Kimmel's reputation as a gunnery officer

The U.S. battleships joining the Grand Fleet arrived with gunnery described as worse than the British Battle Cruiser Force's. As squadron gunnery officer, Kimmel was told to raise their shooting to Royal Navy standards. He worked ship by ship until the formation became one of the fleet's best-performing gunnery squadrons. This concrete training result explains why contemporaries regarded him as a highly capable technical officer rather than the incompetent commander of later caricature.