The Ship Model Forum

I'm curious...

I believe Halsey was commanding on NJ during Leyte and Iowa and NJ were dispatched to engage the enemy fleet. If the two US BB's engaged Yamato, would NJ with Halsey on board have faired better than Iowa? I don't know who was commanding on Iowa at the time.

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Halsey was never the commander of the NJ.
He was the Third Fleet commander with NJ as flagship. Admirals did not command individual ships. The Captain of the Flagship has the ship follow the orders of the Task Force or Fleet Commander, like the Captain of any other ship in the Task Force/Fleet.

I know that NJ had a captain issuing orders, but what I'm trying to ask is with Halsey commanding the fleet from NJ would the ship have been put less at risk than Iowa?

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No.

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Sean Hert

Well, that's something that's hard to say. I never heard of it being an issue as several Admirals had their flagships shot up enough that they had to shift their flags to other ships, and I heard about this admiral named Callahan who went down with his flagship.

During the first Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on the night of November 12-13, 1942, the cruisers USS Atlanta and USS San Francisco were leading the heavy ships, behind the van destroyers. RAdm. Norman Scott was killed on the bridge of the Atlanta, which was scuttled after the battle. RAdm. Daniel Callahan, the Task Force commander, was killed on the bridge of the San Francisco, which survived the battle. Both Scott and Callahan were buried at sea.

(VAdm. Pete Mitscher was kamikaze'd off his flagships, the USS Bunker Hill and USS Enterprise, during the Battle of Okinawa, in 1945.)

GR

So there you go drdoom, you'll have to figure out another way.

Korita was coming dangerously close to hanging back to keep himself safe. He first choose the heavy cruiser Atago as his flagship rather any of his much more powerful battleships. His reason was Atago would draw much less American fire than a battleship.

It was only when Atago sank beneath his feet that he shifted his flag into the Yamato.

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Assessing the impact of new area rug under modeling table.

Hi Chuck,

Do you have any referances for Kurita's actions? He seemed to be in the think of the action from the battles in the slot through Leyte. Yes he did lose a Cruiser at Midway, (Mikuma?), As you stated he escaped when Atago was sunk en-route to Leyte. I don't think he was trying to stay out of the line of fire. He was just more comfortable on the Cruisers that he had commanded since before the war started.

Larry

No, in the IJN the cruiser (& carrier – attack ships) were considered more prestigious than a battleship & far more than a destroyer (defense ships) also the Takao class was designed (their chief difference from the Nachi’s) as command ships with larger bridge structures for more room for command staff. The Chokai was flag ship at Salvo Island. He was also leading from the front (the Atago was the lead cruiser in the van, right behind the lead destroyer sweep & ahead of the Battleships).
They were the first seen by the Darter & Dace with all his star banners flying from the mast heads, yelling “an Admiral’s here…shoot me”! (& they did! )

Also US Admirals generally lead from the front. Commodore Dewey lead his squadron on board the USS Olympia, & at Santiago Commodore Schley charged his USS Brooklyn strait at the fleeing Spanish cruisers & ended up chasing down the last one herself, as the rest of the battle squadron was being out paced by the faster cruisers.