Nimitz had followed the course of the battle from the operation plot room in the CINCPAC headquarters. The room, as Layton described it, was “a rather primitive affair that consisted of a large chart of the Pacific laid over plywood across a pair of sawhorses.” Over that chart was placed a large sheet of tracing paper, and a staff officer continually drew, in blue crayon, the known position and tracks of American and Japanese fleet units.
