Between late 1921 and August 1937, four officers led the navy across nearly sixteen years. In the following twenty months, four more leaders cycled through the post, an average tenure of roughly five months. Each incoming chief had to learn unfamiliar projects, while destroyers launched under one leadership group might await completion under another. Shipyards could not rely on timely decisions from leaders who were still trying to understand their programmes. Officials who feared the fate of their predecessors also had a strong incentive to report that everything was fine before they had visited the yards or examined the evidence. Rapid turnover weakened procurement oversight, honest reporting, and the institutional memory needed to finish ships.
Notable Point · 1:05:33-1:09:41
Five-month leadership cycles erased institutional memory
Four naval chiefs served in twenty months after August 1937, leaving each new leader too little time to master programmes or give shipyards confident decisions.