Captain C

If you were in charge of the Imperial Japanese military in 1942, what would you have done differently in order to defeat the American's at GuadalCanal? I believe history shows that serious blunders were made by the Japanese military that led to their defeat at GuadalCanal and led to a much quicker defeat in the war than might otherwise have been possible. I do believe the Allies would have still won this war, but it might have taken another year before that happened. Your comments and insights please.

O

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bigross86

From what I heard it was pretty damn hard anyway, despite the mistakes the Japs made...

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Captain C

There was no doubt it was hard!!! It could have been much worse. The Japanese had overwhelming naval power in the area and refused to use it. They had 6 battleships in the area (4 Kongo Class and 2 Yamato Class) and 4 carriers, yet for the longest refused to commit them to the bombardment of Henderson field. When they finally did late in the game, the Americans had two modern battleships to face off the Japanese. Even when the Japanese finally committed battleships for bombardment, they only committed two Kongo Class BB's instead of the whole fleet of BB's.

If when the American forces first landed the Japanese would have initiated daily battleship bombardment of Henderson field, The Japanese would have kept planes off Henderson field and starved the Americans out. As it was, it worked out the other way around. The American planes on Henderson field stopped almost all resupply efforts of the Japanese. The Japanese were so concerned with the "Mother of all Battles" with the U.S. fleet that they didn't take care of business. They were afraid to let the BB's and carriers take part in attacks on Henderson field that would have destroyed any defensive capability the U.S. forces had.

Another problem was Japanese pride. They had such a long string of victories against the Chinese, British and Americans, that they couldn't conceive the need for equal firepower much less superior firepower. Due to upper echelon pride and arrogance, they refused to look at the actual situation until it was too late to do anything about it. By the time leaders with good sense were in a position to do anything about it, it was too late…… Don't ever let yourself get arrogant and prideful, it will give you a serious butt kicking at the worst possible time!!!!

:S :ph34r

Stinger

Don't forget the fact that the Japanese Navy and Army had a pissing contest going over who was responsible for Guadalcanals defence.

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2DREZQ

I would have ordered the Subs to go after tankers and cargo supply ships, and ignore warships, except the carriers.

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Stinger

In short you would have changed the entirety of IJN subfleet operations

Captain C

That's exactly what I would have done. They sat on their rears waiting for the big battle instead of taking the war to the enemy. That cost them big time. I am not saying the Japanese had a prayer of winning the war, but they could have delayed the end for another year.

markaspen

I certainly would have stayed around for more follow through after Savo Island, maybe getting the supply ships. On the other hand, how godd was my intelligence to begin with?

By rights, they shouldn't have lost New Guinea either.

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ChrisF202

we lost something like 10 ships there, tahts why its called "Ironbottom Sound"

Captain C

Of course we left a few of theirs on the bottom as well, including a couple of BB's.....

bigross86

Isn't the best defense a good offense? Shame they didn't apply that...

markaspen

Not at the first Battle of Savo we didn't. Had the Japanese not retired, they would have picked off whatever supply and warships were left.
http://www.ww2pacific.com/savo.html

Imagine what we could have done with the Long Lance. Worse yet, imagine what the U-Boat command could have done with them.

Captain C

Those Mk 25's were a sorry lot weren't they? Luckily the Long Lance wasn't perfect either. Otherwise we might have lost both SoDak and Washington at Second Savo.....

ChrisF202

anybody know how many ships we lost there?

Anon

The IJN's mistakes were large, but they all pale in comparision to Halsey idioticly charging away with the BB's and leaving the USMC protected by nothing more than a few jeep carriers and a destroyer squadron.

Of course, the IJN not taking advantadge of the situation was also a critical error.