US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

376 Amphibians Came To Conquer
.$bips disposition prior Savo Isk?d Battle.
Rear Admiral Crutchley stated his case as follows:
I would point out that neither Australia nor Canberra were fitted with
T.B.S. [Voice radio} and they had done some night training with Chicago
and Desron 4, but none with the other cruisers, thus it was my firm intention
to avoid handling a mixed force at night.
Speaking generally, I consider heavy ships in groups of more than 4 to be
unwieldy at night.
*****
. . . I therefore decided to block one SAVO entrance with the three CAS I
knew I could command, and leave the other SAVO entrance to the three U. S.
vessels .57
Rear Admiral Turner may be charged by historical theorists with a mistake
in approving this procedure, whereby the Vincennes group operated under
one set of detailed instructions and the Australia group under another,
instead of demanding Combined night training on the way to the battlefield
under the Australian set of instructions. But few salt water sailormen of the
pre-radar, pre-voice radio eras will so charge either him or Rear Admiral
Crutchley who sponsored the procedure.
~ CTG 62.6 to Admiral Hepburn, memorandum,21 Feb. 1943. Hepburn Report,Annex B.