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Old March 19th 10, 05:37 PM posted to rec.aviation.military,sci.military.naval,rec.aviation.military.naval
Jack Linthicum
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Default "Vanishing American Air Superiority"

On Mar 19, 1:18*pm, Jim Wilkins wrote:
On Mar 19, 10:02*am, Jack Linthicum
wrote:

...
I would not call the ships sunk at Guadalcanal "shipping". They were
warships. Chicago, Quincy, Vincennes, Canberra and Astoria all Cruisers..


They were sunk by IJN gunfire in NIGHT battles where aircraft from
neither side participated. The Japanese Navy ruled the seas by night,
the Cactus Air Force by day, until the battleship Washington arrived.

From "Guadalcanal Diary"
"I found out later that there had been forty Japanese planes
attacking; that sixteen of these were shot down on the spot, and the
remaining twenty-four destroyed by our fighters, one by one, as they
streaked for home. The Japanese torpedo bombers had not gone after the
warships, contenting themselves with merely strafing the transports as
they passed by."

One transport, the George F. Elliot, was hit by a crashing plane and
lost.

So you were a CIA analyst???

jsw


What does being a CIA analyst have to do with the ships that were
sunk? I saw a movie at OCS on the superiority of the Japanese at night
fighting that didn't bother to mention that a burning ship provided
light for their attack and precluded the Allies seeing that attack as
it developed.

By the way, which of these battles featured Japanese aircraft sinking
"shipping"?