The launch was a tangled mess instead of a precision exercise. Although he had won a significant victory, Spruance was severely criticized as being too cautious during the battle. But his service was not yet finished.
Spruance was calculating and cautious. Only 17 of the island’s 4,690 Japanese defenders survived to become prisoners.The Gilberts attack was planned and directed by Spruance, with the assistance of Rear Adms. His next assignment was command of the destroyer By then 43 years old, Commander Spruance went to sea again–aboard the battleship After another three-year tour at the Naval War College, Spruance was again ordered to sea aboard Spruance was a dedicated sailor–thorough in his absorption of all aspects of training and techniques. On June 19, however, hundreds of planes from nine Japanese aircraft carriers attacked the Fifth Fleet.
He was drafted on short notice for his date with destiny. The Saipan campaign began with air attacks on June 10, 1944. Admiral Halsey was given command of the Third Fleet, and later that year Task Force 58 was transferred to Halsey’s fleet.Meanwhile, Task Force 58 was busy in the forefront of clearing the Japanese from the 600-mile-long Marianas chain.
Admiral Raymond A. Spruance had commanded his escorting cruisers during earlier operations against the Japanese enemy, and Halsey was confident that Spruance could do the job at the Battle of Midway. Within five minutes, the battle was over. Spruance quietly thanked him and ordered the launch delayed until the distance could be closed.
Well, Spruance was the greatest fighting admiral in the entire war. 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. Three destroyers were lost, other ships were damaged, and more than 800 sailors perished. My mind is blank.He lived quietly at Pebble Beach until December 13, 1969, when he died of arteriosclerosis at the age of 83. His torpedo bombers–having switched to bombs for the attack on Midway–were away, and most of his protective fighters were out on patrol. There have been countless thousands of published works devoted to all or of it. But we went in and took their possessions in a few days, without the loss of a single ship.President Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated Spruance for promotion to full admiral on February 10, 1944, and he was approved.
Then it was back to Pebble Beach.Spruance was an active man who thought nothing of walking eight or 10 miles a day. He was survived by his wife and a daughter, Mrs. Gerald S. Bogart of Newport, R.I. His only son, Navy Captain Edward D. Spruance, who served for 30 years, was killed in a car accident in Marin County, Calif., in May 1969.Admiral Spruance was buried with full honors alongside Admirals Nimitz and Kelly Turner in a military cemetery overlooking San Francisco Bay. During the Battle of the Philippine Sea on June 19-20, 1944, American carrier-based fighter planes ravaged Japanese air power in what became known as the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot while Spruance’s powerful Task Force 58 inflicted serious damage on the enemy fleet. The Japanese expected no American ships in the Midway area until after the landing there, and they hoped that the Pacific Fleet would dash northward as soon as it received word of the opening strikes in the Aleutians. The fine line between heroic calculated risk and sheer recklessness came into sharp focus, and each commander walked the fine line in his own way.There are moments in military history that forever alter the flow of human events.
One was cautious, the other impetuous. His steady rise, according to Spruance’s performance at Midway so impressed Admiral Nimitz that he made him his chief of staff. WWII Quarterly, the hardcover journal of the Second World War that is not available in bookstores or on newsstands, and can only be obtained and collected through a personal subscription through the mail.There are moments in military history that forever alter the flow of human events.
And I've been interviewed by ABC News, Fortune, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Investor's Business Daily, in addition to Compliance Week, Directors & Boards, and Corporate Boards. The way they enter differs somewhat as regards the tactical commander and the strategic commander.
He loved to show them to visitors.Spruance became a shadowy sort of legend in the Navy. When Vice Adm. Bull Halsey was confined to a hospital with a skin disease, Pacific Fleet Commander Nimitz appointed Spruance to succeed him as commander of Task Force 16.Things did not look hopeful for Spruance and his force on the eve of Midway. They would draw them north to deal with a Japanese invasion in the bleak Aleutian Islands, and then strike at unprotected Midway.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 Nagumo’s 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. He was then 55.