Nagging-mother Kasumi is fine too.

was kasumi really the flagship when there was a pair of cruisers in the group? you'd think it'd be Ashigara as the natural flagship, but I guess that it's not actually determined by which ship has the biggest and sweetest guns

M_Q_N said:

was kasumi really the flagship when there was a pair of cruisers in the group? you'd think it'd be Ashigara as the natural flagship, but I guess that it's not actually determined by which ship has the biggest and sweetest guns

Kasumi was the flagship of a group of destroyers, the cruisers were listed as "support". It was basically a night raid upon land forces as a response to the Americans taking Mindoro and attempting to establish an airstrip there. The destroyers were expected to make the landing on their own in the middle of the night and retreat before being discovered and bombed to Hell. Ahigara and Ooyodo were mostly there just to launch spotter planes to tell the Rei-Go group where to go to avoid enemies, although they would also provide bombardment. The whole group (cruisers and all) was spotted by a B-24 in the afternoon before they came close to the islands, however. Incidentally, this action was where Kiyoshimo was sunk. Also, it took place on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day, two months after The Battle of Leyte Gulf.

I didn't list it, but Wikipedia also says that several Matsu-class (4th rate) destroyers took part in the operation, as well. (But since most KC fans have no idea who or what Kaya, Sugi and Kashi were, I left it off.)

Here's the Japanese Wikipedia page, no English equivalent exists, since it doesn't seem to have a particular name for the American side. (It was just another air-raid against a supply convoy to them...) However, it was part of The Battle of Mindoro.

Historically, cruisers were actually preferred for flagships, even when larger ships existed. Ooyodo was, in fact, explicitly designed to be a flagship.

Destroyers were too small to have room for a fleet's commanding officer plus support staff in addition to the ship's own officers. Battleships tended to hang too far back, and were magnets for enemy fire, and carriers hung even further back. Hence, cruisers were the general choice.

In Leyte Gulf, for example, Admiral Kurita had his flag onboard the Atago until Darter and Dace torpedoed her, Takao, and Maya, and Kurita was forced to go to his next choice after the Takao-class, *sigh* Yamato. In The Battle Off Samar that took place later, Kurita consistently misidentified the enemy as cruisers instead of destroyers and escort destroyers (frigates) due in part to being so far away from the action. (That was also the battle where a fluke shot from a carrier's lone deck gun detonated Choukai's torpedoes, causing her to sink, as well... Leyte was not kind to the Takao-class.)

https://media.giphy.com/media/KlrMS4vyq5KSY/giphy.gif

The Origin of Kasumi-mama