Ep 96: Vincent O’Hara and Trent Hone on Naval Combat at Night

Vincent O’Hara and Trent Hone, naval historians and co-editors of Fighting in the Dark: Naval Combat at Night, 1904-1944, join the show to talk about how naval warfare was transformed by technology that made possible night combat at sea.

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Times 

    •    02:01 Introduction 

    •    03:35 Night combat pre-19th century

    •    06:02 Why do we fight at night?

    •    09:30 Getting close in

    •   13:47 Different approaches 

    •    19:28 German naval thinking pre-WWI

    •    22:05 Jutland and after

    •    27:09 Theory vs. experience 

    •   32:04 Japanese success at night

    •    37:59 The Italian navy

    •    40:52 Long range torpedoes

    •   45:27 Changes in command expectations

    •    49:44 Dealing with technological changes today

    •    52:36 Is the U.S. Navy the “best”?

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Find a transcript of today’s episode on our School of War Substack