1st Fleet (Imperial Japanese Navy)
The IJN 1st Fleet (第一艦隊 (日本海軍), Dai-ichi Kantai) was the main battleship fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
History
First established on 28 December 1903, the IJN 1st Fleet was created during the Russo-Japanese War when the Imperial General Headquarters divided the Readiness Fleet into a mobile strike force of cruisers and destroyers to pursue the Imperial Russian Navy’s Vladivostok-based cruiser squadron (the Japanese Second Fleet|IJN 2nd Fleet)], while the remaining bulk of the Japanese fleet (the IJN 1st Fleet) continued to blockade Port Arthur in hopes of luring the battleships of the Russian Pacific Fleet out into a classic line-of-battle confrontation. The two fleets were combined into the Combined Fleet for the final Battle of Tsushima. The decisive victory of the Japanese fleet over the Imperial Russian Navy at the Battle of Tsushima validated the doctrine of the “decisive victory”, or kantai kessen as stipulated by naval theorists such as Alfred Thayer Mahan and Sato Tetsutaro in the eyes of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff, and future naval procurement and deployment was centered around refinements of this doctrine. [1] The Mahanian objective was to build a fleet in being, a naval force kept deliberately in strategic reserve, as secondary forces based on cruisers and destroyers waged a campaign of attrition against an approaching enemy, who would then be destroyed in a climatic final battle similar to the Battle of Tsushima [2].[3]. As a result of this doctrine, although individual ships and task forces were dispatched on occasion for specific combat operations, the main force in the Imperial Japanese Navy was mostly held in reserve from the time of its inception until near the end of World War II.
Commanders of the IJN 1st Fleet
Commander in chief [4]
| Rank | Name | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fleet Admiral | Marquis Heihachiro Togo | 28 Dec 1903 - 20 Dec 1905 |
| 2 | Admiral | Shichiro Kataoka | 20 Dec 1905 - 22 Nov 1906 |
| 3 | Vice Admiral | Marquis Shinichi Arima | 22 Nov 1906 - 26 May 1908 |
| 4 | Fleet Admiral | Baron Goro Ijuin | 26 May 1908 - 1 Dec 1909 |
| 5 | Admiral | Baron Hikonojo Kamimura | 1 Dec 1909 - 1 Dec 1911 |
| 6 | Admiral | Baron Shigeto Dewa | 1 Dec 1911 - 1 Dec 1913 |
| 7 | Fleet Admiral | Viscount Tomosaburō Katō | 1 Dec 1913 - 10 Aug 1915 |
| 8 | Admiral | Koichi Fujii | 10 Aug 1915 - 23 Sep 1915 |
| 9 | Admiral | Motaro Yoshimatsu | 23 Sep 1915 - 1 Dec 1917 |
| 10 | Admiral | Baron Gentaro Yamashita | 1 Dec 1917 - 1 Dec 1919 |
| 11 | Admiral | Tanin Tamaya | 1 Dec 1919 - 24 Aug 1920 |
| 12 | Admiral | Sojrio Tochinai | 24 Aug 1920 - 27 Jul 1922 |
| 13 | Admiral | Isamu Takeshita | 27 Jul 1922 - 27 Jan 1924 |
| 14 | Admiral | Baron Kantaro Suzuki | 27 Jan 1924 - 1 Dec 1924 |
| 15 | Admiral | Keisuke Okada | 1 Dec 1924 - 10 Dec 1926 |
| 16 | Admiral | Hiroharu Kato | 10 Dec 1926 - 10 Dec 1928 |
| 17 | Admiral | Saburo Hyakutake | 10 Dec 1928 - 11 Nov 1929 |
| 18 | Admiral | Eisuke Yamamoto | 11 Nov 1929 - 1 Dec 1931 |
| 19 | Admiral | Seizo Kobayashi | 1 Dec 1931 - 15 Nov 1933 |
| 20 | Admiral | Nobumasa Suetsugu | 15 Nov 1933 - 15 Nov 1934 |
| 21 | Admiral | Sankichi Takahashi | 15 Nov 1934 - 1 Dec 1936 |
| 22 | Admiral | Mitsumasa Yonai | 1 Dec 1936 - 2 Feb 1937 |
| 23 | Fleet Admiral | Osami Nagano | 2 Feb 1937 - 1 Dec 1937 |
| 24 | Admiral | Zengo Yoshida | 1 Dec 1937 - 30 Aug 1939 |
| 25 | Fleet Admiral | Isoroku Yamamoto | 30 Aug 1939 - 11 Aug 1941 |
| 26 | Admiral | Shiro Takasu | 11 Aug 1941 - 14 Jul 1942 |
| 27 | Vice Admiral | Mizumi Shimizu | 14 Jul 1942 - 20 Oct 1943 |
| 28 | Admiral | Chuichi Nagumo | 20 Oct 1943 - 25 Feb 1944 |
Chief of Staff [4]
| Rank | Name | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fleet Admiral | Baron Hayao Shimamura | 28 Dec 1903 - 12 Jan 1905 |
| 2 | Fleet Admiral | Viscount Tomosaburō Katō | 12 Jan 1905 - 20 Dec 1905 |
| 3 | Admiral | Koichi Fujii | 20 Dec 1905 - 22 Nov 1906 |
| 4 | Fleet Admiral | Baron Gentaro Yamashita | 22 Nov 1906 - 10 Dec 1908 |
| 5 | Admiral | Takeshi Takarabe | 10 Dec 1908 - 1 Dec 1909 |
| 6 | Admiral | Kaneo Nomaguchi | 1 Dec 1909 - 11 Mar 1911 |
| 7 | Vice Admiral | Saneyuki Akiyama | 11 Mar 1911 - 1 Dec 1912 |
| 8 | Admiral | Isamu Takeshita | 1 Dec 1912 - 24 May 1913 |
| x | position vacant | 24 May 1913 - 1 Dec 1913 | |
| 9 | Vice Admiral | Tetsutaro Sato | 1 Dec 1913 - 17 Apr 1914 |
| 10 | Vice Admiral | Kazuyoshi Yamaji | 17 Apr 1914 - 1 Dec 1914 |
| 11 | Vice Admiral | Shibakichi Yamanaka | 1 Dec 1914 - 13 Dec 1915 |
| 12 | Vice Admiral | Saburo Horiuchi | 13 Dec 1915 - 1 Dec 1917 |
| 13 | Vice Admiral | Hanroku Saito | 1 Dec 1917 - 1 Dec 1918 |
| 14 | Vice Admiral | Kajishiro Funakoshi | 1 Dec 1918 - 1 Dec 1919 |
| 15 | Vice Admiral | Hansaku Yoshioka | 1 Dec 1919 - 1 Dec 1921 |
| 16 | Vice Admiral | Kumazo Shirane | 1 Dec 1921 - 1 Dec 1923 |
| 17 | Rear Admiral | Bekinari Kabayama | 1 Dec 1923 - 10 Nov 1924 |
| 18 | Vice Admiral | Kanjiro Hara | 10 Nov 1924 - 1 Dec 1925 |
| 19 | Vice Admiral | Naotaro Ominato | 1 Dec 1925 - 1 Nov 1926 |
| 20 | Admiral | Sankichi Takahashi | 1 Nov 1926 - 1 Dec 1927 |
| 21 | Vice Admiral | Eijiro Hamano | 1 Dec 1927 - 10 Dec 1928 |
| 22 | Vice Admiral | Ken Terajima | 10 Dec 1928 - 30 Oct 1929 |
| 23 | Admiral | Koichi Shiozawa | 30 Oct 1929 - 1 Dec 1930 |
| 24 | Admiral | Shigetaro Shimada | 1 Dec 1930 - 1 Dec 1931 |
| 25 | Admiral | Zengo Yoshida | 1 Dec 1931 - 15 Sep 1933 |
| 26 | Admiral | Soemu Toyoda | 15 Sep 1933 - 15 Mar 1935 |
| 27 | Admiral | Nobutake Kondo | 15 Mar 1935 - 15 Nov 1935 |
| 28 | Admiral | Naokuni Nomura | 15 Nov 1935 - 16 Nov 1936 |
| 29 | Rear Admiral | Yasutaro Iwashita | 16 Nov 1936 - 18 Feb 1937 |
| 30 | Vice Admiral | Jisaburo Ozawa | 18 Feb 1937 - 15 Nov 1937 |
| 31 | Vice Admiral | Ibo Takahashi | 15 Nov 1937 - 5 Nov 1939 |
| 32 | Vice Admiral | Shigeru Fukudome | 5 Nov 1939 - 10 Apr 1941 |
| 33 | Admiral | Seiichi Ito | 10 Apr 1941 - 11 Aug 1941 |
| 34 | Vice Admiral | Kengo Kobayashi | 11 Aug 1941 - 6 Jan 1943 |
| 35 | Vice Admiral | Gihachi Takayanagi | 6 Jan 1943 - 25 Feb 1944 |
References
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.
- Evans, David (1979). Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941. US Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870211927.
External links
- Nishida, Hiroshi. "Imperial Japanese Navy".
- Wendel. "Axis History Database".