MIKAWA ELECTED TO RETIRE AT HIGH SPEED TO THE NORTHWEST, rather than return to Savo Sound to engage the XRAY and YOKE transport groups. That was a fateful decision, and for the Americans a very lucky one. If the admiral had taken the more aggressive course, as some of his officers had urged, Turner’s fleet might have been wiped out. In that case, the logistical underpinning of WATCHTOWER might have collapsed, with bleak consequences for Vandegrift’s marines.
