Tassafaronga: experience and culture shape survival

USS Honolulu's successful manoeuvre at Tassafaronga separates tactical outcomes from simplistic claims about national arrogance. Other American cruisers continued on more predictable courses because their crews did not expect Japanese destroyers to threaten them from such long range. British World War I experience had created a strong fear of submarines and made routine zigzagging more familiar, which could have produced a different reaction to the same attack. The Japanese plan exploited an opponent's expected behaviour, while the American decision still made sense within the threat picture its commanders understood. Doctrine is carried by institutional memory and training as well as weapons and range tables.