Neptune's Inferno_ The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal - James D. Hornfischer [74]
The rising strength of the Guadalcanal-based aviators taxed the morale of the IJN, too. On the night of August 29, one of Tanaka’s captains refused a direct order to take his four destroyers and attack an inbound American convoy. On a clear night with a full moon, Captain Yonosuke Murakami explained, U.S. planes would have a clear shot at his ships. Tanaka found the explanation “so dumbfounding … that I could not even think of words to reprove him. Blame attached to me, of course, for having such a man in my command.” The next day, physically exhausted and in a fury about the continuing resistance of 17th Army officers to using destroyers for transport, Tanaka found himself done in by his rival service branch. He was relieved of command of the Reinforcement Unit and returned to Truk to rejoin the 2nd Fleet as a destroyer squadron commander.
But Major Mangrum grasped airpower’s limits. “It was difficult for us to understand, while sitting in a foxhole, without adequate surface [ship] support, that we could be expected to maintain the peace and quiet of Guadalcanal,” he said. Nimitz was pressing King for more aircraft of any and all types. Late on the night of September 1, from his headquarters at Pearl, he implored his superior, “Let’s give Cactus the wherewithal to live up to its name. Something for the Japs to remember forever.” But two legs of the air–land–sea tripod weren’t going to get the job done, no matter how stout they were. As Nimitz was beseeching King for more hardware, Vandegrift weighed in with Admiral Turner, copying Ghormley, on what it would take to hold the island.
“Appears enemy is building up striking force by continuous small landings during darkness,” Vandegrift wrote. “Due to difficult terrain areas are beyond range of land operations except at expense of weakened defenses of airfield. We do not have a balanced force and it is imperative that following measures be taken: A. Base planes here capable of searching beyond steaming range during darkness. B. Provide surface craft DD’s or motor torpedo boats for night patrolling. C. Provide striking force for active defense by transferring 7th Marines to Cactus. If not prevented by surface craft enemy can continue night landings beyond our range of action and build up large force.” In other words, the Marines needed the Navy.
On September 3, Rear Admiral Leigh Noyes, Fletcher’s replacement as carrier commander, proposed that the cruisers and destroyers of the disbanded Saratoga group be used much as Vandegrift had suggested—to add muscle to the surface Navy in direct support of the Marines. A few days later, Ghormley revamped the task force assignments to provide for a separate “surface screening and attack force” of cruisers and destroyers, known as Task Force 64. It was a humble flotilla, far less powerful than the North Carolina–led force envisioned earlier. To be based at Espiritu Santo and placed under temporary command of Rear Admiral Carleton H. Wright, the new surface attack force was made up of the heavy cruiser Minneapolis, the light cruisers Boise and Leander, and four destroyers. Still, the unit’s designation as Task Force 64 was an organizational signal that these ships had a vital mission and deserved stature on par with the carrier task forces (Task Force 61), Turner’s amphibs (Task Force 62), and McCain’s land-based air command (Task Force 63).
No longer under a foreigner’s flag, as Crutchley’s cruiser screen had been, or linked by a decimal to the amphibious fleet, as Riefkohl’s martyred Task Group 62.6 had been, Task Force 64 were their own warriors. Given nominally to the operational control of Kelly Turner, they