Talk:Yuudachi/@comment-71.178.248.74-20160323030049

I actually looked at detailed reports of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal and, surprisingly, found another wrinkle to the "White Flag" story. Looking at everything, I found it rather hard to believe that the Americans actually saw the "white flag" until after the shooting stopped. The thing is, Yuudachi's bullrush took all of ten minutes max and she only engaged four USN ships during this time, Gleaves-class DD Aaron Ward, Benham-class DD Sterett, Atlanta-class CLAA Juneau, and Portland-class CA Portland. That leaves the question of who confirmed the "white flag". Aaron Ward and Sterett misidentified Yuudachi as a Fubuki-class and they both jumped her without ever having the chance to see the "white flag". The Juneau is another contender but given that she was practically vaporized in the retreat with only 7 survivors making it back to shore, I find it hard to believe that any of them would have confirmed it. That leaves only one ship, which is rather coincidentally the same one that scuttled Yuudachi, USS Portland. Given that she had much bigger problems at the time what with needing serious DamCon efforts just to stay afloat, it somewhat stretches the imagination to think that anyone on board could have seen the "white flag" what with the pitch darkness going on. I'm beginning to think that the captain of the Portland retroactively "remembered" the flag to explain why he just fired on a ship that had surrendered (and was also abandoned at the time though no one knew that) and after the war, the US Navy talked to the then-captain (who had somehow survived, I looked it up) whereupon he told them about the hammock and they just left it at that.