Shintaro Hashimoto

Shintarō Hashimoto , Japanese 橋本 信太郎 Hashimoto Shintarō (* 1892 , † May 16, 1945 in Malakka Street ) was a rear admiral of the Japanese Navy and commander of the 1st escort group.

Hashimoto attended the Japanese Naval Academy, which he graduated with success in 1913. He then served on various ships and studied from 1925 to 1926 at the Naval Staff College. As a well-known torpedo specialist , he commanded several destroyer divisions in the late 1920s and 1930s . From December 1, 1937 to November 15, 1939, he was Chief of Staff of the Ryojun Naval District .

At the beginning of the fighting in the Pacific was his division, consisting of ten destroyers, six minesweepers and three submarine hunters under the command of Vice Admiral Ozawa Jisaburō . She escorted the transporters that dropped the first invasion troops on December 8, 1941 near Kota Bharu on the Malay Peninsula .

In late January and early February 1942, his ships led the invasion units to Balikpapan and Bandjermasin on Borneo .

In June of that year, Hashimoto commanded the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla, which was formed from the 11th and 9th Destroyer Divisions. She served as a cover fleet for Operation MI , the proposed invasion of Midway under the command of Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku . In mid-November, Hashimoto commanded the rapid reaction fleet in the battle of the Solomon Sea .

Subsequently, the naval command gave him command of the 5th cruiser squadron, which was part of the 10th area fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Fukudome Shigeru .

Hashimoto Shintarō died on May 16, 1945 on board the heavy cruiser Haguro , which was sunk about 45 kilometers southwest of Penang in the Strait of Malacca by five British destroyers of the 26th destroyer flotilla under Captain Manley L. Power with three torpedo hits.

Web links

• Kurzbiographie (English)

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