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Abstract: After the Pearl Harbor incident on December 7, 1941, the U.S. Pacific Fleet was severely damaged by the Japanese army, and the United States declared war on Japan and joined World War II. Admiral Kimmel, the former commander of the Pacific Fleet, was removed from his post, so why would President Roosevelt send a very junior Nimitz to take over as commander of the Pacific Fleet?
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On December 7, 1941, the Pearl Harbor Incident, the U.S. Pacific Fleet was severely damaged by the Japanese army, and the United States declared war on Japan and joined World War II. Although the main responsibility was not Admiral Kimmel, the commander of the Pacific Fleet, but the top brass of the U.S. Army did not expect that the Japanese army would directly attack Pearl Harbor, 8,000 kilometers away, as soon as the war began. But Kimmel naturally had to take on the leadership responsibility in this position, so it was expected that he would be removed, so why did President Roosevelt send a very junior Nimitz to take over as commander of the Pacific Fleet?
At the time, Nimitz was the director of the U.S. Naval Navigation Service (later the Bureau of Personnel), a rear admiral. He began this position in August 1939. The Navigation Bureau was primarily responsible for the recruitment, training, promotion, appointment and removal of naval officers, and was later renamed the Bureau of Personnel. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and World War II broke out. Although the United States has not yet entered the war, it has also felt the atmosphere of the war, so Congress passed the Naval Expansion Act, allocating billions of dollars to build combat ships. With a large number of newly built ships in service, great requirements have been put forward for staffing and logistical support. The operations of the Nautical Bureau also expanded rapidly, and Nimitz's excellent work ensured the rapid expansion of the Navy relatively satisfactorily. It was his outstanding performance in this key position that allowed President Roosevelt to discover Nimitz's outstanding ability and attach great importance to him.
Nimitz does have a superiority, in the post of director of the navigation bureau, although he is not directly involved in foreign and operational affairs, so it is impossible to get accurate information on the high-level negotiations between the United States and Japan, and it is not known that the United States has deciphered Japan's diplomatic code, but Nimitz has read newspapers and magazines, keenly and accurately analyzed, foreseeing that Japan and the United States will inevitably break out into war, and the war must have begun with a surprise attack by Japan, and the United States will certainly suffer great losses in the early days, and the early stage of the war will be very difficult. War must also be protracted—how consistent is Nimitz's judgment with the reality of war!
In April 1940, President Roosevelt decided to deploy the Pacific Fleet from the West Coast to Pearl Harbor in order to curb Japan's aggressive posture in the Pacific, but was opposed by the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Fleet, James Richardson, so Roosevelt dismissed Richardson, and as for his successor, Roosevelt belonged to Inimez. Nimitz thought that it would have a very negative impact on him if he overtook more than fifty officers who were more senior than him to take up this important position, especially since he knew that among the candidates was Kimmel, a classmate of the Naval Officer School, and he very firmly refused.
For the low-key and humble Nimitz, it seems normal to refuse to be the commander-in-chief of the US fleet, but it is the wisest concession in his life. Kimmel assumed this position, and on the day kimmel took office on February 1, 1941, the U.S. Navy reorganized its inx and formed the Atlantic Fleet and the Pacific Fleet, and Kimmel immediately became commander of the Pacific Fleet—removed ten months later from the Pearl Harbor attack. If Nimitz had not resolutely resigned and accepted the post, he would have been responsible for the Pearl Harbor incident, and there would have been no situation in the Pacific War.
Who will succeed Kimmel as commander of the Pacific Fleet? This time Roosevelt naturally preferred Nimitz, and although there were more than thirty admirals who were more senior than Nimitz at this time, they were already in heaven and earth when he succeeded as commander-in-chief of the US fleet in early 1941, and I am afraid that no one would be willing to take over this hot potato - in Nimitz's own words, the Pacific Fleet at this time was already sunk at the bottom of the sea!
The Pacific Fleet had already suffered heavy losses in pearl harbor, and it was an extremely tricky task to recover while facing the Japanese attack! So much so that on December 17, 1941, Nimitz's inauguration as commander of the Pacific Fleet was performed on the uss grayling (hull number ss-209) submarine, partly because the main battleships of the Pacific Fleet had been lost, and on the other hand, it may also be that Nimitz was born in the submarine force in honor of the submarine force.
In this way, Nimitz skipped the post from rear admiral of the Navigation Bureau to vice admiral and was promoted directly to the position of admiral commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet. As for Nimitz's performance in the war, it goes without saying that he was promoted to five-star admiral in the Navy with great merit, and signed the Instrument of Surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945, on the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
Chester William Nimitz was born in February 1885 in Fredericksburg, Texas , Fredericksburg is a German-populated town, "Fredericks" is a very German word, his parents are German immigrants, "Nimitz" is a typical Germanic surname, Nimitz's ancestors in the thirteenth century with the Knights of the Sword on the east coast of the Baltic Sea, later became a member of the Teutonic Knights, and also received the prefix "von" that can be prefixed in the surname to represent the nobility. By the time of his great-grandfather, Carl Heinrich Nimitz, the family had gradually declined and had to emigrate to the United States in the 19840s.
Nimitz's father, Chester Bernard Nimitz, was born weak and suffered from rheumatic heart disease, and died of illness in March 1884 five months after marrying Anna Hank. Nimitz's grandfather, Charles Henry Nimitz, took Nimitz mother and son to live in a hotel he owned, and his grandfather Nimitz had been a seafarer in his early years, so he opened a hotel with a canopy-like door frame and a mast, which looked like a big boat, so it was called "Steamboat Hotel". Because of this experience, the elder Nimitz loved the sea, and he once told people that he was able to return safely from the sea because he had promised God that he would dedicate a grandson to the sea and become an admiral - is this really providence in the underworld?
Because the "Steamboat Hotel" is still very famous in the local area, there are many guests, including many officers, and even during the Civil War, the commander-in-chief of the Confederate Army, General Robert E. Lee, was a frequent visitor to the "Steamboat Hotel". The straight uniforms, broad vision, and dancing style of these officers all made Nimitz, who lived in a remote mountainous area, envious, so Nimitz initially wanted to apply for the West Point Military Academy, so he went to the local senator James Slyton, hoping that he could recommend it for himself - applying for the military school must have the recommendation of the senator, but Slyden told Nimitz that the quota he recommended for the West Point Military Academy was full, and there were many military children in the local area, and the future recommendation quota should also give priority to these military children. When Nimitz was on the verge of despair, Slyden said, "But I still have a place in the Naval Officer School, would you like to go?" ”
Although this was the first time Nimitz had heard of the Naval Officer School, and he had never seen the sea before except to hear his grandfather tell the story of the sea, he immediately expressed his willingness to apply for the Naval Officer School.
On September 7, 1901, Nimitz was admitted to the Annapolis Naval Officer School, swore allegiance to the U.S. Navy, and became a member of the Naval Officer School, from which he began his sea journey "on the springboard into the rear deck".
In January 1905, like Halsey, Nimitz graduated early in 1905 because the United States was vigorously expanding its navy at that time, but he was one class lower than Halsey and was Halsey's younger brother. Among the 114 students in the same period, Nimitz's graduation results ranked seventh, which is quite good.
After graduating, he successively served as the captain of the gunboat "Panai", the captain of the destroyer "Decatur", and then transferred to the submarine force, successively serving as the captain of the "Drowning", "Turtle" and "Whale", and the commander of the third detachment of the first submarine detachment. After that, he went to Europe to learn diesel engine technology and became a diesel engine technology expert in the US Navy. After returning to China, he was responsible for supervising the construction of the bunker ship "Momi", who served as deputy captain and chief engineer after the completion of the "Momi", and participated in world war I with the "Momi", mainly refueling destroyers at sea during the war. After that, he was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet Submarine Force Engineering Adjutant, Submarine Force Chief of Staff, Deputy Captain of the Battleship "South Carolina", Commander of pearl harbor submarine base after World War I, commander of the Fourteenth Submarine Command, and then entered the Naval Academy for further study, after graduation as Assistant Chief of Staff of Battleship Fleet Command, Assistant Chief of Staff of U.S. Fleet General Command, Director of the Department of Naval Science and Tactics at the University of California, Burke, Commander of the Twentieth Submarine Detachment, Commander of the San Diego Destroyer Base, Captain of the Cruiser Augusta, Assistant Director of the Navigation Bureau of the Admiralty, Commander of the Cruiser Detachment, Commander of the First Battleship Detachment, Commander of task force VII.
Judging from Nimitz's resume, he has served in the submarine force for a long time, and his experience in the surface ship force is also very complete, from assembly machines to cruisers to battleships, not a single step has been pulled down. There are also instructors and staff officers who have more comprehensive experience.
On December 16, 1941, Roosevelt and Secretary of the Navy Knox reached an agreement appointing Nimitz as commander of the Pacific Fleet. Roosevelt immediately said to Knox, "Tell Nimitz to hurry up and go to Pearl Harbor and hold on to his post until the war is won." ”
Knox hurried back to the Admiralty and immediately sent for Nimitz. Nimitz walked into Knox's office, unaware that he had decided to let himself go to Pearl Harbor. Knox was so excited that before Nimitz could sit down, he asked impatiently, "When can you leave at the earliest?" ”
Nimitz didn't know what was going on, so he said, "It depends on where you let me go and how long I stay there." ”
"Going to Pearl Harbor and commanding the Pacific Fleet, I think, must be a long time."
Hearing this, Nimitz could not help but be surprised, he said that his qualifications are still relatively shallow, and it is obviously not appropriate to take over the position of his old classmate and old friend Kimmel. But during the war, you were not allowed to bargain, and the military orders were like mountains, so in the end he accepted the appointment.
In this way, Nimitz took charge of the Pacific Fleet, and later also served as commander-in-chief of the Taiping Theater, becoming the commander-in-chief of the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theater, leading one of the most powerful fleets ever built, from Pearl Harbor all the way to Tokyo Bay.