Abe Hiroaki

Abe Hiroaki

Abe Hiroaki ( Japanese 阿 部 弘毅 ; born March 15, 1889 in Ehime Prefecture , † February 6, 1949 in Kamakura , Kanagawa Prefecture ) was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II .

Career

Abe graduated from the Naval Academy in 1911. On December 1, 1932, he received his captain's license. In 1937 he took command of the battleship Fuso . On November 15, 1938, he was appointed Rear Admiral.

Butcher

Abe was involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Here he headed the 8th Division. In early June 1942 he commanded the Japanese cruisers and battleships in the Battle of Midway . October 1942 his fleet, consisting of the battleships Hiei and Kirishima , the cruisers Kumano , Suzuya and Chikuma and some destroyers fought victoriously, but also lost in the battle of the Santa Cruz Islands . The attack on Henderson Field in November resulted in the Battle of Guadalcanal , in which the enemy commander, Rear Admiral Daniel Callaghan , fell and two enemy cruisers and four destroyers could be sunk. However, two of their own destroyers were also lost and the flagship Hiei was badly hit. Abe therefore decided to withdraw his ships and not land the 13,000 Japanese soldiers, which was not only decisive for the war in the Solomon Islands . Abe gave up his command after the failure in December and left the Imperial Navy in March 1943.

swell

• Spencer C. Tucker : World War II at Sea. Volume 1, p. 4.
• Anthony Bruce and William Cogar: Encyclopedia of Naval History. P. 1.

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Abe is the family name, Hiroaki the first name.