Somerville, naval constructor Stanley Goodall, and Philip Vian illustrate how prolonged wartime responsibility could change senior leaders in different ways. Goodall and Vian became more austere while continuing to make forceful professional decisions. Somerville remained personable and later built an effective relationship with US Navy chief Ernest King, but his operational judgement grew more conservative. By Operation C he tried to follow doctrine even though the strike carrier and other conditions that made the doctrine coherent were missing. Exhaustion had reduced the willingness to improvise that distinguished his earlier Force H command.
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Long command changed how officers used doctrine
Somerville retained his personal warmth but lost some of the improvisational confidence that had let his earlier commands depart from doctrine when circumstances demanded it.