MSNBC. Here is what Frum had to say about the Republican Party:

I believe the Republican Party is a party of followership. The problem with the Republican leaders is that they're cowards.... The real locus of the problem is the Republican activist base and the Republican donor base. They went apocalyptic over the past four years. And that was exploited by a lot of people in the conservative world. I won't soon forget the lupine smile that played over the head of a major conservative institution when he told me that our donors think the apocalypse has arrived.

Republicans have been fleeced and exploited and lied to by a conservative entertainment complex.... Because the followers, the donors and the activists are so mistaken about the nature of the problems the country faces the nature--I mean, it's just a simple question. I went to Tea Party rallies and I would ask this question: "have taxes gone up or down in the past four years?" They could not answer that question correctly. Now it's true that taxes will go up if the President is re-elected. That's why we're Republicans. But you have to know that taxes have not gone up in the past. And "do we spend a trillion dollars on welfare?" Is that true or false? It is false. But it is almost universally believed.

That means that the leaders have no space to operate.

Painted themselves into a corner? Not sure I believe that.

Seventy Years Ago: Southwest Pacific - Noumea

November 11, 1942. USS Enterprise, under repair at Noumea, gets underway with repair crews from the tender Vestal still on board. Assisting in repairs was a 75-man detachment of Seabees.

The commanding officer of Enterprise, Captain Osborne Bennett "Ozzie B" "Oby" Hardison, USN (USNA- Class 1916, North Carolina) reported to the Navy Department that "The emergency repairs accomplished by this skillful, well-trained, and enthusiastically energetic force have placed this vessel in condition for further action against the enemy." That was a matter of opinion, though her crew had no doubts.

Enterprise, damaged though she was, was the only remaining operational carrier in the Pacific. As she headed for more combat, a fuel tank was leaking, her watertight integrity was compromised, and one aircraft elevator was still jammed from bomb damage from October 26. The flight deck crew posted a sign: "Enterprise vs. Japan."

Why We Should Still Observe Armistice Day

June 18, 1914, a 19-year old Serbian (or Yugoslav) nationalist named Gavrilo Princip assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne during a state visit to Sarajevo.

During the Austrian investigation and trial, police learned that Princip had been recruited, equipped and trained for the mission by the intelligence service of the Kingdom of Serbia. When Serbia refused to turn over those responsible to Austria, Austria declared war on Serbia. Russia came to Serbia's defense and declared war on Austria. Germany came to Austria's defense. France came to the defense of Russia. England joined with France in defense of Belgium.

All of these mobilizations were governed by prewar treaties.

Over the ensuing four years, 65 million European soldiers and sailors were mobilized. In 1917, they were joined by nearly five million Americans. Eight and a half million died in battle, 21 million were wounded and nearly eight million captured.

The forces of Austria-Hungary suffered 90 percent casualties (dead, wounded, captured). Germany had 65% casualties; Russia 76%; British Empire 36%; France 73%; Italy 39%; United States 7%. That doesn't include civilian deaths in Belgium and Poland from a brutal occupation, 20 million from the ensuing Russian civil war or countless other internal and international conflicts after the Armistice.

By the time of the Armistice, Europe was exhausted by war. The Russian, Austro-Hungarian, German and Turkish empires were falling apart. The British and French empires were badly wounded.

We are still picking up the pieces in the Balkans, the Middle East, the Aegean, Central Asia and the remnants of European colonies in South and Southeast Asia.

If we still observed Armistice Day, it would provide us with an annual "teachable moment" to recall the profound connections between that time and our own.

Armistice Day

At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the guns fell silent along the vast earthen fortifications known as the trenches. The earthen forts stretched from the North Sea coast of Belgium along a winding frontier between warring forces to the French frontier with Switzerland.

It was not a surrender, but an armistice.

Thus ended, at least on the Western Front, the "War to end wars."

Until 1954, we celebrated November 11th as Armistice Day and commemorated the event by wearing artificial poppies in the lapel.

In 1954 the day of observance was renamed "Veteran's Day" in the US.

I prefer "Armistice Day." It commemorates an actual event, rather than a bland, undifferentiated recognition of veterans.

It also conveys the transitory nature of the termination of that conflict.

The war didn't end all wars.

Democrats Win Vote For House Of Representatives!

That's an accurate headline. Across the nation, Democratic candidates for Congress received 54,301,095 votes while Republicans got 53,822,442.Pretty close, but a majority voted for Democrats.

However, Republicans won more seats in the House of Representatives and hold a 234-194 majority, with 7 seats undecided.

So they lost the popular vote but won the election? Even with all the voter suppression measures in Republican-dominated states? How did they do that?

Gerrymandering. Details here.

In North Carolina, the result of Republican redistricting was that while President Obama received 49% of the votes, only 31% of the seats in the Congressional delegation went to Democrats. The ratio was even worse in other states.

Why did this happen? The short answer is, the Republican blitzkrieg of 2010. They brought national funds and nationwide organization techniques to local elections.

We saw it right here in Pamlico County.

The result of the Republican takeover of the NC General Assembly was the redrawing of districts to favor Republican candidates.

This sort of thing has been going on since the dawn of the Republic, but never before has so much money and such sophisticated tools been placed in the hands of political operatives.

Who benefits?

Who pays?