Gotō Aritomo

Gotō Aritomo

Gotō Aritomo ( Japanese五 藤 存 知; * January 23, 1888 ; † October 12, 1942 ) was a rear admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II .

During the Pacific War , Gotō commanded the 6th Cruiser Division from September 10, 1941, which covered the Japanese capture of the island of Wake on December 23 of the same year (→ Battle of Wake ). In May 1942 he commanded part of the main support fleet with the aircraft carrier Shōhō , which protected the invasion of Tulagi Island , north of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, from Allied counter-attacks. Shortly afterwards, the attempt to take Port Moresby in New Guinea failed in the battle in the Coral Sea . The cruisers of Admiral Goto were out of range of the American carriers during this battle and could not intervene.

The 6th Cruiser Division then operated from the Japanese bases of Rabaul on New Britain and Kavieng on New Ireland . The most important missions drove the ships from mid-1942 under the high command of Admiral Mikawa Gunichi for support and supplies to Guadalcanal and other Solomon Islands. After the battle of Savo Island on the night of August 8th to 9th, 1942, the division lost a cruiser to a torpedo hit by an American submarine . On October 11th, the remaining three cruisers were supposed to bombard Henderson Airfield at the same time as a replenishment trip carried out by the destroyers of the Tokyo Express . They were surprised by American cruisers and destroyers northwest of Guadalcanal and the battle of Cape Esperance broke out . Rear Admiral Gotō, who initially believed he was being shot at by his own forces, was seriously wounded in the course of the battle on board the cruiser Aoba and died on October 12.

Sources and Notes

Remarks

1. ↑ In Japanese destroyer captain , ISBN 1-59114-354-3 , page 127, Tameichi Hara incorrectly lists the Furutaka as Goto's flagship.

Web links

• History of the cruiser Aoba at the American NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER, sighted September 12, 2010
• Career history in tabular form on a private homepage, viewed on September 9, 2010

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