Originally Posted by T. A. Gardner

Surigao Straight is hardly a good comparison. .... But, the US light forces there did not distinguish themselves. Of 132 PT boats present most did fire all of their torpedoes and they failed to get a single hit. The US destroyer line for the most part just shadowed the Japanese as they were well aware that they were about to run into the main gun line.
The main gun line battleships and cruisers demolished the Japanese in about 15 minutes of fire. ....

Originally Posted by lwd

I thought the Germans did bomb the ports. Arial mining of sea lanes is not a particularly useful operation especially when you can't drop a lot of mines and need to move through the same lanes yourself. Choke point mining such as the Germans conducted at port entrances is more effective.

Originally Posted by Carl W Schwamberger

Ok, drop more mines closer in to the harbor entrys. I'll not niggle. My point is there was very poor support & cooperation with the Navy by the Luftwaffe. A proper combined effort would have been much more productive than fighting two seperate uncoordinated wars.