Special Episode: Admiral Chester Nimitz

In this special episode, Bill and Seth go a bit deeper into the history of Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz from his beginnings in Texas to his command of the Pacific Fleet and some other interesting stories in between.

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[DWA]

Greatly appreciate your focus and illumination on Admiral Nimitz. This is a man who deserves far more recognition than he has ever gotten, His task in WW2 was far more difficult and uncertain than that of General Eisenhower, and Admiral Nimitz handled that task with absolute brilliance. I shudder to think of how the Pacific war would have gone had that idiot MacArthur been the Supreme Commander. It is frustrating how overlooked Admiral Nimitz has been in history. This man conducted the Pacific war with such courage and brilliant efficiency that untold millions of lives on both sides were saved. He is probably the most unfairly overlooked figure in American History. VERY irritating.

[burkeraymond]

In 1955 I was a member of the Marine Detachment USS Hornet. In September I, and five others were transferred to the flag of Com. Car Div.15 one of two anti submarine carrier divisions in the Pacific. The flag ship was the USS Pt. Cruz CVE 119. I knew Pt Cruz was on Guadalcanal but until I viewed your podcast on the late stages of the Guadalcanal campaign I didn’t know there was a battle there. Thanks for my enlightenment. Love the series.

[morganhale]

I have been to the Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg, TX and the town and museum were quite delightful. Fredericksburg is a town in the Hill Country of Texas (in my estimation the most beautiful part of Texas) that was founded by German immigrants in the late 19th century and is very quaint, also the German bakeries make excellent strudel, and the museum was very informative and had many airplanes from the PTO of WWII. I think (I might be wrong, ) there was a Zero, but what impressed me the most was a TBF Avenger, man that thing was huge! All the film of Avengers on carriers in WWII doesn't give justice to the size of that airplane!!!

[stevemccoy]

Don't burn out your voice Bill! (you are sounding much better) We are all waiting for you submarine stories!

[jonrettich]

Franklin Roosevelt was assistant secretary of the Navy I suspect he was rather partial to that service. Horribly Japanese leadership would have callously thrown away much of their population to protect the very few self interested, whether they thought they were or not. We saved a lot of Japanese as awful as our methods might seem in retrospect. I greatly appreciate your presentations

[joneskendrick]

Just a tremendous series! Seth and Capt. Toti share a granularity of the details most would never remotely know without extensive reading / study. Together along with all the other contributors, they help bring life to these events as it's not easy to visit remote islands in the South Pacific. BTW - My wife's uncle was in the 3/5 Marines on the 'Canal and he would never discuss WWII. Ever. Now I can appreciate the horrors he faced. You never touched him while he slept flat on his back, both hands behind his head, with his survival knife. You yelled at hime to wake him up. All he ever said about it was because of Japanese night attacks and snipers in palm trees. Thank you so much for this series and keep up the great work.

[jonrolfson]

Appreciate your high-lighting the economy in the expenditure of lives afforded by the island bypassing / island hopping strategy. The thought that this strategy was, in the long run, conservative of Japanese lives as well as Allied lives was new to me, but was easily and immediately graspable. This does seem to more starkly highlight the tragic import of the failure of U.S. BuOrd torpedo development. The penny-wise pound-foolish refusal to test and perfect those torpedoes before deployment almost certainly prolonged the war and wasted American and Allied lives.

[kennygalli]

You guys are so great together! As a history major, and a history buff in general, you guys bring so much to the table when it comes to History Podcasts! You may have to change your name though in the near future to the Authorized History...to your continual success!

[johnfleet]

There is a scene in the most recent Midway movie where Nimitz pulls up to the offices of Hypo and it is next to a baseball field with kids playing. All the kids look over, probably all or almost all of those kids have fathers fighting in the Pacific under the command of Nimitz. The actions and inactions or Nimitz would decide whether or not their fathers came home. I am not sure if the film maker intended to create that feeling with scene, but that was my view of this scene.

[merlindorfman]

Lee also made himself an expert on radar, which put him ahead of every other senior officer in the navy, and he used radar-controlled gunfire to great effect in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.

[stevekyle]

He was one of the early Submariners. I Qualified on SSN603 in 1982

[KEG]

Really loving this series and we are only at the start of 43! Doing a great job.

[rctbandit]

Another great episode, I look forward to these every week.

[CodeElement]

A suggestion for an episode doing a follow up on Admiral Hart and the Asiatic Fleet after they left the Philippines mentioned in Episode 102 for the East Indies. I think the Dutch East Indies campaign especially the naval portion of the campaign would be a great episode to have especially when a future conflict will likely open in South China Sea like it did in December 1941.I would definitely like to hear Capt. Toti’s insights on working with a multinational force if he ever had in terms of communication especially with the language barriers, the politics of a multinational force, and how to react together in tactical situations. They didn’t even have a common signals book. I would imagine the language barrier between the Dutch and the English-speaking officer would have been hard enough, can’t imagine it now with Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, Indian, and many more other Indo-Pacific languages to have a cohesive joint command. Also important to talk about how to adjust strategy when situation is deteriorating rapidly like with the loss of 2 capital ships with Prince of wales and Repulse.
Hopefully the U.S. learned the lessons on fate of ABDACON on why it failed and the importance of having long-term close joint-cooperation between multinational navies which I think will be crucial to deter and if necessary to prevail over any potential adversaries in any potential future pacific conflict.
There is plenty to talk about especially on USS Houston, known as FDR’S favorite ship and soon dubbed “Galloping Ghost of Java Coast ”, fighting to the last shell against a Japanese Navy arguably at its peak.
The loss of Houston would go unknown for a short while but, once it was confirmed to be lost, the city of Houston rallied fiercely. The city and its people decided they would not stand idly by as the ship named after its city was lost. They held a massive campaign to replace, not only the crew but the ship as well. They had 1000 men volunteer en masse to replace the lost crew, known as The Houston Volunteers, and the location of that ceremony is marked in Downtown Houston. As far as replacing the ship, the city of Houston not only raised enough money to outright buy a replacement USS Houston CL-81 (Cleveland Class Cruiser). They were also able to fundraise the purchase of an Independence Class Light Carrier, the USS San Jacinto CVL-30, of which future president HW Bush would be stationed on.
One the American destroyers, USS Alden, had XO Ernest Evans on board, future Capt. of USS Johnston received his baptism of fire during the Dutch East Indies campaign . He felt ashamed about the defeat of ABDACON, and said that if he even commanded his own destroyer he would go into harm's way no matter what. Which he did, as captain of the USS Johnston during the action off Samar, Battle of Leyte Gulf.
Sorry for the long rant had to try to make a compelling case for a Dutch East Indies episode(s), since the Dutch East Indies campaign is relatively unknown in America when remembering the Pacific but important to discuss. But whatever topic you guys discuss, I’ll always be an avid listener, keep up the great work!

[pgsharrow]

Bill and Seth, Thankyou for your effort, I binge watch the whole set and will watch your continued offerings

[pgsharrow]

I discovered your vblog while looking for more information about the "Second Battle off of Savo Island" where the New Orleans lost her bow. My father was a newly minted Seaman Apprentice and deck gunner on board. His older brother was a Marine on Guadalcanal at that time, a "John Wayne" looking guy with a foghorn voice that could blister the paint off the wall.
Father said that that night was too dark to see your hand in front of your face and that after the ship took that hit he saw a ship's bow loom out of the darkness close by, he nearly strafed it until he realized that it was his ship's bow and the sailors on it were his shipmates.
The quick thinking Captain of the New Orleans rammed his ships bow aground in a nearby creek to keep her from sinking while the Damage Control people sealed her leaks and reinforced the forward bulkheads with coconut palm logs from ashore.. By pumping and moving stores the forward deck was raised from 5 feet under water to 6 feet above. and the ship was backed out of the creek.

[barnentertain]

Going back and re-listening to podcasts. So much info I find them as enjoyable the second time as much as the first time. Thanks for the great show!!

[saintmichael]

Great fun to hear you gents. Thank you so much.
I was on the old riveted USS Hector AR-7, 1984 West Pac.
"n 1984, during the ship's 26th deployment, Hector steamed over 35, 000 miles. She also provided disaster relief to the storm battered island of Madagascar. On this deployment Hector received two Humanitarian Medals. One was for the rescue of 28 Vietnamese refugees from a small wooden craft. For the second award, a group of Hector volunteers spent several days in a leper colony while in Madagascar." I volunteered to go into that Leper Colony. All the way out there in the middle of nowhere...Catholic Nuns were there. Amazing...
I was on the special sea and anchor detail. Lee-Helm pulling into Madagascar. Took on a French Pilot on the way in. He has us headed for a sunken ship when the CPT took the Conn and said, Emergency Stop, All engines back full, Drop the Anchor. I relayed that to the Engine rm and fo'c'sle. Ha ha.. great memories to re-call. Thank you gents.

BM2 Michael L. Reidy

[christopherslaughter]

God knows.... exactly! Providence played a HUGE roll in the Pacific war.

[Gregolec]

Excelent episode as always.
I have only one humble petition - make longer, episodes . Pretty please.
(if Bill's voice allows ofc)