Talk:General Discussion/@comment-24903916-20140906180613/@comment-23.28.25.108-20140906211351

add in battle damage, mis-understood communications, Captains/Admirals/crew that haven't slept in several days, it all happened. To the OP, the IJN trained more in night battle than any other navy of the time. The British were perhaps the only other that really made it a priority, and the USN had severely disrupted training schedules the year or so leading up to the war.

Some of the fights around the 'Canal, the US formations had destroyers 500m apart, going at 30 knots. Ship ahead of you gets hit by a Long Lance and goes dead in the water, that isn't a lot of time or space to react! Another occasion that I remember reading about was the formation was supposed to make a 45-degree turn, but one ship did a 90-degree turn instead. oops.

queek, adding to Evilfrank's excellent post ^