IJN night battle superiority

the imperial japanese navy was superior to the US navy in night engagements, that is until radar equipped the ships. The IJN had the long lance torpedo, with tremendous range, and very strong hitting power. Destroyers, Light and heavy cruisers all carried torpedo tubes. This proved critical, because these torpedoes were far superior to the US counterparts. The IJN also had night time training, and was more adapted to this type of warfare. Had the IJN truly realized its night time potential, they would have coupled early in the war theyre battleships, heavy cruisers and light cruisers, and even destroyers to make night time raids against the US fleets early on in the conflict. The IJN could have done some major damage, and then the carriers could have done the majority of the day light fighting. This could have prolonged the war. Had the US surface fleet been damaged severly, the war could have raged on. But then would have come the Iowa class, and other radar equipped ships, not to mention the carrier prodcution of the United states. The war may have went on a while longer, but that is very circumstantial, this was just a thought.

[Jim Oxley]

The IJN was indeed probably superior to any other Navy in it's night time fighting ability. It demonstrated that in the Battle of the Java Sea, and in several sea battles around Guadalcanal.

As you say though, Radar quickly reduced that advantage.

[Jim P.]

In Richard Franks' opus entitled 'Guadalcanal' he tells of the Japanese, with their superior optics, actually spotting the U.S. Navy battle fleet at the 1st Battle of Savo Island BEFORE the radar equipped U.S. Navy found the Japanese fleet.

[ArtieBob]

I am not certain when the PPI scopes were introduced into service with the USN. Before that, the interpretation of data using the "A" and "B" scopes was much more difficult. Range could be determined quite precisely and fall of shot, but identifiying whether a blip was a ship or a rock could really only be done using a separate DR plot, to determine if the object was moving.

Best regards,

Artie Bob(ex-USN CIC officer)

[Ruy Horta]

Artie, finally we get closer to the origines of your nickname