losing only 168 men out of a crew of 1,200 for a ship that broke up and sank in the dark is a remarkable achievement.

The honor and the integrity with which you both continue to serve history and your country is inspiring.  Thank you so much,

Japanese Type 95 Torpedo: 22,000 yards fast speed. 44,000 yards slow speed.  Incredible range for any Torpedo in those days.

The ridiculous thing about American doctrine for these light cruisers is that they were allowed to go to continuous rapid fire in a night action within a certain range. Under continuous rapid fire a Brooklyn or Cleveland will continuously illuminate itself with gun flashes, but will simultaneously continuously ruin the night vision of the spotters. For night battle, it makes more sense to stick to formal salvos so that the spotters can be warned and close their eyes against flashes and so that the enemy only sees you once every 6-8 seconds.

I'm not Nathan Okun (delighted to hear him mentioned), but I've had some YouTube comment discussions with him. In particular, he has explained in incredible technical detail that the US delay fuse for armor piercing shells had a flaw at this stage of the war, which was probably best understood (because US personnel would have a chance to examine the results after the battle) from USS Massachusetts fighting the French Battleship Jean Bart at Casablanca a few days before Washington ravaged Kirishima. The explosive filler in US shells, ammonium picrate, would off gas in storage and the gases released would corrode the fine workings of the fuse, preventing it from setting off the main charge, so there would be a significant percentage of duds. This would be resolved by dipping the assembled fuse in sealant to protect those fine mechanisms from the corrosive gases, but until that was recognized and applied to fuze production duds would be a problem.

My favorite WWII cruiser! She took care of her crew to the end.

Thanks for the detailed review of the Kula Gulf battle.  My dad and his brother survived the sinking of the Helena.  They were among the lucky ones picked up by the Nicholas at sunrise.  Their battle station was on a 40mm Bofer.  Dad said he placed his shoes on the deck and stepped off only a couple of feet to water.  On board the Nicholas they were ordered below to an engine room to lower the center of gravity of the ship.  The captain asked for more speed, the reply was, "we're already at the last notch".  They were headed to Tulagi at full speed!

At 7 years old I was introduced to “Victory at Sea” and now 70 years later at age 77 I stumbled upon you guys. You are finishing up this history so well. I read the Chinese are studying these battles around Guadalcanal and the Solomons and building their fleet accordingly with many smaller ships like destroyers. Good job!

This former Navy Nurse (NAS JAX and others) thanks you for a great podcast. I have always had great interest in WWII and your detailed info on the Pacific theater has expanded my knowledge. Today's podcast was exceptionally informative.

I can not tell you how hooked I am on your podcast.  This is like my favorite history class on steroids.   You have made my morning cardio fly by.  Thanks again.  You two are masters at teaching history

My dear friend, Jim "Red" Leighton was the Corpsman on the Helena when she went down.  He is credited in the book about the Helena, "The Fightin'est Ship: The Story of the Cruiser "Helena"  as saving many of the men who washed up on the shore with him.   Those men were made of stuff the likes of which we haven't seen in successive generations.  We owe them everything and are forever in their debt.

My grandpa Lenard Wallace Stout served on the Helena, and was on her the night she sank. He was a crewman on port side 40mm,, was in the water till they reach Vella Lavella.

Great stories once again! The Helena was great boat, shame she was sunk but glad so much of the crew made it out. The little whaler boat convoy is legendary! Thanks again guys, love to learn so much from you every week.

I have never heard of this engagement.  The bravery of the men looking after the survivors.  Another great episode, gentlemen.

My dad, A. N. Brown served on the Destroyer Jenkins, DD 447 (plank owner) throughout the war. I could never find a detailed history of the Battle of Kula Gulf. Thank you so much for this detailed account!
I’m really enjoying this channel!

I believe it was US Naval doctrine up through the era of visual identification, to suppress enemy fire with your own because we were daylight and gun focused whereas the Japanese destroyers were nighttime and torpedo focused in  relative doctrines. Their focus on torpedoes was evidenced by having started the Russo-Japanese war with them. So it was decades long training for our destroyers to fire at the time we launch torpedoes. The Japanese had invested in better optics and rangy torpedoes to set up coordinated efforts by task groups of destroyers for wider salvos of torpedoes to launch first and disperse to stay out of range of our own torpedoes. That was standard procedure for them without breaking radio silence. The adoption of radars hadn't yet been integrated  into our doctrine. The fact that there were torpedo problems that had yet to have been addressed evidences that torpedoes were a secondary weapon for us through the era of visual identification. To hold our fire would've been in violation of decades of our training without being able to take the advantage offered by this totally new technology whose improved variant came equipped on the Fletcher class destroyers...

It's amazing how that hour and 17 minutes flew by so quickly.  Yet another great episode!

Thanks for the shout out to the Ralph Talbot (DD 390). My Dad was on her after being assigned after the Utah had been sunk. He and his ship mates referred to her as the Rat Trap.

The biggest enema of your life....never thought of it that way 😂

"Fiji nationals?" That is forgotten history and deserves an episode.

Hi, I have only recently, the past one or two years, started getting interested in WWII.  I am 66.  I love this podcast series.  Have learned so much and even better, I keep learning more just to keep up.  For example, didn’t understand the difference between destroyers, light cruisers, heavy cruisers and battleships. So did some research last week and now have a basic concept of size and abilities.   Your series made me want to learn.  Thank you seems too small a phrase.  You are making this history come alive.