Parry turns enemy corrections into an evasive advantage

Parry was due to become commodore of the New Zealand Division in May 1940, so Harwood had a senior officer close to his own level with whom he could discuss the tactical problem, although Parry was not his flag captain. Parry's detail-oriented thinking appears in an evasive technique that turned Achilles toward the point where the enemy's previous salvo fell. Opposing gunners would already be correcting away from that miss, so the turn compounded the error they were trying to remove. The method exploited the limits of contemporary guns, radar, and fire control instead of assuming that radar made every salvo accurate. It shows the quality of tactical judgment available within Harwood's squadron.