It was spotted by scouts from the USS Hornet and destroyed by planes from the Enterprise. Spruances fleet had prevented the Japanese from reinforcing the Saipan garrison. Naval History and Heritage Command, "Biography of Raymond A. Spruance Press Release July 24, 1941, United States Navy Department", "Adm Spruance's Fitrep after Battle of Midway", Citation, Navy Cross, Raymond A. Spruance, "Admiral Raymond Ames Spruance America's Navy", "News Release: Navy Names Two New Guided Missile Destroyers", "War & Remembrance (Part 3) (May 26 July 25, 1942)", "War & Remembrance (Part 3) (May 26 July 25, 1942) 1988", Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 19411942, The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 19421944, Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 19441945, United States Ambassadors to the Philippines, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Raymond_A._Spruance&oldid=1137739908, Ambassadors of the United States to the Philippines, High Commissioners of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (US Army), Recipients of the Navy Cross (United States), Recipients of the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, Articles with dead external links from July 2022, Articles with dead external links from December 2020, Articles with permanently dead external links, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2016, Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 6 February 2023, at 05:43. I was shanghaied ashore in November of the next year to take over as electrical superintendent at the New York Navy Yard, said Spruance. The Fifth Fleet commanders citation read: Responsible for the operation of a vast and complicated organization which included more than 500,000 men of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, 318 combatant vessels and 1,139 auxiliary vessels, [he] directed the forces under his command with daring, courage and aggressiveness. Although he broke the back of the Japanese naval air force by sinking three carriers, two oilers and destroying about 600 enemy airplanes (so many that the remaining Japanese carriers were used solely as decoys in the Battle of Leyte Gulf a few months later due to the lack of aircraft and aircrews to fly them) Spruance has been criticized for not being aggressive enough in exploiting his success in the Philippine Sea. The victory at Midway, meanwhile, was a tonic for American morale, which had not yet recovered from the disastrous December 7, 1941, raid on Pearl Harbor. ThoughtCo. It is still the largest warship built to date and survived the battle undamaged as it never came near the battlefield despite Yamamoto's protests. In one incident a distraught officer rushed to report, "Captain, we've just dropped a depth charge over the stern!" Spruance had earned a restful retirement at his home in Pebble Beach, Calif., 125 miles south of San Francisco, with his wife, son and daughter. In 1939 he was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral. Spruances naval guns started their bombardment two days later. For his actions, Spruance received the Distinguished Service Medal and, later that month, Nimitz named him as his Chief of Staff and Aide. Four days after the invasion, all immediate objectives had been taken, and by February 8, 1944, all organized resistance had ceased. Unites States Rear Admiral in command of Task Force 16 on the USS Enterprise. transmitted as a message) to Rear Admirals Frank Jack Fletcher and Raymond Spruance on the eve of the battle of Midway To quote a U S Navy website, "Nimitz clearly . Biographies, 20th century collection, Navy Department Library, Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, Spruance, Raymond A. For more great articles subscribe to World War II magazine today! Web. He presided over US Forces in the Pacific during two decisive Allied victories: the Battle of Midway in 1942 and the 1944 Battle of the Philippines Sea. For the main Midway assault, the Japanese force consisted of the main battle fleet under Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, composed of three battleships, a light carrier and a destroyer screen; Admiral Chuichi Nagumos combined fleet of two battleships, two heavy cruisers, destroyers and four fleet carriers carrying more than 250 aircraft; and an invasion task force led by Admiral Nobutake Kondo, consisting of a dozen transport ships carrying 5,000 troops, closely supported by four heavy cruisers, two battleships and a light carrier; and a three-cordon submarine force intended to neutralize U.S. countermoves. A bust of Spruance is in the lobby. Once theBattle of the Philippine Sea came to an end, Spruance returned to Pearl Harbour to help plan other landings in the future. In April, Nimitz divided command of the Central Pacific Force between Spruance and Halsey. With it he intended to significantly expand the Imperial Japanese Navy's outer defense perimeter across the central Pacific; and, he believed, this very powerful stroke against Midway would so severely threaten Hawaii and Pearl Harbor that the U.S. government would be induced to sue for peace. At Midway, Spruance's force inflicted on the Imperial Japanese Navy its worst setback in 350 years. In June 1942 the United States and Japan fought for control of Midway Island in the South Pacific. When Midway began on June 4, 1942 the first few waves of U.S. aircraft were greatly outnumbered by Japanese forces. However, an invasion was rendered unnecessary when the atomic bomb was used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. The three-day operation was the most extensive ever undertaken by carriers. He was drafted on short notice for his date with destiny. In 1916 he aided in the fitting out of the battleship Pennsylvania and he served on board her from her commissioning in June 1916 until November 1917. The repulse of the Japanese invasion fleet at Midway, and critically the destruction of the Kido Butai, allowed the U.S. to gain parity in the naval air war. Biographies, 20th century collection, Navy Department Library. However, Spruances fleet was also charged with guarding the amphibious landings at Saipan and Tinian. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. Graduating from Annapolis three years later, he served two years at sea before receiving his commission as an ensign on September 13, 1908. He suggested Spruance replace him as commander of the Fleet carrier force, despite the fact that Spruce had little experience with carriers. I am lazy, and I never have done things myself that I could get someone to do for me. On June 19, however, hundreds of planes from nine Japanese aircraft carriers attacked the Fifth Fleet. It was June 4, Admiral Raymond A. Spruance and Admira Fletcher had to engage four Japanese ships in the Battle of Midway. The Japanese had been overconfident, and the Americans taught them a bitter lesson. Answer: Admiral Yamamoto had hoped to fight a classic-style sea battle with battleships, but Spruance had proved that the aircraft carrier was now emerging as the capital ship of naval combat forces. His torpedo bombershaving switched to bombs for the attack on Midwaywere away, and most of his protective fighters were out on patrol. [Admiral Spruance wrote this foreward for Mitsuo Fuchida's book, Midway, The Battle That Doomed Japan; The Japanese Navy's . The Coral Sea fight was virtually a warm-up for the Battle of Midway, regarded later as the turning point of the war in the Pacific. Its commanding officers Admiral Yamaguchi and the ship's captain both stayed aboard their ship. The Eastern Orthodox Church developed from the church in Constantinople. Kwajalein was in American hands, but the rest of the Marshalls groupabout 30 islands and more than 800 reefs scattered over hundreds of miles of oceanremained to be dealt with. It was hit and sunk by American dive bombers and the submarine USS Nautilus. 2015. On October 16, 1946, the former Secretary of War, Robert P. Patterson, presented the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Admiral Spruance, with citation as follows: Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, U.S. Navy, as Task Force Commander during the capture of the Marshall and Marianas Islands, rendered exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services from January to June 1944. The heavily fortified islands, former British possessions, were of strategic value because of their good landing strips and naval base. Fletcher quickly ordered his dive bombers to strike, which fatally damaged the fourth Japanese carrier; it was scuttled the next day. Before the Battle of the Coral Sea on 7-8 May 1942, the Imperial Navy of Japan had swept aside all of its enemies from the Pacific and Indian oceans. Japanese submarine I-168 torpedoes and torpedoes a damaged US aircraft carrier and its escorting destroyer. Then, reflect on the education opportunities that God has provided us today. Before Midway, a small and fractional U.S. Navy faced an overwhelmingly larger and battle-hardened Japanese Combined Fleet. More to his liking was the study of foreign methods of naval fire control, which took him to London and Edinburgh. Spruance graduated from the U.S. erful leader. Following a stint aboard USS Cincinnati, Spruance was made commander of the destroyer USS Bainbridge in March 1913 with the rank of lieutenant (junior grade). Yamato class battleship that served as the Japanese Combined Fleet's Flagship, housing Admiral Yamamoto. While one was at sea, the other would be planning their next operation. He did not discuss his private life, feelings, prejudices, hopes or fears, except perhaps with his family and his closest friends. Falling ill with shingles, Halsey recommended that Spruance lead Task Force 16, centered on the carriers USS Enterprise (CV-6) and USS Hornet (CV-8), in his stead. He served as an instructor at the Naval War College from 1935 to 1938. Though this gamble paid off, Enterprise air squadrons would pay a heavy price, flying in piece-meal and mostly without fighter escort. About his intellect he was equally unpretentious: Some people believe that when I am quiet that I am thinking some deep and important thoughts, when the fact is that I am thinking of nothing at all. >A few days later, Mitscher rejoined Spruance and the Fifth Fleet. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. "Foreward for Midway." US Naval Institute Proceedings 81, no. The sole survivor of the squadrons 30 officers and men was Ensign George H. Gay, Jr., who spent several hours floating in the water, watching the battle. The Japanese intercepted this and soon started sending messages that "AF was short on water. The Japanese navy could never accept this catastrophic loss. Then followed two years as assistant chief of staff to the commander of naval forces in Europe; a year of study at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., where he completed the senior course; and two years of duty in the Office of Naval Intelligence. He's one of the finest officers I know of. His tour of sea duty ended in 1921, and he spent the next three years with the Navy Departments Bureau of Engineering and the Doctrine of Aircraft board. The US intelligence services could predict the way the Japanese carriers and planes would be approaching the battle. He disliked personal publicity and had a reputation for freezing reporters who invaded his privacy. Raymond A. Spruance emerged from the battle one of the greatest admirals in American naval history". Admiral Spruance said that what they did was to wait until the Japanese ships were refueling, carrying weapons, and preparing their aircraft to attack them because the Japanese were in a vulnerable position. He attended grade and high schools in East Orange, N.J., and in Indianapolis. Akagi and Kaga subsequently went down. Spruance was awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal for his service at Midway. . Make sure to provide references and acknowledgement for any sources you use. [12] Spruance assumed command of Task Force 16 with its two carriers, USSEnterprise and USSHornet, under battle command of Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher. Morison said: Keeping in his mind the picture of widely disparate forces, yet boldly seizing every opening, Raymond A. Spruance emerged from this battle one of the greatest fighting and thinking admirals in American naval history.He was bold and aggressive when the occasion demanded offensive tactics; cautious when pushing his luck too far might have lost the fruits of victory. At 10.26am on 4 June 1942 the course of World War Two in the Pacific changed utterly. the prospects for its inclusion in doctrine The logical starting point is Admiral Chester Nimitz's famous "letter of instruction" (actually, of course, transmitted . US Naval Task Force under Frank Fletcher with aircraft carrier Yorktown. "When I look at myself objectively," he wrote in retirement, "I think that what success I may have achieved through life is largely due to the fact that I am a good judge of men. Following the war, Spruance served as US Ambassador to the Philippines from 1952 to 1955. Determining that New Mexico was not too badly damaged to remain on station Spruance kept her as his flagship for the rest of the campaign. 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