US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

Savo—Tbe Galling Defeat 371
subordinates did or did not do certain things, filed with Admiral Hepburn’s
investigation of this 7–lo August 1942 period. CTF 63’s story just is not
currently available. The War Diaries of COMAIRSOPAC and the USS
McFarland, seaplane tender at Maramsike Estuary, Malaita, record only the
incomplete nature of the planned searches.
Admiral Turner desired that the air reconnaissance matter be thoroughly
researched in available records and then presented to him again. He died
before this was done,
In 1960, he believed that CTF 63’s air search despatch report for the eighth
of August was unjustifiably tardy, and that it was inexcusable not to have
told him earlier in the day of the TF 63 failure to search because of weather,
or the extent and results of the special search he had requested. Because of
the tardiness or omission of the air search reports, he did not know that TF
63 planes had not searched the Slot areas to the north of New Georgia. Since
no positive sighting reports by the TF 63 planes in this area were made during
the day, and no report of inability to search was made by Rear Admiral
McCain, Rear Admiral Turner watched the clock on the Flag Bridge move
from 8 to 9 August believing that it was a reasonable deduction that no
enemy surface forces were in the area.t3
CTF 63’s (McCain’s) failure to tell CTF 61 (Fletcher) and CTF 62
(Turner) that his planes were carrying through their assigned searches in a
very limited way because of weather problems or other reasons vitiated the
agreement made by CTF 63 on the Saratoga on 26 July 1942. As related in
the Hepburn Inquiry:
It was specifically arranged by the Commanders Task Force Sixty-One, Sixty-
Two, and Sixty-Three, that if the air scouting could not be made in any
sector, Task Force Sixty-One would fill in for short range scouting, both
morning and late afternoon, to protect against the approach of surface
forces.”
TURNER VERSUS THE FIELD OF HISTORIANS
Admiral Turner’s reaction in 1960 to the official histories or monographs
stating that he was advised of an “Approaching Force” is informative:
I have been accused of being and doing many things but nobody before
ever accused me of sitting on my awrse and doing nothing. If I had known
“ Turner.
4’CINCPAC, letter, PAC–I I–SN–A17, Ser. 0088s of 28 Jun. 1943, subj: Comments on
Hepburn Report, Annex F to encl. (A), p. 2.