Chuck wrote:
"While the first sentence is correct, the second would be a bit of a
surprise if true."

Terman writes on page 803 of his 1955 edition:
"The ground wave is vertically polarized, because any horizontal
component of electric field in contact with the earth is short-circuited
by the earth."

On page 808 of the same book:
"Examination of the vector diagrams shows that with a perfect reflector
(read sea water) the horizontal components of electric field will
exactly cancel each other at the surface of the perfect reflector. In
contrast, the vertical components of the electric field of the incident
and reflected waves do not cancel, but rather add at the reflector
surface with (small values of elevation angle from the surface) Psi.

It`s true. Terman has been tested for 7 decades.

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI