Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
Chester Nimitz took command of the Pacific Fleet ten days after Pearl Harbor and commanded it to the Japanese surrender. Born in 1885 in Fredericksburg, Texas — a German-settled town some 150 miles from any ocean — he was raised partly by a grandfather who had been a merchant sailor, applied to West Point, found no vacancy, and took Annapolis instead. He ran a submarine aground as a young officer and was court-martialled and reprimanded, which he said afterwards did him no harm. He spent much of his career on diesel engines and submarines, and on the Bureau of Navigation — personnel — which is where he learned the officer corps and which is why Roosevelt chose him over twenty-eight more senior admirals. He arrived at Pearl Harbor on Christmas Eve 1941 to a fleet on the harbour bottom, and kept almost every officer in post rather than sacking those associated with the disaster. His decisions were made on intelligence he was willing to trust. Station Hypo had partly broken the Japanese naval code and identified Midway as the next target; the estimate was contested in Washington, and Nimitz backed it, positioned three carriers north-east of the island, and destroyed four Japanese carriers in a morning in June 1942. He then ran the island campaign as a two-pronged advance with MacArthur, disagreeing with him constantly and publicly agreeing. He signed the surrender for the United States on the Missouri in September 1945, and spent his later years opposing the demonisation of Japan. He is the last American officer to hold five-star rank, and the class of carriers now in service is named for him.
- Lived: 1885 CE – 1966 CE
- Nationality: American
- Roles: admiral, naval_commander
