Fletcher obtained firm radar contact and Commander Cole requested authority to fire when the range was about 7,000 yards. Wright's response delayed the salvo for about five minutes, by which point the target aspect had shifted from an optimal bow-on approach to a marginal beam crossing. Three destroyers fired twenty torpedoes while Maury held fire without a contact. The cruisers opened up at almost the same time instead of after a clean destroyer withdrawal, warning the Japanese and disrupting the planned sequence.
Chapter · 57:04-1:02:03
The delayed American torpedo salvo
Radar contact gave the American destroyers an opening, but a delay in firing permission let the Japanese move beyond the best torpedo geometry.