IJN 3rd Fleet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The IJN 3rd Fleet (第三艦隊 (日本海軍) Dai-san Kantai?) was a fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy, which was created on six separate occasions.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Russo-Japanese War
First established on 28 December 1903, the IJN 3rd Fleet was created by the Imperial General Headquarters as an administrative unit to manage various vessels considered too obsolete for front-line combat service. These vessels were used primarily for training and for coastal patrol duties. The IJN 3rd Fleet came under the aegis of the Combined Fleet for the duration of the Russo-Japanese War from March 1904. Although initially derided as a “dinosaur fleet”,[1] the IJN 3rd fleet proved invaluable at the Battle of Tsushima and the Invasion of Sakhalin. It was disbanded on 20 December 1905.
[edit] South China Fleet
The IJN 3rd Fleet was revived on 24 December 1908 as an expeditionary force during the Chinese Republican Revolution, to safeguard Japanese civilians and property on the Chinese mainland and (if necessary) to conduct emergency evacuation. It was nicknamed the "South China Fleet" since its area of activity was initially envisioned to be the South China Sea, although for the most part its cruisers patrolled the Yangtze River and other large rivers in China, and its headquarters was based in the Japanese concession in Shanghai. It was disbanded on 25 December 1915.
[edit] World War I
The IJN 3rd Fleet was reconstituted on the same day as the dissolution of the “South China Fleet”, initially as a training force to supplement Japan's contribution to the World War I war effort under the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. However, with the Russian Revolution and the proclamation of the communist Soviet Union, the mission of the IJN 3rd Fleet was changed to that of patrols of the coast of Russia and support of the Siberian Intervention by Japanese ground forces in support of anti-Bolshevik forces. The IJN 3rd Fleet was disbanded on 1 December 1922, and many of its vessels were scrapped almost immediately under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty.
[edit] First China Expeditionary Fleet
The IJN 3rd Fleet was again raised on 2 February 1938 as part of Japan's emergency buildup for forces after the Shanghai Incident. The buildup took the form of three separate expeditionary fleets, consisting primarily of cruisers and gunboats to patrol the Chinese coast and major riverways and to support the landings of Japanese ground forces. With the outbreak of general war (the Second Sino-Japanese War) in 1937, the IJN 3rd Fleet came under the aegis of the China Area Fleet. It was disbanded on 15 November 1939; however, some of the organizational and command structures for ground forces under the First China Expeditionary Fleet remained in place until August 1943.
[edit] Southern Expeditionary Fleet
The IJN 3rd Fleet was recreated once again on 10 April 1941 with the additional designation “Southern Expeditionary Fleet” for the specific task of invading the Philippine islands. At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, its headquarters was based in Palau and its mission expanded to include the invasions of Java, Borneo and other islands of the Netherlands East Indies. It was superseded by the 2nd Southern Expeditionary Fleet under the aegis of the Southwest Area Fleet on 10 March 1942.
[edit] World War II
The sixth (and final) incarnation of the IJN 3rd Fleet was formed on 14 July 1942 immediately after the disastrous Battle of Midway as an aircraft carrier task force modeled after similar units in the United States Navy. It was centered on the new aircraft carriers Shōkaku and Zuikaku. It played an important role during the Pyrrhic victory at the Battle of Santa Cruz, in which the American aircraft carrier Hornet was sunk, but at the cost of many of the best air crews in the Japanese Navy. After March 1944, the IJN 3rd Fleet was effectively merged with the IJN 2nd Fleet, and suffered through the disastrous Battle of the Philippine Sea, losing all of its aircraft carriers, including the newly commissioned Taihō. With the loss of the battleships Hyūga and Ise at the Battle off Cape Engaño, the IJN 3rd Fleet effectively ceased to exist. It was officially disbanded on 15 December 1944. [2]
[edit] Commanders of the IJN 3rd Fleet
Commander in chief [3]
Chief of Staff
| Rank | Name | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rear-Admiral | Shizuka Nakamura | 28 Dec 1903 – 12 Jan 1905 |
| 2 | Vice-Admiral | Koshi Saito | 12 Jan 1905 – 2 Nov 1905 |
| X | Disbanded | 20 Dec 1905 – 13 Dec 1915 | |
| 1 | Rear-Admiral | Shichitaro Takagi | 13 Dec 1915 –1 Apr 1916 |
| 2 | Rear-Admiral | Tokutaro Hiraga | 1 Apr 1916 – 19 Mar 1917 |
| 3 | Vice-Admiral | Hisatsune Iida | 19 Mar 1917 – 1 Dec 1917 |
| 4 | Vice-Admiral | Shichigoro Saito | 1 Dec 1917 – 1 Dec 1918 |
| 5 | Vice-Admiral | Shinzaburo Furukawa | 1 Dec 1918 – 10 Jun 1919 |
| 6 | Vice-Admiral | Kosaburo Uchida | 10 Jun 1919 – 20 Nov 1920 |
| 7 | Rear-Admiral | Hisamori Taguchi | 20 Nov 1920 – 1 Dec 1921 |
| 8 | Vice-Admiral | Naomoto Komatsu | 1 Dec 1921 – 1 Dec 1922 |
| X | Disbanded | 1 Dec 1922 – 2 Feb 1932 | |
| 1 | Admiral | Shigetaro Shimada | 2 Feb 1932 – 28 Jun 1932 |
| 2 | Vice-Admiral | Shigeru Kikuno | 28 Jun 1932 – 1 Apr 1933 |
| 3 | Rear-Admiral | Seizaburo Mitsui | 1 Apr 1933 – 15 Nov 1933 |
| 4 | Admiral | Shiro Takasu | 15 Nov 1933 – 15 Nov 1934 |
| 5 | Vice-Admiral | Eijiro Kondo | 15 Nov 1934 – 2 Dec 1935 |
| 6 | Vice-Admiral | Seiichi Iwamura | 2 Dec 1935 – 16 Nov 1936 |
| 7 | Vice-Admiral | Rokuzo Sugiyama | 16 Nov 1936 – 25 Apr 1938 |
| 8 | Vice-Admiral | Jinichi Kusaka | 25 Apr 1938 – 23 Oct 1939 |
| 9 | Admiral | Shigeyoshi Inoue | 23 Oct 1939 – 15 Nov 1939 |
| X | Disbanded | 15 Nov 1939 – 10 Apr 1941 | |
| 1 | Vice-Admiral | Toshihisa Nakamura | 10 Apr 1941 – 10 Mar 1942 |
| 2 | Vice-Admiral | Ryunosuke Kusaka | 14 Jul 1942 – 23 Nov 1942 |
| 3 | Vice-Admiral | Sadayoshi Yamada | 23 Nov 1942 – 6 Dec 1943 |
| 4 | Rear-Admiral | Keizo Komura | 6 Dec 1943 – 1 Oct 1944 |
| 5 | Rear-Admiral | Sueo Obayashi | 1 Oct 1944 – 15 Nov 1944 |
[edit] References
[edit] Books
- D'Albas, Andrieu (1965). Death of a Navy: Japanese Naval Action in World War II. Devin-Adair Pub. ISBN 0-8159-5302-X.
- Dull, Paul S. (1978). A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941-1945. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-097-1.
- Jukes, Geoffry (2002). The Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905. Osprey Essential Histories. ISBN 9-78184-17644-67.
- Lacroix, Eric; Linton Wells (1997). Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-311-3.
[edit] External links
- Nishida, Hiroshi. Imperial Japanese Navy. Retrieved on 2007-08-25.
- Wendel, Marcus. Axis History Database. Retrieved on 2007-08-25.
[edit] Notes
|
|||||
