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Today in 1882, future US Navy Admiral Husband Edward Kimmel was born in Henderson, Kentucky. Kimmel gained notoriety for his role as the Commander of the Pacific Fleet at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Today, the Kimmel family continues to fight for an accurate public accounting of his actions before and during that fateful day.
Husband Kimmel graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1904 and began a career that would span more than four decades. He served aboard several battleships, including service in the Atlantic during the First World War. He later commanded two destroyer divisions and the battleship USS New York. He had the honor of serving as an aide to the Assistant Secretary of Navy in 1915; that assistant secretary's name was Franklin Roosevelt.
Kimmel was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral in 1937 and four years later, in February, 1941, he was given command of the Pacific Fleet. He gained a temporary promotion to the four stars of a full Admiral as the position demanded. He relieved Admiral James Richardson, whom President Roosevelt had fired due to the Admiral's opposition to moving the Pacific Fleet from California to Hawaii in the summer of 1940. Richardson believed that this move placed the fleet at undue risk. Pearl Harbor, he argued, did not have the facilities to fully support such an influx of ships. Furthermore, Richardson believed that Pearl Harbor could not be adequately defended against an air attack. His willingness to state his opinion as an experienced naval officer cost him his career. Admiral Kimmel understood the deficiencies of Pearl Harbor itself and the poor condition of the local defense. The War Department allocated 180 B-17 Flying Fortresses to the Hawaiian Department for long-range reconnaissance and anti-shipping functions, but they were slow in coming; by December, 1941, only 12 had arrived. Two weeks before the attack, the Chief of Naval Operations informed the Navy command in Hawaii that there were no additional planes available. Admiral Kimmel and his Army counterpart, Lt. General Walter Short, knew that an air attack on Pearl Harbor would be devastating, but their areas of responsibility were obviously not high on the priority list at the War Department.
On November 27, 1941, the Chief of Naval Operations sent Kimmel and other commanders in the Pacific the now-famous "war warning" message, in which he stated that negotiations with Japan were breaking down and that an offensive push by the Japanese military was expected within the next few days. This message is often cited as proof that Kimmel knew of an impending attack but did little to prepare for it. However, a closer look at the wording of the message shows that no one in the Navy Department expected an attack at Pearl Harbor; instead, the Japanese were expected to move against the Philippines (which they did) or other targets in the Southwest Pacific.
Admiral Kimmel assumed, as any commander would, that any intelligence information related to his command would be forwarded to him as soon as it was made available. This was not the case. While the US Navy had been reading most of the Japanese radio intercepts for months before Pearl Harbor, several vital messages were withheld from Kimmel for reasons which are still unknown. He was not told, for example, that in September, 1941, Tokyo had ordered its consul general in Honolulu to make a detailed report of the ships present in Pearl Harbor as well as their movements. After November 15, he was ordered to make such a report twice a week. This would have told Kimmel exactly what he needed to know: that the Japanese were certainly planning to hit Pearl Harbor. Information of this type would have allowed the Admiral to order the entire Pacific Fleet to sea from where it could have better defended against an air attack. As it was, the only capital ships at sea on the morning of December 7, 1941 were the Fleet's aircraft carriers.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was an unmitigated success for the Japanese Imperial Navy. The Pacific Fleet lost four battleships, three cruisers, three destroyers and two auxiliary ships along with nearly 200 aircraft; over 2400 Americans, both military and civilian, lost their lives. Admiral Kimmel was relieved of his command ten days after the attack. He reverted back to his permanent rank of Rear Admiral (contrary to popular myth, he was not demoted as a punishment) and was allowed to retire. His son, Manning, died during the war when the submarine he commanded struck a Japanese mine.
Kimmel spent the rest of his life defending his actions during the months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Navy eventually pinned him with most of the blame for the outcome of the attack, a sting from which he never recovered. Edwin Latyon, Kimmel's chief intelligence officer, later related in his book about that attack: “Kimmel stood by the windows of his office at the submarine base, his jaw set in stony anguish. As he watched the disaster across the harbor unfold with terrible fury, a spent .50 caliber machine gun bullet crashed through the glass. It brushed the admiral before it clanged to the floor. It cut his white jacket and raised a welt on his chest. 'It would have been merciful had it killed me,' Kimmel murmured to his communications officer.”
Tomorrow night, we're going to delve a little more into Kimmel's actions before December 7th, 1941 and the information that Washington did and did not share with the two commanders in Hawaii. We're also going to look at the involvement of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in the post-attack investigation and see how the Kimmel family is continuing to fight to clear the late Admiral's name.
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Thursday, February 25, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Chester Nimitz Born, February 24, 1885
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Today in 1885, Chester William Nimitz was born in Fredericksburg, Texas. No one knew at the time that this boy from a small town far away from any large body of water would one day become indispensable in his role as a Fleet Admiral during the Second World War.
The United States Naval Academy was not young Nimitz’s first choice as a place to pursue a college education. He initially applied to West Point, but all the appointments for that year, 1901, had already been allocated. Learning of Nimitz’s desire to attend a service academy, Congressman James Slayden informed him that he still had one appointment left to the Naval Academy. Nimitz knew this was the only shot he was likely to get for continuing his education, so he applied for and earned the appointment. He graduated from the Academy in 1905 ranked seventh out of a class of 114.
Nimitz served his required two years at sea before being commissioned an Ensign in 1907. He served on a series of surface ships, from a battleship to a destroyer which he ran aground near a beach in the Philippines while he was conning the ship, earning him a letter of reprimand but not seriously damaging his career.
The beginning of 1909 saw a radical change in Nimitz’s career. In January he was assigned to the First Submarine Flotilla and was given command of it less than six months later. As a Lieutenant, Nimitz commanded a series of submarines, including the first USS Plunger, later known by the less-than-memorable designation A-1. The tiny vessel was, according to Nimitz, “a cross between a Jules Verne fantasy and a humpbacked whale”. The subs Nimitz commanded were far smaller and cruder than the fleet boats that would prove so devastating to Japanese shipping a generation later, but they provided invaluable experience. By the end of the First World War in 1918, Commander Nimitz was the Senior Member for the Navy’s Board of Submarine Design. He was considered by both his superiors and subordinates to be the service’s leading expert on submarine design and operations.
The inter-war years were busy ones for Nimitz as he held various commands both at sea and on land. While he remained involved in the submarine community, he also commanded cruiser and battleship divisions. It was during this time he lost part of one finger during an accident involving a diesel engine; he was able to keep the rest of the digit only because the machine was jammed by his Naval Academy ring. By the time the Second World War began in Europe in September, 1939, Rear Admiral Nimitz was the Navy’s Chief of the Bureau of Navigation.
Nimitz became a full Admiral soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, skipping the three-star rank of Vice Admiral. He was selected to be Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet, known in navy parlance as CinCPAC. In March, 1942, British and American war planners divided the Pacific theater of operations into three parts: the Southwest Pacific Area commanded by General Douglas MacArthur, the Southeast Pacific Area and the Pacific Ocean Areas, known as POA, an area that encompassed most of the Pacific Ocean minus the Philippines and New Guinea. Nimitz was given command of the POA in addition to his position as CinCPAC, two titles that he would carry for the rest of the war.
Nimitz went to war with the fleet he had until the forces he wished for were ready. Although the attack on Pearl Harbor had been psychologically devastating, the Navy’s Pacific Fleet remained a potent albeit under-equipped fighting force. Within days of the attack, the submarine force was underway from Hawaii and ports in Australia, hunting for Japanese merchantmen and warships. During the first year of the war, the men under Nimitz’s command had but five aircraft carriers at their disposal. At one point in November, 1942, there were only two operational carriers holding out against the Japanese fleet. But with these meager resources, the US Navy stopped a Japanese invasion of Port Moresby at the battle of Coral Sea and put the Japanese in a permanent defensive position at the battle of Midway.
Nimitz utilized an island-hopping strategy by which heavily fortified Japanese-held islands were bypassed when possible in favor of weakly defended locations. The defenders of the islands that were skipped over soon found themselves behind the American lines without hope of re-supply or rescue. Ten of thousands of Japanese soldiers were thus taken out of the war without a shot being fired at or by them.
In December, 1944, the grade of Fleet Admiral of the Navy was established by Congress. President Franklin Roosevelt promoted Admiral Nimitz the next day, making him a five-star admiral. Three other admirals were appointed to this rank that December; one more, Admiral Halsey, was given a fifth star immediately after the war. These promotions corresponded with five Army promotions to five-star rank at the same time.
On September 2nd, 1945, the Second World War came to an end with the formal surrender of the Japanese on board the battleship USS Missouri. Fleet Admiral Nimitz signed the instrument of surrender representing the United States. He returned to America soon thereafter and was promoted to Chief of Naval Operations in November, 1945. He served one two-year term at this post, during which time he oversaw the downsizing of the world’s largest navy to a fraction of its wartime size. He left the position in December, 1947, but since a five-star admiral is technically on active duty until his death, Nimitz never retired.
Chester Nimitz died on February 20th,1966 at the naval quarters on Yorba Buena Island in San Francisco Bay from complications related to a stroke and pneumonia. With him died the rank of Fleet Admiral, which is still listed as a valid grade, but can only be re-activated by an act of Congress. He left behind his wife, Catherine, and four children--- three daughters and a son. Chester, Jr. followed in his father’s footsteps by graduating from the Naval Academy in 1936 and serving in submarines before retiring as a Rear Admiral in 1957.
Today in 1885, Chester William Nimitz was born in Fredericksburg, Texas. No one knew at the time that this boy from a small town far away from any large body of water would one day become indispensable in his role as a Fleet Admiral during the Second World War.
The United States Naval Academy was not young Nimitz’s first choice as a place to pursue a college education. He initially applied to West Point, but all the appointments for that year, 1901, had already been allocated. Learning of Nimitz’s desire to attend a service academy, Congressman James Slayden informed him that he still had one appointment left to the Naval Academy. Nimitz knew this was the only shot he was likely to get for continuing his education, so he applied for and earned the appointment. He graduated from the Academy in 1905 ranked seventh out of a class of 114.
Nimitz served his required two years at sea before being commissioned an Ensign in 1907. He served on a series of surface ships, from a battleship to a destroyer which he ran aground near a beach in the Philippines while he was conning the ship, earning him a letter of reprimand but not seriously damaging his career.
The beginning of 1909 saw a radical change in Nimitz’s career. In January he was assigned to the First Submarine Flotilla and was given command of it less than six months later. As a Lieutenant, Nimitz commanded a series of submarines, including the first USS Plunger, later known by the less-than-memorable designation A-1. The tiny vessel was, according to Nimitz, “a cross between a Jules Verne fantasy and a humpbacked whale”. The subs Nimitz commanded were far smaller and cruder than the fleet boats that would prove so devastating to Japanese shipping a generation later, but they provided invaluable experience. By the end of the First World War in 1918, Commander Nimitz was the Senior Member for the Navy’s Board of Submarine Design. He was considered by both his superiors and subordinates to be the service’s leading expert on submarine design and operations.
The inter-war years were busy ones for Nimitz as he held various commands both at sea and on land. While he remained involved in the submarine community, he also commanded cruiser and battleship divisions. It was during this time he lost part of one finger during an accident involving a diesel engine; he was able to keep the rest of the digit only because the machine was jammed by his Naval Academy ring. By the time the Second World War began in Europe in September, 1939, Rear Admiral Nimitz was the Navy’s Chief of the Bureau of Navigation.
Nimitz became a full Admiral soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, skipping the three-star rank of Vice Admiral. He was selected to be Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet, known in navy parlance as CinCPAC. In March, 1942, British and American war planners divided the Pacific theater of operations into three parts: the Southwest Pacific Area commanded by General Douglas MacArthur, the Southeast Pacific Area and the Pacific Ocean Areas, known as POA, an area that encompassed most of the Pacific Ocean minus the Philippines and New Guinea. Nimitz was given command of the POA in addition to his position as CinCPAC, two titles that he would carry for the rest of the war.
Nimitz went to war with the fleet he had until the forces he wished for were ready. Although the attack on Pearl Harbor had been psychologically devastating, the Navy’s Pacific Fleet remained a potent albeit under-equipped fighting force. Within days of the attack, the submarine force was underway from Hawaii and ports in Australia, hunting for Japanese merchantmen and warships. During the first year of the war, the men under Nimitz’s command had but five aircraft carriers at their disposal. At one point in November, 1942, there were only two operational carriers holding out against the Japanese fleet. But with these meager resources, the US Navy stopped a Japanese invasion of Port Moresby at the battle of Coral Sea and put the Japanese in a permanent defensive position at the battle of Midway.
Nimitz utilized an island-hopping strategy by which heavily fortified Japanese-held islands were bypassed when possible in favor of weakly defended locations. The defenders of the islands that were skipped over soon found themselves behind the American lines without hope of re-supply or rescue. Ten of thousands of Japanese soldiers were thus taken out of the war without a shot being fired at or by them.
In December, 1944, the grade of Fleet Admiral of the Navy was established by Congress. President Franklin Roosevelt promoted Admiral Nimitz the next day, making him a five-star admiral. Three other admirals were appointed to this rank that December; one more, Admiral Halsey, was given a fifth star immediately after the war. These promotions corresponded with five Army promotions to five-star rank at the same time.
On September 2nd, 1945, the Second World War came to an end with the formal surrender of the Japanese on board the battleship USS Missouri. Fleet Admiral Nimitz signed the instrument of surrender representing the United States. He returned to America soon thereafter and was promoted to Chief of Naval Operations in November, 1945. He served one two-year term at this post, during which time he oversaw the downsizing of the world’s largest navy to a fraction of its wartime size. He left the position in December, 1947, but since a five-star admiral is technically on active duty until his death, Nimitz never retired.
Chester Nimitz died on February 20th,1966 at the naval quarters on Yorba Buena Island in San Francisco Bay from complications related to a stroke and pneumonia. With him died the rank of Fleet Admiral, which is still listed as a valid grade, but can only be re-activated by an act of Congress. He left behind his wife, Catherine, and four children--- three daughters and a son. Chester, Jr. followed in his father’s footsteps by graduating from the Naval Academy in 1936 and serving in submarines before retiring as a Rear Admiral in 1957.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Washington Monument Dedicated, February 21, 1885
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Today in 1885, the Washington Monument was dedicated in Washington, D.C. The giant obelisk is probably the best known of the United States Presidential Memorials, having been named in honor of George Washington, the nation's first President and leader of the Continental Army during the War for Independence.
The building of the structure that would become known as the Washington Monument was begun in 1848; the cornerstone of the monument was laid on July 4th of that year. The Washington National Monument Society, a group of citizens who raised the initial money for the construction, settled on a design for a giant obelisk surround by a circular colonnade. Had the monument been built to these plans, the finished product would have resembled the Jefferson Memorial with a giant Egyptian-like obelisk protruding from the top. The designer, chosen from among contestants in a design competition, was Robert Mills. While Mills’ design was incredible for its day, there was one problem: the Society had raised $87,000, but the finished structure would cost over $1 million.
Undeterred by this lack of funds, the Society decided to begin work with the money it had in the hopes that a partially finished monument would help them raise more money. This money ran out in 1854, but soon thereafter Congress appropriated $200,000 to the project. However, this money was withdrawn from the Society when members of the American Party (better known as the “Know-Nothings”), effectively took over the Society and began to build their anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic beliefs into the monument by refusing some of the stones donated by different states and foreign powers. The block of marble contributed by Pope Pius IX in the early 1850's was removed and purportedly thrown into the Potomac River.
Mismanagement by the hijacked Society and the Civil War brought construction to a halt for almost twenty years, until 1876. That year marked the centennial of the Declaration of Independence and Congress, feeling patriotic, once again granted $200,000 to the project. The obelisk had been stuck at 1/3 of its planned height for two decades and engineers were worried that the monument’s foundation was no longer stable. Studies were made and it was eventually decided to move on with the project.
Tastes in design had changed significantly in the 30 years since Mills had submitted his plans in the 1840’s. It was eventually decided to abandon the colonnades and build a simple obelisk shaped like those found in Egypt. When construction got underway again in 1879, the US Army Corps of Engineers was managing the project.
One of the initial challenges facing the Corps can still be seen today. The bottom third of the monument is lighter than the rest of the 40,000 ton structure. This is because the same quarry stones used in the initial construction beginning in 1848 could no longer be found a generation later.
Upon its completion in December, 1884, the Washington Monument was the world's tallest structure, a record that would stand for five years, when Paris' Eiffel Tower was completed.
The monument’s apex point is made of 100 ounces of aluminum, a metal that was almost unknown by people not familiar with metallurgy in the 19th century. It was placed there in December, 1884, over 35 years after the cornerstone was laid. The final monument was and is today 555ft 5 1/8 inches tall and 55ft 1 1/2 inches wide at the base, at least according to who you ask. These figures are the ones used by the National Park Service; others vary only because the aluminum pyramid at the top of the monument has been blunted by about a half inch by lightning strikes. Eight lightning rods were added in 1934, which extend six inches above the tip. Some documentation includes these rods in the height total. The walls of the monument become thinner as the obelisk grows taller. At the base, they are 15 feet thick at the base and only 18 inches thick at the observation level. In 2004, nearly 400,000 people visited the monument.
Today in 1885, the Washington Monument was dedicated in Washington, D.C. The giant obelisk is probably the best known of the United States Presidential Memorials, having been named in honor of George Washington, the nation's first President and leader of the Continental Army during the War for Independence.
The building of the structure that would become known as the Washington Monument was begun in 1848; the cornerstone of the monument was laid on July 4th of that year. The Washington National Monument Society, a group of citizens who raised the initial money for the construction, settled on a design for a giant obelisk surround by a circular colonnade. Had the monument been built to these plans, the finished product would have resembled the Jefferson Memorial with a giant Egyptian-like obelisk protruding from the top. The designer, chosen from among contestants in a design competition, was Robert Mills. While Mills’ design was incredible for its day, there was one problem: the Society had raised $87,000, but the finished structure would cost over $1 million.
Undeterred by this lack of funds, the Society decided to begin work with the money it had in the hopes that a partially finished monument would help them raise more money. This money ran out in 1854, but soon thereafter Congress appropriated $200,000 to the project. However, this money was withdrawn from the Society when members of the American Party (better known as the “Know-Nothings”), effectively took over the Society and began to build their anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic beliefs into the monument by refusing some of the stones donated by different states and foreign powers. The block of marble contributed by Pope Pius IX in the early 1850's was removed and purportedly thrown into the Potomac River.
Mismanagement by the hijacked Society and the Civil War brought construction to a halt for almost twenty years, until 1876. That year marked the centennial of the Declaration of Independence and Congress, feeling patriotic, once again granted $200,000 to the project. The obelisk had been stuck at 1/3 of its planned height for two decades and engineers were worried that the monument’s foundation was no longer stable. Studies were made and it was eventually decided to move on with the project.
Tastes in design had changed significantly in the 30 years since Mills had submitted his plans in the 1840’s. It was eventually decided to abandon the colonnades and build a simple obelisk shaped like those found in Egypt. When construction got underway again in 1879, the US Army Corps of Engineers was managing the project.
One of the initial challenges facing the Corps can still be seen today. The bottom third of the monument is lighter than the rest of the 40,000 ton structure. This is because the same quarry stones used in the initial construction beginning in 1848 could no longer be found a generation later.
Upon its completion in December, 1884, the Washington Monument was the world's tallest structure, a record that would stand for five years, when Paris' Eiffel Tower was completed.
The monument’s apex point is made of 100 ounces of aluminum, a metal that was almost unknown by people not familiar with metallurgy in the 19th century. It was placed there in December, 1884, over 35 years after the cornerstone was laid. The final monument was and is today 555ft 5 1/8 inches tall and 55ft 1 1/2 inches wide at the base, at least according to who you ask. These figures are the ones used by the National Park Service; others vary only because the aluminum pyramid at the top of the monument has been blunted by about a half inch by lightning strikes. Eight lightning rods were added in 1934, which extend six inches above the tip. Some documentation includes these rods in the height total. The walls of the monument become thinner as the obelisk grows taller. At the base, they are 15 feet thick at the base and only 18 inches thick at the observation level. In 2004, nearly 400,000 people visited the monument.
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