[Brett]

IIRC, Morrison in his official USN histories was quite critical of early
USN surface actions up through the New Georgia campaign (mid '43).

US destroyer doctrine kept them tied to the main battle line of heavier
ships (cruisers & battleships), while the IJN unleased their destroyers
for independent torpedo attacks. The IJN torpedo (long lance) was
bigger, longer ranged, faster & more reliable than US ones.

IJN lookouts were better trained & spotted US ships often before
the early radar on US ships. USN doctrine tended to open combat
with gunfire, often concentrated on the unfortunate enemy ship
in the van.

IJN tried to initiate combat with a torpedo attack & only opened
gunfire after results from this attack were known. This meant they
had more devasting effects than the US tactics which would lose
much of their chances to make torpedo attacks against a non
violently manuevering enemy.

Of course, US ships often had to fight with other Allied ships in
the early combat in the Dutch E. Indies and S. & mid Solomon
islands. It is always easier to fight with ships that have the
same national doctrine. I believe (but I'm much less confident
of this) that at this stage of the war, Allied task forces were
much more likely to be newly thrown together, vs. IJN forces
that had trained for years together.

After mid '43 US destroyers fought much better.


As for German, I don't know that US and German Destroyers ever
clashed, so I couldn't give an opinion on their relative merits.