This day in history, December 31, 1941 In ceremonies held aboard the submarine USS Grayling at Pearl Harbor, Admiral Chester Nimitz assumes command of the ravaged U.S. Pacific Fleet. His strategic and tactical planning would play a major role in the U.S. defeat of Japan. Born on Feb. 24, 1885, in Fredricksburg, Texas, Chester Nimitz originally tried for an appointment to West Point. When none were available, he was persuaded instead to take the examination for the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis by his grandfather, a retired sea captain. Graduating seventh in a class of 114 in 1905 he was assigned to the Navys Far East Squadron and joined the crew of the Battleship Ohio as a Warrant Officer. In January 1907, after the two years sea duty then required by law, he was commissioned an Ensign and given command of the gunboat USS Panay. In October 1907 when the Panay went into reserve Ensign Nimitz was given command of a Destroyer, USS Decatur. In July 1908 while under the command of Ensign Nimitz, Decatur ran aground on a sand bar in the Philippines. The ship was pulled free the next day, but Nimitz was court-martialed, found guilty of neglect of duty, and issued a letter of reprimand. Relieved of command and returned to the U.S, Nimitz was ordered to duty with the Submarine Fleet, holding several commands and culminating in his appointment as Commander of the Atlantic Submarine Flotilla in 1912. In 1913 he was sent to Germany and Belgium to study engines at their Diesel Plants. Upon his return the following year he was assigned as Engineering Officer of the Fleet Oiler USS Maumee and subsequently served as her Executive Officer until October 1917 when he was assigned as Chief Of Staff to Rear Admiral Samuel S. Robison, Commander, Submarine Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. In May 1919 he was assigned one years duty as executive officer of the battleship South Carolina. In 1920 he was given command of the Submarine Tender USS Chicago and sent to Pearl Harbor to establish the new Pacific Fleet Submarine Base. In the summer of 1922, he was transferred for a years study to the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island. In June of 1923 upon his return to the fleet he was assigned as Chief Of Staff to Admiral Robert E. Coontz, Commander In Chief U.S. Fleet, a post he would retain after Admiral Samuel S. Robison replaced Admiral Coontz in 1925. In August 1926 Nimitz was assigned to the University of California, Berkeley, to establish the Navys first Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps unit. In June 1929, now holding the rank of Captain, he took command of USS Holland and began two years as Commander, Submarine Division 20 in Bremerton WA. followed by two more years in command of Destroyer division 3 at San Diego, California. In 1933 Nimitz took command of the heavy cruiser Augusta at Puget Sound WA. and sailed her to Shanghai where for the next two years she would preform duties as flagship for Admiral Frank B. Upham, Commander in Chief, Asiatic Fleet. In 1935 Captain Nimitz was assigned as assistant chief of the Bureau of Navigation in Washington D.C., a billet that ended in 1938 with his promotion to Rear Admiral. His next command was as Flag Commander, Cruiser Division Two, until December 1939, when he was assigned as Chief of the Bureau of Navigation in Washington D.C. The Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor precipitated a major shake up in the Navys command structure that began on December 17, 1941 when Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox relieved Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet for errors of judgement and dereliction of duty. He was temporarily replaced with Vice Admiral William S. Pye. Rear Admiral Nimitz was attending a concert in Washington D.C. when he was paged and told there was a phone call for him. When he answered the phone, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt told Nimitz that he had been chosen to replace Admiral Kimmel as CINCPAC with the rank of full Admiral effective December 31, 1941 (skipping over the rank of Vice Admiral) Admiral Nimitz flew to Hawaii to assume command of the Pacific Fleet, arriving on Christmas Eve, 1941. On Christmas Day, Admiral Nimitz was given a boat tour of the destruction wrought on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Sunken battleships, damaged vessels and general destruction were everywhere. The following four paragraphs are from Admiral Nimitz book Reflections on Pearl Harbor As the tour boat returned to dock, the young helmsman of the boat asked me Well Admiral, what do you think after seeing all this destruction? I told him The Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could ever make, or God was taking care of America. Which do you think it was? Surprised, the young helmsman asked, What do mean that the Japanese made the three biggest mistakes an attack force ever made? So I explained: Mistake number one : The Japanese attacked on Sunday morning. Nine out of every ten crewmen of those ships were ashore on leave. If those same ships had been lured to sea and been sunk, we would have lost ten times as many. Mistake number two : When the Japanese saw all those battleships lined in a row, they got so carried away sinking them that they never once bombed our dry docks opposite those ships. If they had destroyed our dry docks, we would have had to tow every one of those ships to America to be repaired. As it is now, the ships are in shallow water and can be raised. One tug can pull them over to the dry docks and we can have them repaired and at sea by the time we could have towed them to America, and I already have crews ashore anxious to man those ships. Mistake number three : Every drop of fuel in the Pacific theater of war is in those ground storage tanks five miles away over that hill. One attack plane could have strafed those tanks and destroyed our entire fuel supply. Nimitz spent another six days in conferences and briefings on the dismal war situation and sobering condition of his new command. Nimitz expressed his full confidence in the existing staff by retaining them all to maintain continuity during what were certain to be very difficult times ahead. At the Change Of Command ceremony he stated, We have taken a tremendous wallop, but I have no doubt of the ultimate outcome. We will bide our time, keep our powder dry, and take advantage of the opportunities when theyre offered. As much for consumption by the press and public as by the assembled sailors, Nimitz statement was deliberately ambiguous but a reasonably accurate indication of the U.S. Navys strategy for the Pacific Wars next few months, a time to be spent hurting the enemy wherever possible while rebuilding strength and confidence for the long struggle ahead. Realizing that the battered American fleet was in no condition to risk a major confrontation in early 1942, Nimitz knew that some offensive action was necessary to restore the Navys confidence. He ordered a series of fast carrier strikes upon Japanese garrisons at Rabaul and throughout the Marshall and Gilbert Islands in February 1942, at Wake and Marcus Islands in early March, against Lae and Salamaua in late March and culminating finally with Jimmy Doolittles raid on Tokyo in April. While inflicting only limited damage, these raids along with the victory at Midway brought a much need boost to morale, not only in the fleet but back at home. Nimitz died of a stroke on February 20,1966, and was buried at Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, California with full military honors on February 24, 1966. He lies in a plot alongside his wife, and long time friends Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, Admiral Richmond K. Turner, and Admiral Charles A. Lockwood and their wives. Photo; Presenting awards on board USS Grayling at the Pearl Harbor Submarine Base, following ceremonies in which he took command of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. - Admiral Nimitz is facing the camera in the center of the photo. Former fleet commander Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel is on the right, in a white uniform with two star insignia.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 16:45:07 +0000
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