H. Kent Hewitt

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Henry Kent Hewitt, 1945
H. Kent Hewitt (left), with Rear Adm. SS Lewis on board the USS Ancon , September 1943

Henry Kent Hewitt (born February 11, 1887 in Hackensack , New Jersey , † September 15, 1972 in Middlebury , Addison County , Vermont ) was an admiral in the US Navy .

H. Kent Hewitt was one of the most important American soldiers of the Second World War , but - in contrast to the admirals of the Pacific theater, such as Chester Nimitz , William F. Halsey or his classmate Raymond Spruance - is largely unknown to the public today.

With his integrated staff, Hewitt planned and directed the American portion of the amphibious landings in Morocco (→ Operation Torch ), Sicily (→ Operation Husky , July 1943), Salerno (→ Operation Avalanche , September 1943) and southern France (→ Operation Dragoon , August 1944 ). Operations of this magnitude, in which hundreds of ships transported and landed tens of thousands of soldiers including equipment and vehicles, sometimes over several thousand nautical miles (Operation Torch), punctually and smoothly to the beaches of North Africa and Europe, had never been carried out before. "Hewitt [...] did wonders in the organization of his organization. He made history ..." (Admiral Louis Mountbatten , RN , in an interview, quoted in Clagett, 1975).

His decision on November 8, 1942 to drop the American troops under Major General George S. Patton on the beaches of Morocco despite adverse weather, instead of postponing or canceling Operation Torch, was one of the most responsible and important decisions of the entire war and led with the French conquest of North Africa brought about one of its turning points. "That was one of the really big deeds, one of the really big decisions that Hewitt made. One of the important decisions of the war." (Admiral Mountbatten ibid)

Life

Youth and education

George S. Patton (left) and H. Kent Hewitt (2nd from left) on board the USS Augusta in North Africa, 1942

Kent Hewitt was born to Robert Anderson Hewitt and his wife Mary Kent in 1887 in Hackensack, New Jersey. He grew up in a sheltered home, attended local schools and sang in the church choir of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He remained a practicing Christian all his life.

In May 1903, he read in a newspaper an announcement of an entrance examination for the US Naval Academy in Annapolis , Maryland , which was being held by Congressman William Hughes . He applied with his father's approval, passed the exam for which he had been exempted from school , although still high school junior , and was accepted. Actually belonging to the final year 1907, he graduated with the highest-performing third of his year on September 12, 1906, because the shortage of young ship officers forced the Navy to shorten the course.

Military career

After his school days he spent twelve years on board the USS Missouri and took part in the circumnavigation of the so-called Great White Fleet from 1907 to 1909 around the globe, in which he gained a lot of experience as a seaman, navigator and commander. From 1913 to 1916 he taught mathematics at the US Naval Academy .

The USS Indianapolis , Hewitt's ship from February 1936 to May 1937

In 1918, the final year of World War I, Hewitt commanded the destroyer USS Cummings , for which he received the Navy Cross . He returned to the Naval Academy twice from 1933 to 1936 after commanding a destroyer division to head the mathematics department there. As skipper of the USS Indianapolis , he accompanied the newly elected US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to a conference in Buenos Aires in 1936 . In 1939, Hewitt was promoted to Rear Admiral and commanded the 8th Cruiser Division from October 1940. In April 1942 he was given command of the amphibious units of the Atlantic Fleet . When the forces of the United States Marine Corps were sent to the Pacific, he was given the task of training the recruits in the use of the amphibious vehicles.

Together with George S. Patton, Hewitt planned the landing in French North Africa ( Operation Torch ), which was to take place on November 8, 1942, and later took over the training and command of the naval units that were used there. During the landing, he led naval battles against French naval units off Casablanca . On November 20, 1942 he was promoted to Vice Admiral and spent the remainder of the war as Commander in Chief of the Naval Forces, Northwest Africa Waters , renamed the 8th US Fleet in March 1943 , in the Mediterranean. Hewitt commanded the American naval forces in Operation Husky and Operation Avalanche in 1943 and the Allied fleet in Operation Dragoon in 1944. From Sicily, he commanded up to 1,000 ships and supported some of the largest amphibious operations of the time . In April 1945 he was promoted to admiral .

In August 1945 he took command of the United States Naval Forces Europe for a year . From March 1947 he served as a representative of the US Navy at the Military Staff Committee of the United Nations .

retirement

In 1949, Hewitt retired from active service in the US Navy. He spent his retirement at his Foretop residence in Orwell, Vermont. There he wrote some articles for the journal Proceedings of the US Naval Academy and received an honorary degree from Middlebury College in 1949 . Hewitt died in Middlebury on September 15, 1972 and was buried in the Naval College cemetery in Annapolis, Maryland.

family

Hewitt married Floride Hunt on August 22, 1913 in San Francisco , whom he met while circumnavigating the Great White Fleet at a ball in Monterey , California . The couple had two daughters, Floride Hunt Hewitt (born August 27, 1915) and Mary Kent Hewitt (born July 5, 1923). Both married naval officers.

Posthumous honors

The USS Hewitt , a Spruance-class destroyer that entered service in 1974, was named in his honor and christened by his two daughters. A building, Hewitt Hall , has been named after him at the United States Naval War College since 1976 .

Publications

After his retirement, Hewitt published several articles in the United States Naval Institute Proceedings (USNIP), mainly dealing with reports from the landings in North Africa, Italy and France, as well as some commentaries and book reviews.

  • Admiral of the Fleet Andrew Browne Cunningham, 1. Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope KT, GCB, OM, DSO - USNIP, Vol. 78, May 1952, pp. 553-555
  • The Landings in Morocco, November 1942 , USNIP, Vol. 78 (11), pp. 1243-1253
  • Naval Aspects of the Sicilian Campaign, US Naval Operations in the Northwestern-African Mediterranean Theater - March - August 1943 , USNIP, Vol. 79 (7), pp. 705-723
  • Planning Operation Anvil-Dragoon. - USNIP 617, July 1954, pp. 731-745
  • Executing Operation Anvil-Dragoon. - USNIP 618, August 1954, pp. 897-911
  • Naval Aspects of the Sicilian Campaign. - USNIP 626, April 1955, pp. 454-455

literature

The literature on H. Kent Hewitt is sparse. A critical biography does not exist to this day. The biographical articles by John H. Clagett in the US Naval War College Review 1975 and the Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute 1976 are extensive. Evelyn M. Cherpak, curator of the marine history collection of the United States Naval War College , gave Hewitt's unpublished memoir in 2004 out.

Biographical

  • Evelyn M. Cherpak: The memoirs of Admiral H. Kent Hewitt. - Newport, RI: Naval War College Press, 2004 - Series: Naval War College historical monograph series; no.15 - ISBN 1-88473-320-4
  • Papers of H. Kent Hewitt, Operational Archives Branch, Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC
  • Donald B. Disney: Henry Kent Hewitt. In: Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement 9: 1971-1975. - Charles Scribner's Sons, 1995
  • John H. Clagett: Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, US Navy - Part I: Preparing for High Command - US Naval War College Review 27, Summer 1975, pp. 72-86
  • John H. Clagett: Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, US Navy - Part II: High Command - US Naval War College Review 28, Fall 1975, pp. 60-86
  • John H. Clagett: Skipper of the Eagle: Rehearsal for Greatness. - United States Naval Institute, Proceedings , 878, April 1976, pp 58-65
  • National Cyclopedia of American Biography , Volume 57. - Clifton, NJ .: James T. White Co., 1977, pp. 165-166
  • Clark G. Reynolds: Famous American Admirals. - New York, NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1978, pp. 119–150 - ISBN 0442260687 (New edition: Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2002 - ISBN 1557500061 )
  • Roger J. Spiller (Ed.): Dictionary of American Military Biography , Volume 2, H to P - Westport, Ct .: Greenwood Press, 1984, pp. 466-469
  • Stephen Howarth (Ed.): Men of War: Great Naval Leaders of World War II. - New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1993, pp. 313-330 - 0312088442

Oral history

  • NWC Oral History 17: Admiral H. Kent Hewitt. Columbia University Oral History Research Office, New York, NY., 1961. Interviewer: John T. Mason. Microfiche

obituary

  • New York Times , September 16, 1972

General information about the Allied naval operations in the Mediterranean

  • Samuel Eliot Morison : History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Volumes 2, 9 and 11
  • Barbara Brooks Tomblin: With Utmost Spirit: Allied Naval Operations in the Mediterranean, 1942-1945. - Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2004 - ISBN 0813123380

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Papers of Admiral H. Kent Hewitt